[MyLittleLooster]

To make a long story short, I have completely given up on my local vet and the emergency veterinarian. My yorkie, Louie, has had liver failure (got into something poisonous) in the past and now they're insisting he have surgery to correct a "possible" liver shunt. Basically, they don't even know if he has a shunt and they just want to go ahead and do the surgery.

His blood is completely normal and he doesn't show any signs of a liver shunt. He is a year and two months old. He's currently on The Hill's Diet K/d. Now, don't get me wrong, I know the vet knows what to do with my dog, but he's simply mine. I've recently made the decision not to do the surgery because, let's face it, I could lose him. I have faith that he'll go when the time is right; I don't want a medical procedure to take him before his time.

I've been thinking about switching his food, though. I noticed that the canned (moist) K/d has a minimum of 3.5% crude protein while the dry K/d has a minimum of 12% crude protein. Big difference, isn't it? With the canned food we gave him half of a cup per meal, but with the dry food we give him one fourth of a cup per meal. He IS getting less food; however, he's still getting more protein. On top of that, we give him extra protein through his homemade "Louie Snacks," his homemade "Louie Ice Cream," and plain peanut butter.

My problem is extremely conflicting to me: if he handles the little bit of extra protein in his food, all the snacks we give him, AND has normal blood results, does he really need to be on a low protein diet? I know the snack intake would have to decrease and he probably wouldn't get peanut butter that often, but I'm really thinking he doesn't need a special diet.

The bile acid test won't help us anymore, so it isn't really an option. The only thing it would really tell me, in my opinion, is how his liver handles a fatty diet. Once a dog has any form of liver damage the bile acids will ALWAYS be elevated.

Louie is currently on Clavamox (was on .5 but I reduced it to .4) and Lactulose at 1 1/2 ML twice a day. I plan on reducing the Lactulose soon to 1 ML twice a day.

I do understand that the vet knows way more about this type of stuff than I do, but I've yet to find someone who understands my decision.

Any input would be EXTREMELY helpful!