I did take a slight offense to your comment. Who said I can't give her the care she needs? This is what we have been doing. We recently got the dx. (Saturday). The surgery isn't cheap.

I would never surrender her. She's part of the family. We are meeting with the surgeon.

I did take offense to your comment.

I would never surrender her to no body.

We are getting her the care she needs. We will be speaking with the surgeon and traveling two hours.

I truly am sorry, I did not at all ever mean to offend you. I work closely with rescues and often assist, so I only put it out there as a last resort option. I am not made of money either, times are tough for everyone and I honestly (as well as a good number of folks on this site too) would have to consider it if one were very sick and possibly needed immediate help. I actually also got to speak to a member here that had a shunt baby and after a short while, her and hubby decided that they could not get the $3000 fast enough for his much needed surgery, so they did a very shelf less thing and as hard as it was they did surrender him. He got surgery asap and his bile acids returned to a good point 8 weeks after surgery. He is being adopted next week.
Before I got TJ and Roxy I never knew that Yorkie Rescues even existed.

...I am only here on this thread to try and help YOU and YOUR LITTLE ONE.

It is hard sometimes to 'speak' via email/text like this, so I am truly sorry that I upset you, as that wasn't my intentions....

I have read all that you have done so far for her and it shows how much you care and are trying to help her....I hope it can all work out and I will try to find more site that could possibly assist.

I hope you stick around here as it is a great place! Also that Yahoo group would be extremely benefical for you. They have first hand knowledge of what she has (LS and Stones) they have lots of babies very similar and have great tips on certain foods, treats, ticks to help with the stones and great supplements to aid her liver and kidneys. I know I have learned from them how to help my Roxy (she has MVD).

Again, sorry to have upset you, not what I wanted to do. I put it out there for you or anyone else reading this that may not know they have options (I also just got finished reading another horrific thread of a family that took there baby out back b/c he was sick, rather than taking him to the Vet...so sad, as a rescue would have taken him in, in a heartbeat...sorry to go off track, but sometimes the things that I read really are so sad and it just makes me want to help even more....)

Please do stick around as this site is great and many helpful people. I get bummed that owners who love their dogs have to give them up to rescues when it is about finances as vet bills are very high. I just wish there was a way that rescues and owners could work together on the financial aspect so owners do not have to give them up to get surgery and then adopted out to someone else. I never understood that :( I know i am 20k in the hole with my 3 unhealthy ones and it can be very frustrating but i wish there was some way say on here everyone gives a $1 a year to go in a fund for liver shunt - with 40k members $1 would be 40k to help yorkie owners with liver shunt and other diseases yorkies have as owners love their pets but vet care can get real crazy I know as i had no idea how much it would be when i got my first yorkie and the bout with pancreatitis for a year off and on cost 10k - no one warned me there :( The liver shunt surgery is not too bad but the care can be very trying with these little ones I have seen :( tough and times are getting tougher so if us yorkie owners could pull together to help each other that would be great. We just donated to a dog named rosie for her surgery as the person who wanted rosie has had several liver shunt dogs and wanted her as her owner was going to put her to sleep due to seizures:( but if this person wanted her to get surgery she had to give her to the rescue and she wanted her but her care credit was maxed out from her previous dogs. We raised the money for her bill and dr tobias did the surgery so she could keep her and not turn her in to rescue. A rescue by me said they have the money but not enough fosters ---I said well why do you not work with the owners then and you will not need fosters :( so sad

Oh and I just remembered Baby Bears story. When he needed the surgery to repair his neck from his AAI/AAS I remember they applied for Care Credit, but under the husband and they got declined, so the wife applied just under her name and she got accepted ;)

Hi :)
Were the stones removed or are they still in the bladder? Did they analyze them? Knowing that your baby has liver shunt, I would venture to guess that they are ammonium urate...These are often seen when there are problems in the liver. It's possible that they are calcium oxalate but more likely to be ammonium urate.

My yorkie also has liver problems and an insane history of ammonium urate stones...When he was a yr old, the vet recommended that he have a urethrostomy so that he could pee out of a new larger hole at the base of his penis...This helped him pass the stones more freely, but of course, it did not stop them from forming...It got to the point where he was passing OVER 20 stones per day. My poor baby. He had to have surgery again to remove the stones, and the vet at that point told me he did not know what else to do with him...It was very sad, so I took matters into my own hands again...

I put him on MAXIMUM liver support meaning not only milk thistle and denosyl, but also vitamin E, zinc, vitamin b-complex, more appropriate amounts of lactulose (which is EXTREMELY important in dogs with liver shunts) - should be given 3x/day in doses high enough to make the dog have 2 soft stools (not firm and not diarrhea) per day, probiotics, and high moisture diet.

When dealing with bladder stones, it is of utmost importance that the dog receive a lot of moisture. Sometimes, canned food is necessary...This is one of those cases when the dog would greatly benefit from canned food. He needs the high moisture, but if you are against it, then I would highly recommend that you add *at least* equal parts water to each meal. So, if you feed 1/4 cup of food at each meal, add at least 1/4 or more cup of water to the food.

You need to keep the urine dilute so that the stones do not have a chance to form.

Stones are secondary to liver disease...They are caused because the liver is not functioning properly, and these dogs need more moisture than other dogs...Even if you think your dog drinks ALOT, it's not enough. I used to think my liver compromised yorkie drank a lot of water, but it was not enough. Once I switched him to a high moisture diet, it made all the difference, along with the added supplements.

Prayers for your little one!!!

If your baby has bladder stones (which are very likely to be ammonium urate considering that she has a liver shunt), you need to stay away from high purine foods...Yes, many vets recommend k/d to liver compromised dogs for the simple fact that they just look at the fact that it is low protein...They do not take into consideration the type of protein that's in k/d...It contains pork which is very high in purines and VERY, VERY bad for a dog who forms ammonium urate stones not to mention not recommended for liver compromised dogs...A lot of vets are not well versed in nutrition or liver problems.
High purines lead to high levels of uric acid (already a problem in liver compromised dogs, but add to that bladder stone problems) which lead to ammonium urate stones. Please consider switching to l/d or royal canin hepatic. I usually recommend RC Hepatic LS 14 with water added or canned l/d because of the high moisture(but not if your dog has a history of pancreatitis b/c it's higher in fat than RC Hepatic) or homecooked, but this needs to be done very carefully.

mom2twins, I also forgot to mention Azodyl to you...I used it until recently for my yorkie that has liver/bladder stone problems, and it really helped. Many others with liver compromised dogs along with stone problems have also had great success with it. I give it at half the recommended dose b/c it's for kidney compromised dogs, but it helped. When the liver is having problems, the kidneys have to pick up the slack, so they end up suffering too if there's not enough support....

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