Yorkiemom1 | 01-15-2013 02:06 PM | How old is Stella? I am going to be shot at dawn for this, but I would hold off on dumping the vet idea....he can get an idea about heart beat and breath sounds....he can get some basic blood work, he can check for parasites and he can give a check of the knees and hips, but nothing definitive unless the pups legs are deformed....at young aage, knees are commonly "loose" and can definately tighten up.....but if you are looking
at blood work for liver function, I have pasted some information below....you go testing a baby at a very young age and start getting abnormal values, you get all nuts and in a panic, and it is actually normal for Yorkies to be weird with these lab results at a young age. Now, I dont know what you are feeding, but it can not possibly be worse than Iams or Science Diet....except for maybe Beneful!!! That vet is well within his frame of reference on all the extensive blood work you may have asked for....which is why breeders will give you AT LEAST a year to determine the presence of liver/heart/kidney issues....
"The simple test are inconclusive at best and there are no test at this time other than the invasive ones that can give an accurate diagnosis.
There are many many problems that can lead to liver dysfunction and some are not genetic so it's not as simple as to say to test every puppy for liver shunt because the test are not always accurate and they do not do a conclusive diagnosis of liver shunt but as to a liver dysfunction.. We all wish it was as simple as testing every puppy but it just isn't that simple. 28% of test to date have shown to be inaccurate for the diagnosis of liver shunt. Not very good odds when your condemning a puppy to more invasive measures or being put to sleep due to the cost of the more invasive treatments. There has also been a concern as to using the inconclusive test on Yorkies since Yorkies have been found to NOT have a determined consistent acid bile level even in healthy unaffected specimens. Bile Acid Test - Serum Bile Acids - A Liver FUNCTION test, not an enzyme test. Performed by taking a blood sample, givng a meal, taking another blood sample 2 hour after the meal. The sample are then compared giving us an accurate measure of liver function. This does NOT give a CONCLUSIVE diagnosis of liver shunt only a reading of liver function. More invasive test would be needed for any diagnosis as to the liver problem.
Urine Acid Test - Ammonia tolerance testing - A urine test to determine existance of lvier disease. Could result in finding annomium biurate crystals. Not always accurate. More invasive test would be needed for any diagnosis as to the liver problem.
Blood Ammonia Value Test - Sensitive indicators: less reliable than Total Serum Bile acids because of analytic problems.
STOOL SAMPLE: A dog that has abnormal pigmented stool could indicate liver disease. Obstruction of the biliary system and normal bile pigments are not secreted to cause the normal dark color of stool.
There are different things that can be normal and yet these test results come back abnormal. Let the baby get older, say at least 6-8 months old, then do extensive blood testing. You can put more faith on the results you may get at that age. |