say a little prayer for turkey

[drawlins27]

How do they know it is severe with only a blood test? Blood work cannot diagnose a liver shunt and cannot tell the severity:

"A liver shunt cannot be definitively diagnosed by blood work; shunting can only be found with advanced techniques such as scintigraphy, ultrasound, portography, Cat scan ("CT"), MRI, or exploratory surgery" Dr. Karen Tobias

Please see Dr. Tobias at UT. She is an expert on liver shunt in yorkies. 85% of the dogs she does surgery on for liver shunt survive and do very well long term. I'm sure something can be done. At this point, your vet is telling you to let her suffer when he doesn't even know what the problem really is. Sadly many vets are not very knowledgeable about liver shunt and many suggest putting down a dog that can live a normal life with surgery and/or diet.

http://www.vet.utk.edu/clinical/sacs/shunt/faq.shtml

[drawlins27]

Originally Posted by aka_yorkie_mama

turkey is only 2.1 lbs at 12 weeks old and our vet told us that the device used in the liver shunt surgery is about the size of a nickle ... he said at her size it would be too large and more trauma than help .. he also was honest that with the liver shunt she can bite herself and run into walls that to keep her from injuring herself we needed a padded kennel durring episodes only he also gave us some medicine to give Turkey also

Dr. Tobias does the surgery on dogs smaller and younger than this. Please ask your vet to give you a referral to UT or call UT and ask about a specialist in your area who can do the surgery on such a small puppy. It can be done!

[PANAMA69]

So sorry that your girlfriend have to go through this I do hope that she gets a second opinion too.

[aka_yorkie_mama]

Originally Posted by drawlins27

Dr. Tobias does the surgery on dogs smaller and younger than this. Please ask your vet to give you a referral to UT or call UT and ask about a specialist in your area who can do the surgery on such a small puppy. It can be done!

thank you i am going to follow your post .. our vet said it was severe due to her simtoms MS ? she falls over and acts drunk .. and sleeps allll the time i hope there is hope for this little girl

[tpaxton23]

thank you i am going to follow your post .. our vet said it was severe due to her simtoms MS ? she falls over and acts drunk .. and sleeps allll the time i hope there is hope for this little girl

Yes, please call University of Tennessee. They have done many successful liver shunt surgeries on babies that weigh less then a pound. Also, did the vet recommend a low protein diet and any medication? The puppy should at least be on lactulose which will help remove the toxin build up from her/his system. This will also help so that she/he doesn't have as many symptoms or seizures. Here is the number for University of Tennesse (865) 974-8387. Please call them as soon as you can. Their prices are also the best in the country and the staff is wonderful. Please PM me if I can be of any help.

[bernermom]

A friend of mine is treating her Yorkie with diet and it's actually doing very well now. Low protien is essential.

[aka_yorkie_mama]

thank you everyone i had have her on lactulose i emailed UCD and have a vet sending a referal i did find the recipe on the web page and have talked to my gf about the diet and she is feeding it ... she had been feeding her alot of egg .. and i fliped out .. its hard she had a seisure the other day and our vet bills are getting higher and higher .. emerg. vets in our area are 1hr away and min .100 dollars .. last time i took her after her seisure just to have them tell me she was crying after her seisure do to a horrible headache...i was hoping they would give her pain medication .. i called the Tn vet number sent to me and they told me to get a vets referal to them tomorow .. so wish us luck

[YorkieShadow]

Im so sorry, the poor little thing, I pray that she gets better.

[paulapoo]

I hope she can get Turkey to Dr. Tobias quickly. I believe they allow payment plans there. Many of the YT'ers and the Yahoo livershunt/MVD group have had success with Dr. Tobias. This baby could live a normal life if it works out that he could have the surgery. I certainly understand the money issue, I'd be in the same position. It only adds to the frustration when you know there are things that can be done but cannot afford them. I'm prayin for all of you. I hope things turn out well. God Bless little Turkey.

[gloriajean]

I don't know the name but my vet has the pamphlet with information about where to call and get a credit card that's interest free for 1 year. It's just for the vet bill so you can't use it anywhere else, but who cares??? 1 year interest free is worth it. does someone here know the name and phone #???