[yorkietalkjilly]

My Tibbe was a little around 4 years or so when he began having mild symptoms of occasionally spitting up bile, anorexia for most of the day and lethargy, worse once he turned 5. He was symptomatic 2 - 4 x monthly or more since last fall.

When he had pneumonia last year, his amylase was 400 but all his other liver and other tests were normal and have always been normal x2 yearly when he has his comprehensive exam and labs and yet his occasional symptoms continued. He had a pretty bad prolonged GI upset May/June of 2012 and a CPL Snap test for pancreatitis at that time was normal. He was started on Hill's I/D GI.

Recently, he had another onset of symptoms and one diarrhea stool and back to the vet we went. All testing in December 2012 and again in April 2013 was entirely normal. Crystal/Ellie May said some liver tests are normal and still there is a problem in some dogs so she suggested having the BAT and others chimed in so I asked for a BAT. Tibbe had it and the levels were 102 and 60 pre- & post-prandial, the post being lower, which is rare. Off we went to have nuclear scintigraphy & an abdominal sonogram which showed no liver shunt but MicroVascular Dysplasia (MVD) could not be ruled out w/out a liver biopsy, which the radiologist and none of Tibbe's vets recommend at this time. His liver and all other organs were normal except he had some bilateral kidney stones, which the radiologist and his other two vets said is not that abnormal. They aren't blocking any ducts, etc., so they said not to sweat those unless he has symptoms - they are a fairly common finding in Yorkies(!). Tibbe was put on Metronidazole for a week or 10 days to help him over his gastroenteritis and a hepatic diet, Hill's I/D Hepatic and I'm very slowly transitioning from his Hill's I/D GI to that, to be sure he's not going to have a wild allergic itching bout or something. We're almost to 1/2 and 1/2 of each now and he's doing very, very well.

I would suggest that any little Yorkie who is spitting up bile with some frequency, vomiting and/or having diarrhea in any recurring fashion go ahead and get the Bile Acids Test and probably the CPL Snap test and go from there. Since he started his new diet, Tibbe's only had one lethargic day that first Sunday, has not once vomited, spit up bile or had diarrhea and is back to his old self ruling the world now, anything but lethargic or nauseated!!! Get them tested and start treatment if your babies are having symptoms not otherwise explained would be my recommendation.