if there are crystals in the urine that is a sign of liver issue as well and the stones they have are urate stones if there are stones

It is not a death sentence if mvd or liver shunt so do not freak out just needs to be handled quickly - if a shunt they need surgery and the best is dr tobias at university of tennessee and she is the only one i would have touch my dog with this surgery as her staff and her are awesome from everyone i know that has has this done - once surgery is done they lead a normal life and no issues. If not corrected young then they can blow more shunts thus not allowing the ability to have surgery as the surgery can only be done on one shunt. Also they will be susceptible to bladder stones :(

If mvd then low protein diet, milk thistle, same or denamarin which has both and you can juice zucchini and celery to cleanse liver and urinary tract

Please mention this to vet as many vets are not real familiar with shunts unless they are very familiar with yorkie and maltese breed as i went to 3 vets prior to vet now and none of them mentioned this to me as a possibility of my dogs skin issues and since the liver cannot cleanse then it comes out in skin sometimes as an elimination

also if your dog is not eliminating waste and the belly is distended then until you get this under control and figure it out ask vet about lactulose to help eliminate stool and get toxins out of the body as the drunken stooper is from toxins going to the brain as it is not being eliminated out of the body in a timely manner :(

Unfortunately, this was a concern for me as well, but didn't think there was any reason to be too worried before you saw the vet today.

But now that you have a vet doing tests, you really need to do the bile acid tests that Dwerten mentioned.


Poor baby! Give him a gentle hug from me.

yeah better to have 2 blood draws than 3 as less stressful on dog and being a yorkie this needs to be done on them per our vet all yorkies and maltese should be bile acid tested as it affects anesthesia and medications affecting liver so after seeing 3 vets and none of them mentioning this to me i was shocked dd had liver issues but he would not put her on atopica without having bile acids and she had normal alt on all her tests she had prior so sometimes alt will not pick up mvd

To simplify things...I would just call the vet and ask him if he has considered the possibility that this is a liver shunt.
I would not tell him what tests to do...merely ask him if that is a thought that he might have.
I would call this morning so that while Jack is there, if nothing else is coming up, they might look that way.
I cannot believe any vet would not be thinking of this possibility. Scary Dwerten that three vets did not think of LS? I would be hightailing it out of CA if I were you.

:thumbup: Exactly.

I hope little Jack will be ok.

yep but i could see why as she has not had any symptoms even to this day of liver issue and due to her ALT never being high they never even considered it since skin issues are not usually a sign of liver disfunction but makes common sense to me though as they eliminate toxins through skin. This vet is friends with the scintigraphy doc dr broome so he is on it and he has a phd from ucdavis so i think he is further educated than the others. I had one ask me after she was diagnosed what is MVD lolllllll so i had to explain it to them how sad - this is why i continue to educate myself and others after my experiences. I am glad he did the test but i freaked when it came back high at 73 post but after joining liver shunt group and reading more and with dd having no symptoms i opted not to have scintigraphy as vet recommended. Now had dd had signs she would have been in there asap for this test and i would have flown her to ut for any surgery

Okay so after researching this, I caved. I called my vet but he was out to lunch. So I told the receptionist/ vet tech and she was going to pass it along. Lord knows if he has liver shunt, I have no idea how I am going to afford this operation. They said he was fine and resting comfortably.

And I live in Minnesota. I could try to find a vet school around the area so it would be cheaper... but does that decrease the survival rate?

I hope Jack is going to be ok , and it is NOT a liver shunt. Be certain that your vet runs all the tests and rules out the possibility. Meanwhile, I will pray for Jack , and have him in my thoughts. Hang in there, and try not to become too stressed out before knowing the tests results. I understand that is easier said then done.

I know the thought is terrifying at first, but just take it one step at a time. You don't even know if it is LS yet. I think we're all a little jumpy since it happens too often in small breeds. Just take things a step at a time and research it.

And most of the vet schools are wonderful. :thumbup:

I hope that you get on the right track so that you can find out what is wrong with your baby. I will pray for some answers bc this is a scary thing for the both of you.

Hi, just sending hug's and prayer's from CoCo and I..:)

:thumbup: Very good advice. It may not even be LS. If it is, then you will take it a step at a time as Judy said. There are many people who will help you through this.
There are many ways to get funding; but, you are not there yet.