Sorry to hear about your baby and no, you are not hijacking this thread. From reading your post, it appears 'you', not the vet suspect a liver shunt? Just having elevated liver enzymes does not mean so and could indicate another problem. What my vet told me was it was the combination of liver enzymes (especially the ALT), low cholesterol and couple other his or lows in my Sophie's blood panel results that made the vet think it was possibly a liver shunt. A BAT still won't confirm a shunt but the results will help determine the next step.
My advice to you, is that after the BAT results come back and they indicate possibly a shunt (post meal 100+); I would inquire to your vet about lactulose and Hills Rx L/D diet. Then go see an internal medicine Vet. All I can tell you is that there was a huge change in my baby's behavior after changing her diet and giving her the lactulose which the internal medicine vet prescribed, not my normal vet. We are still waiting to see the surgeon for a consult. I also stress that the diet and medication is not a cure, but something to help until we know why Sophie's bile acids are high and then once we find that out through a biopsy; we fix the shunt or 'medically manage' if multiple shunts or something else that cannot be corrected via surgery.
Is your dog showing other symptoms like drinking more water, itching, etc.? |