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

My yorkie may have a liver shunt. She is going to be 5 months old on Sept. 30 2009. A month ago, she had ALL of the signs of a liver shunt and was so sick, I thought she was going to pass on. Luckily, the vet prescribed two medications that help her liver do its job. She is great on the meds but without it she becomes very sick. I need to know if she will be ok. I don't know anyone who has a yorkie with this problem so I have no one to go to for answers besides the Vet. I'm only 16 and am currently looking for a job. My parents have already spent well over $1,000 on her hospital stays. THe surgery will cost between 3-5k. I dont have that kind of money now. I can't travel to Ten. either. I do pan on having the surgery if she does have a liver shunt, when I raise enough money. Will she live a yorkie life span, or will her life span be cut short? WIll she need to eat prescription food forever? Will she be ok??
Thanks,
Monica:confused:

you need to get her to tennessee to dr tobias for surgery and she can have a normal life and surgery is much cheaper there than california -- Can you get CareCredit® Healthcare Finance - Payment Plans and Financing for Cosmetic Surgery, Dental, Vision, Hearing, Veterinary & Other Medical Procedures ? If not you really need to think about giving her up to a rescue that can get her this surgery :( I hate to say that but have known alot tht have not made it without the surgery and if they do not get surgery sometimes they will throw more shunts so it is something you really need to make sure you understand

join this group on yahoogroups.com this is all they deal with and they will be able to help you as well - join tonight and learn as much as you can

Liver_Shunt_And_MVD_Support@yahoogroups.com

how did they diagnose liver shunt through bile acid tests? scintigraphy by dr broome in tustin? I live in cali too and my dog has mvd

what meds is your dog on lactulose and denamarin? are you feeding L/D?

What meds is she on exactly?

she is on metrondazole syrup and cephulac oral. It works very well. She is going to get test done where it will show if the food goes directly to the heart or if it passes the liver. She had an ultrasound but no shunt was visible. I do plan on getting the surgery done but can't afford it right now. Like i said, she does very very well on medication.

her symptoms were wandering, disorientation, and she was drooling when she was at her worst. . she ate well and drank well during this time and had no vomiting or diarrhea. will it be ok for her to have surgery when she is older? about 3 or 4 years old? if she is okay n the meds?

I am sending prayers for you and your little one. Sorry I do not have experience with this, but see that Debbie has sent you some excellent information. I hope the medicines continue to do their job and keep her well.

Sounds like you are a long way from having to consider it, but if you find yourself in the situation of not being able to give the surgery that is needed, I would second the idea of turning to a rescue. The rescue will come up with funds to get the surgery done. As difficult as that would be to give up your little one, at least then you would know that she would be taken care of.

BTW the symptoms you describe could just as well be from hypoglycemia or even dehydration. I would not worry too much until testing is completed and you know for sure what you are up against.

Please join the Liver Shunt and MVD group on Yahoo. They will also help guide you. My mother always told me if there is a will there is a way....I'm sending you prayers. Good luck and please keep us updated..Lissette

Definitely look into Care Credit and think seriously about going to UT for the surgery!
I would also join the Yahoo group and learn all you can!
Best wishes .. I will keep you and your baby in my thoughts and prayers.

today S:confused:asha has been very mellow. She played for awhile but she just seemed really tired. It is very hot where I live so I was wondering that maybe the heat is getting to her. I just realized that the spot where I have her fairly large cage in the living room while I'm at school, has the sun hitting it while the sun is still coming up! So she is in the sun! She is now going to stay in my room while I am gone. Could the heat and sun make her very mellow? That is the only problem she usually has when it's hot. Granted, it is cooler in the house than outside but the heat can still get to her.

Did the vvet ever do a bile acids test?

Why did the vet choose to not give SAMe, milk thistle and lactulose?

You need to give us more info? What food are you feeding, what treats? What is her Bile Acid pre and post numbers? Why didn't the Vet give Lactulose? Did the Vet mention it could be MVD or are they really leaning towards Liver Shunt?

My parents had the bileacid tests. I dont know where they are at the moment.
Cephulac oral has lactulose in it.
liver shunt is what they are leainng towards.
her glucose level was out of the roof. it was supposed to be between 0-92. it was 491.
BTW She is dong very well today because I put her bigger cage in my room, out of the sun. I did not realize she was in the sun while I was at school.

i just fed her. she is acting very hyper! not mellow at all.

not really as then she could blow more shunts and be inoperable - best to do when only one and sounds like she has one - are they doing scintigraphy?

if they had bile acids done and are leaning towards liver shunt they must be high -- did they send you to dr broome in tustin or los angeles as he is the only one in california that does the scintigraphy and sounds like that is what you are having done. This is his website and i believe it is $390 to have done and i agree you should have this if bile acids are over 100 so you do not fly all the way to tennessee to have done and find out it is mvd but my guess is this dog has liver shunt from what you describe as hypoglycemia and liver shunt go hand in hand

Scintigraphy

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

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

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.

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. :confused:

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 :(

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.

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

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?

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 :(

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