HELP!! IN NEED OF ADVICE/PRAYERS. Baby w/ liver shunt

[wemple2]

Her glucose was 491? What is the vet doing about that?

[Sashabear0430]

she is going to have a test done where they inject something into her so that they can tell if the injection goes straight to her stomach or straight to her heart. I'm not sure where it will be done. I need to contact the vet again

[Sashabear0430]

they had her in the hospital and had her on an IV. She did better after her hospital stay. The vet who was examining her is one of the best vets in the country. I heard form many other patients that she has saved their pets lives many times. She spent extra time on Sasha because she felt her condition was the most severe at the time.

[Robin Lodal]

I hope that your baby gets better. It sounds like you are having a scintigraphy done. Did you ever share your bile acid test results? If so, I missed them.

I REALLY do not recommend to "hold off" on surgery if she indeed does have a liver shunt. Like Debbie (dwerten) said, it could cause multiple shunts which would mean that she could not be operated on at all.

I know its all expensive (I'm going through all of this right now as well) but its a part of being a pet owner. Trust me, it will be worth it in the long run.

Please join this group Liver_Shunt_And_MVD_Support : Liver Shunt & MVD/HMD Support There are several others who are going through this or have gone through this in this group. They are VERY knowledgable and will be able to give you several tips and you will have information coming out of your rear on the folders they have saved with info.

[Sashabear0430]

what are your dogs' symptoms?

[Robin Lodal]

Originally Posted by Sashabear0430

what are your dogs' symptoms?

I am assuming this question is for me... if not, well I am going to answer anyway.

Ginger had no symptoms. Just one day, everything hit her. Obviously, it had been building over time. On that particular day, she became comatose, glucose bottomed out, and she began having seizures, body temp dropped to 93, I believe. She did not respond to dextrose (as a normal puppy would with a hypoglycemic attack).

After a little less than a week in the hospital (and me taking her to UT) I was able to bring her home with a very restrictive diet and feeding/med schedule. We are going back Oct 8 for surgery. Right now she is on prescription food and 3 different meds (Neomycin (antibiotic), Denamarin, and Lactulose) until at least surgery. She gets her meds every 8 hours (so 3x a day) and must eat every 4 hours (around the clock). At first, I was having to syringe feed but she has now started to eat some food on her own (thank God!). If you are wanting more detail, you can visit her thread here (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...ver-shunt.html). Hopefully that will be able to answer some of your questions.

But.... if your baby does indeed have a liver shunt, it really needs to be addressed. She could get to the point that Ginger was in (and she was only 10 weeks old at the time!) and it could have a very sad and not so fortunate ending. Be THANKFUL that you are able to find out that she has a shunt before she almost died like my lil girl. PLEASE get her the help that she needs or surrender her to a rescue. I know that you all are doing everything that you can right now (tests, etc) but don't give up on her.

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by Sashabear0430

she is going to have a test done where they inject something into her so that they can tell if the injection goes straight to her stomach or straight to her heart. I'm not sure where it will be done. I need to contact the vet again

it is a scintigraphy - they shoot radio active dye capsule into her to see if it bypasses the liver and they take tons of pics to watch it travel through her body - if it bypasses the liver then there is a shunt

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by Sashabear0430

they had her in the hospital and had her on an IV. She did better after her hospital stay. The vet who was examining her is one of the best vets in the country. I heard form many other patients that she has saved their pets lives many times. She spent extra time on Sasha because she felt her condition was the most severe at the time.

where in california are you ? who is this person as i live in southern california as well -

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by Sashabear0430

what are your dogs' symptoms?

are you going to the city of hope in los angeles to a woman internal medicine specialist there ? If so the surgery is 4-6k there as my friend has a yorkie that had liver shunt and went there first and flew to dr tobias to have surgery as much cheaper and this person did surgeries in new york but none here and she did not feel comfortable plus the cost was way too high. Her dog was one years old and she came home and her dog was acting spaced out like she did not know her and drooling - just as you described -- trust me if the bile acids are over 100 it is a shunt Her dog was fine until she was about one year old and starting showing the signs. Another dog on here he just went to tobias as he is 3 years old and due to not having symptoms now has 3 or 4 shunts and upon tobias opening him up now cannot have repair as he probably started with one shunt but it blew into 3 or 4 so they now cannot repair so trust me again you want it done early so it is only one shunt. What happens is the blood gets to the heart and is not cleaned by liver so heart pushes it back to liver and blows more shunts as time goes on of doing this so the early the diagnoses the better and the earlier the repair the better as they can live a longer life after repair

also if your dog is already having symptoms and it is a liver shunt it is only going to get worse and you want this surgery done when the dog is as little symptom as possible not when they are full blown sick the stronger they are the easier the surgery will be on them

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by Robin Lodal

I am assuming this question is for me... if not, well I am going to answer anyway.

Ginger had no symptoms. Just one day, everything hit her. Obviously, it had been building over time. On that particular day, she became comatose, glucose bottomed out, and she began having seizures, body temp dropped to 93, I believe. She did not respond to dextrose (as a normal puppy would with a hypoglycemic attack).

After a little less than a week in the hospital (and me taking her to UT) I was able to bring her home with a very restrictive diet and feeding/med schedule. We are going back Oct 8 for surgery. Right now she is on prescription food and 3 different meds (Neomycin (antibiotic), Denamarin, and Lactulose) until at least surgery. She gets her meds every 8 hours (so 3x a day) and must eat every 4 hours (around the clock). At first, I was having to syringe feed but she has now started to eat some food on her own (thank God!). If you are wanting more detail, you can visit her thread here (http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...ver-shunt.html). Hopefully that will be able to answer some of your questions.

But.... if your baby does indeed have a liver shunt, it really needs to be addressed. She could get to the point that Ginger was in (and she was only 10 weeks old at the time!) and it could have a very sad and not so fortunate ending. Be THANKFUL that you are able to find out that she has a shunt before she almost died like my lil girl. PLEASE get her the help that she needs or surrender her to a rescue. I know that you all are doing everything that you can right now (tests, etc) but don't give up on her.

this is true - i had a ge buddy on here and he was a LS pup and i told owner to join liver shunt group and get him help or give to rescue and she like you stated she could not afford surgery so after a few months i pm her back to check on him and he was dead as he got so toxic even with the vet giving lactulose etc SO PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUS if you cannot afford the surgery please give up to rescue as this disease can be life threatening if not treated properly but with surgery they can live a long happy life so there was NO REASON this other puppy should have died other than finances which broke my heart even until this day

[Sashabear0430]

Robin Lodal,
Thank you so much for giving me hope! I will not give up on her. I am currently trying to find a way to raise enough money for her surgery. The only problem for me is, what if I take her to UT and there is a problem so that I would have to stay there for a long period of time, which I cannot do because I am in school. I was thinking about maybe next summer, but would that be okay? The only thing with her now is when she gets kind of mellow. When she got very sick, she was drooling at the mouth but wasn't shaking so I am not sure if that was a seizure. She has never had a seizure. I've noticed that most people whose yorkies have liver shunts, mention that their yorkie has had multiple seizures.

[Sashabear0430]

Originally Posted by dwerten

this is true - i had a ge buddy on here and he was a LS pup and i told owner to join liver shunt group and get him help or give to rescue and she like you stated she could not afford surgery so after a few months i pm her back to check on him and he was dead as he got so toxic even with the vet giving lactulose etc SO PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUS if you cannot afford the surgery please give up to rescue as this disease can be life threatening if not treated properly but with surgery they can live a long happy life so there was NO REASON this other puppy should have died other than finances which broke my heart even until this day

I do plan on taking my dog in for surgery. At this point, Im tempted to drive to Tennessee to avoid plane costs. I wonder if that would be better. I'm from Rancho Cucamonga. The Vet I took her to is called VCA. She was first seen by Dr. Mourning and then by Dr. Ben-Oz. Do you know where I can get a scintigraphy for a more affordable price? The place they are directing me to is going to cost $500

[Sashabear0430]

Does anyone know the recovering time after liver shunt surgery is done? Will she need to be in the hospital for a certain amount of days? I'm planning on traveling by car to Tennessee. Has anyone ever done this? From California?

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by Sashabear0430

I do plan on taking my dog in for surgery. At this point, Im tempted to drive to Tennessee to avoid plane costs. I wonder if that would be better. I'm from Rancho Cucamonga. The Vet I took her to is called VCA. She was first seen by Dr. Mourning and then by Dr. Ben-Oz. Do you know where I can get a scintigraphy for a more affordable price? The place they are directing me to is going to cost $500

there is only one place and that is in tustin with dr broome as it is radio active dye and only so many can do it nationwide -- it will be cheaper in tennessee but the prob is if you wait and do it there and it is not a shunt then you have made a trip for nothing so you should do here to make sure it is a shunt - when i called it was only $390 but that was 2 years ago

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by Sashabear0430

Does anyone know the recovering time after liver shunt surgery is done? Will she need to be in the hospital for a certain amount of days? I'm planning on traveling by car to Tennessee. Has anyone ever done this? From California?

yes ronlynn flew there and i think they need her to stay 5-7 days after surgery to make sure no complications pm ronlynn as she went there from california -- her name is rhonda and she has teddi