Kimber is getting testing for a liver shunt today...
 

Hello All,
I haven't posted for a while as I have been very busy - Miss Kimber is doing very excellent. She's 6 months 2 weeks old and weighs just over 3 pounds.

I brought her in to get bloodwork done for her spay which is booked for Friday morning.

The vet called me on Saturday and said her bile acid levels were three times what they should be, and that she had a low white blood cell count.

Today she is going back in for x-rays to see her liver and some more testing. I'm worried sick about her, the poor thing. In a way I am glad we caught it now (especially before they put her under for her spay)...but the way the vet was talking on Saturday very much freaked me out.

He was discussing surgery options if she has a shunt. I would have to go out of town for it, I don't care about the costs - just that my baby is okay! She didn't have any symptoms ... if she had any problems I would have taken her into the vet right away!

She never has diarehha or vomitting, she's very energetic, etc.

Anyway - I guess I don't get the test results back until Wednesday. I feel so bad she has to go through all this testing today :(

AFTER the testing, but before the surgery, please be sure to consult another vet. Especially if she's not showing symptoms of a liver shunt, other than the blood work and x-rays.


Just my two cents.

Thanks! Just wondering why you would suggest this?

I hope all turns out well with your darling Kimber!

I think K9 said that because lab tests CAN be wrong, and there could be other causes of the tests coming back like that besides LS. But I could be wrong, I'm just educated guessing:laugh: Some shunts are inoperable, also, and have to be managed with a strict diet instead.

Prayers goin' up for your baby:hands:

I agree. When Piper went to get spayed, her enzymes were high also. No other symptoms. So I took her in a month later for a bile acid test. You state that they did this with her blood work. That is concidered a fasting test. They have to fast for 12 hours, they draw blood. Feed them, then draw blood again. I've never heard of a vet doing a bile acid test for spaying. Just normal blood check, it will show elevated enzymes. We went for an ultra sound after that. Xrays don't show a shunt. After seeing to specialist, they couldn't see a shunt with the ultra sound. It could be an internal one. So right now we are doing a low protein diet until April. Then we are getting another bile acid test done. The specialist didn't seem to worry much, since Piper wasn't showing any symptoms. He said alot of small dogs run high, which can be controlled by diet. We'll see what happens next month.

The bloodwork was done on Thursday - the vet called me Saturday and told me that her bile acid levels were three times what they should be, and that she had a low white blood cell count.

KimbersMommy-
The reason I suggested what I've said is because I've seen (on more occassions than my stomach cares to know about) little ones go in for surgery only to turn up a misdiagnosis.
If she isn't showing other symptoms, while it doesn't mean she doesn't have a liver shunt, it also could mean she has something else wrong.

Personally, not just because of her size, but I'd just have another vet at a different facility concur her condition before surgery came into play. There might be alternatives and again, there might not be anything really wrong w/ her liver either.

My thoughts are w/ you though and please keep us posted!

I really appreciate your fast response... She'll be with this vet all day today, and I will get her results by Wednesday. My breeder only knows what's going on because a friend of mine got a Yorkie from her a couple months before I got Kimber - and he was terribly upset when my dad told him what was happening.

I'm trying not to over react- and you're right, as it is such in invasive surgery - which would require at least a 10 hour drive (each way) depending on whether I go to the US or to Winnipeg, I will get a second opinion.

The vet seemed VERY confused when he called me and sort of interviewed me on her - like She's full of energy, eats/drinks plenty/ no digestive problems (I check out her poop, that's what a silly mom I am)... she's had stool tests and three check ups since I've got her too... so it's all quite shocking and A LOT to absorb...

Thanks so much for your kind thoughts :) It means a lot. My goodness it was VERY hard to leave her there this morning! :(

Aww, I can totally understand.

I think things will work out for you, whatever the labs say.

The only circumstance that I've seen a dog have a very serious condition and not show any signs was a German Shepherd that we trained for our K-9 program. The dog completed the program and was paired up w/ his officer and before they graduated as a team to hit the streets at a training session one of our trainers noticed that the dog was feeling a little off physically. Didn't think too much of it, finished the session and later took the dog to the vet.
Turns out that this male at 16 months of age was dying of Kidney failure. The vet's guess is that he was born w/ a kidney problem that went undiagnosed and the dog just didn't know what a healthy kidney felt like and so to him, kidney pains must've just been part of life and he coped. Needless to say he was pulled from the program and is playing out his days living in a home w/ one of our trainers. There's no cure or treatment for just how bad off he is. And he's one cool dog and to this day still plays and rough houses like a puppy. He seldom has a bad day, but is passing nonetheless. Odd. And the weirdest part is that he passed all of his prelim physicals! Trust me, a second and even third opinion was obtained I'm sure.

So, while something *could* be amiss w/ your baby's liver, I'd still get that second opinion!
She'll be home in no time, have a cup of hot tea and relax as best ya can. *hugs*

An x-ray is not going to show if she has a liver shunt...If anything, they should be doing an ultrasound preferably with doppler to confirm whether or not she has a shunt. And sometimes they can miss it on the ultrasound if they are not experienced. My yorkie, Miko, has an intrahepatic liver shunt that cannot be repaired by surgery...It is managed through diet and medications. He had coccidia and hypoglycemia and some other stuff when he was a pup, but somewhere around 9 months my husband and I decided we wanted to have a bile acid test done. For no real reason other than we had heard of so many yorkies with liver shunts, that we wanted to just get him tested. He had what the vet thought was a UTI when he was about 6 months, but that's it. Well, the weekend before his appt to get his bile acid test, he had a seizure, completely out of nowhere.
I'm just telling you this because there are some cases where sometimes the dogs don't show symptoms. He was and is a very happy energetic dog, no reason to really suspect liver shunt.
I pray that nothing is wrong with your baby, and that the results were just skewed or something.
Try not to work yourself up over this until you have more conclusive information.