Is liver shunt always hereditary?
 

I was just wondering if LS is something that is always passed on by the parents? Or is it sometimes caused inviromentally? Any extra info would be great, thankyou!:)

Bump :thumbup:

Thankyou I have been looking for good information.

Ok I am going to just put this out here for any thoughts or other considerations that I might be missing. We went to the vet today after what was a sleepless night, Copper was figity and I thought that maybe he was waking up throughout the night because "Daddy" was working on a power outage. This morning I noticed him jerk really good with his back leggs while laying down, honestly I thought that it could have been anything,an itch of
somesort. soI get home and I notice that he does the jerky thing again almost like a tick. I think that he is having mild siezures.

We ran a full blood pannel today and are going back in again to do more testing, bile acid etc. He has always been really mellow. He also makes me work for every bite of food that he eats. I am finding out that all of these things that I though were just how he was are aslo signs of liver shunt:( But honestly he seems like he is completely healthy other than this ticking thing that has come up, he is happy and not acting sick. What I wonder is if this is liver shunt he more than likely has always had it, he is only a year old. And if it is I need to let his breeder know, this is not an easy call to make, I need to call her anyway but this is not the terms I was hoping for. There are a few other possibilities but I am soooo worried for him.

They just basically drew his blood and sent us home. I hate waiting games. And it seems like everytime he goes to relax that he starts jerking or twitching. I am just sick with worry any honestly don't know where else to turn. Thank you for listening.

Typically, it's congenital in breeds that have a high occurence of liver shunt, but chronic liver disease can lead to acquired shunts or possibly the ingestion of something severely toxic.

I'm sorry to read that your baby may have liver shunt. Try not to get too worked up until you get the results of the bile acid test. What did the blood panel show? Was the ALT elevated? How about ALB..Was it low? Just because something does not show up on a blood panel does not mean he doesn't have a liver problem. I'm glad you went ahead with the bile acid test b/c it is much more sensitive to liver function.
Picky eating, low energy, and seizures are symptoms :( even if the seizures are just mild.
Keep us posted and ask any questions that you may have.

I will know the results of the blood pannel tomarrow, I am so worried. The not knowing is horrible. I will deffinately update as I know more. Thankyou for being so considerate.

I am so sorry to hear about your little guy. My Paisley had liver shunt surgery last week. I took her in to be spayed at 6 months and her pre spay blood work was "off" so the vet decided to not spay her and do a bile acid test. The test strongly pointed to a liver shunt. With further testing a shunt was diagnosed.

I was shocked because Paisley seemed like a normal, healthy puppy. Paisley was asymptomatic. There was never anything out of the ordinary. She was born with her shunt and my breeder was very cooperative. She refunded me my purchase price to help for cost of treatment and emails me often asking about Paisley's health.

Try and be patient and get your test results and take it one step at a time. I understand how overwhelming this can be. My thoughts are with you.

Age Question?
 

Oh, please keep us updated. One of my biggest fears is for something scary like that to pop up out of the blue one day :(

Ranger sends his hugs....

Here is another great link full of information from Dr. Center. It explains the different tests that need to be done to diagnose a shunt.

Hepatic Vascular Disorders - WSAVA 2006 Congress

Try not to worry until you get the results of the bile acids test back. Even if it is a shunt, it can be corrected by surgery.

This is what I asked the vet earlier today... I forgot to ask about the heredity of it though... She said that she has had one come in as old as four years old for first diagnoses, she told me that because there are varried degrees of LS that sometimes owners don't pick up on the "clues" she also said that the four year old was already on a low protien dog food and that is why she felt that it went undetected for so long. Things like a calm dog can be little signs that are easy to overlook. My vet said that usually they notice it fairly early because a puppy will grow really slow or show more severe signs. I am still in the learning stages of all this and we don't know for sure either way but this is what the vet told me today. Honestly before all this I figured we were in the clear after a year.

Thankyou for the link, That is how I am trying to think of it.

But then I start worring about all the other things that it could be, it seems like he is having tiny siezures almost regularly since last night sometimes it is more of a tick and then sometimes his eyes roll back a little. It is so so unnerving. She checked everything that they could in the vets office and said that he seems healthy otherwise, she did say that he was a little thin. but I make him eat regularly. He just never has eaten very much.

thankyou I will update, We can use all the huggs we can get right now:)