Opinions Needed/Welcome

[mrlmonroe]

Here's my baby right now on the petcam, looking out the window - happy as can be.......I'm so saddened by the thought of her being sick. I know some things can be fixed, but still, any general anesthetic scares me, all tests are hard.....

She bounced back so well.....

I love her so much.......

[YorkieRose]

If she were my Yorkie, I would not go hunting for a liver problem because of one stomach illness that she bounced back to normal from in one day...but that is me.
Do you know a cardiologist told me that Yorkies hearts are often mistaken for enlarged, because many vets do not know Yorkies have a slightly larger heart then other dogs for their size? I had a 3 pounder with an enlarged heart and liver, the specialist told me that was not uncommon for a small Yorkie..she was never sick from it...died at 14 yrs.

My Yorkie would have to have several serious, unexplained stomach upsets for me to biopsy her liver...Yorkies are famous for gastric problems out of the blue..they can eat something new or rich, get stressed, vaccines, new flea meds, so many reasons....of course, I believe in treating sick dogs, but often we make then sicker by going to far, too fast...

Didn't we have a member some years back go through the exact same problem...they even cut the poor Yorkie open to reveal a perfectly healthy, well formed liver, but slightly enlarged??? The member posted pic's of the incision..surgery for absolutely no reason...

How does her breath smell..often liver problems will give off a smell of nail polish remover.

[Ellie May]

The numbers could've been thrown off by something.
Could you not do any meds or vaccines and then retest a couple weeks later?
Biopsy is not the right way to go for some dogs, especially if the vet isn't in there for another surgery.
Ultrasounds are only 60-80% accurate, so you may not want to go that way.
I would have a hard time dishing out all that money for more testing if the bile acids could be up do to something else.
Then again, I don't want to say to wait and it be the wrong thing.
What is the ALT?

[mrlmonroe]

All the blood test results we took to a friend that is a vet, so I don't have the #'s.....all I can remember is that the Liver enzymes that were supposed to be around 100 were up at 700.......

and the vet did say that the heart is big, but did know that they are big in yorkies (that's because they love so much).......but the liver, where it should look like a triangle, was right up against the other organ in the Xray. So who knows.

I agree with the poster that said one day sick, and now we are told our dog is frightfully ill......I'm just at a loss.

So I am happy to get the info here.....and I do know it could end up being nothing, or something, but I appreciate all the feedback good/bad or indifferent.

Again, I have a happy little girlie at home that is "full of beans" my landlady says - jumping, playing, chirping and happy......

[mrlmonroe]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

The numbers could've been thrown off by something.
Could you not do any meds or vaccines and then retest a couple weeks later?
Biopsy is not the right way to go for some dogs, especially if the vet isn't in there for another surgery.
Ultrasounds are only 60-80% accurate, so you may not want to go that way.
I would have a hard time dishing out all that money for more testing if the bile acids could be up do to something else.
Then again, I don't want to say to wait and it be the wrong thing.
What is the ALT?

and yes, we are going to do the test again in two weeks - after monitoring her very closely and watching for anything out of the ordinary.

Of course, now we don't want her near anything that might be "toxic" not that we ever did.....but now we are afraid to let her drink out of the doggie bowls down at the beach, and/or walk on peoples grass (might have fertilizer on it)....all the possibilities........maybe better to just be so hyper-aware...I don't know.

[mrlmonroe]

Originally Posted by YorkieRose

If she were my Yorkie, I would not go hunting for a liver problem because of one stomach illness that she bounced back to normal from in one day...but that is me.
Do you know a cardiologist told me that Yorkies hearts are often mistaken for enlarged, because many vets do not know Yorkies have a slightly larger heart then other dogs for their size? I had a 3 pounder with an enlarged heart and liver, the specialist told me that was not uncommon for a small Yorkie..she was never sick from it...died at 14 yrs.

My Yorkie would have to have several serious, unexplained stomach upsets for me to biopsy her liver...Yorkies are famous for gastric problems out of the blue..they can eat something new or rich, get stressed, vaccines, new flea meds, so many reasons....of course, I believe in treating sick dogs, but often we make then sicker by going to far, too fast...

Didn't we have a member some years back go through the exact same problem...they even cut the poor Yorkie open to reveal a perfectly healthy, well formed liver, but slightly enlarged??? The member posted pic's of the incision..surgery for absolutely no reason...

How does her breath smell..often liver problems will give off a smell of nail polish remover.

Ya, I agree...the vet found the liver problem........after doing the xray and blood work

Her breath smells fine to me - the usual doggie breath I am used to with her

[YorkieRose]

When you repeat the BA...she must not only fast, but do not allow her to smell any food that morning..human or canine..a vet told me it is the Pavlav's dog theory...he rang a bell, which meant dinner time and his dogs started salivating at the mouth...dogs smell food and enemzes get ready to digest expected food coming..