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Liver Shunts & Diet; Muffy is a picky eater Muffy was diagnosed with a Liver Shunt a couple months ago. To treat it, we were to let her have a surgery to possibly fix it or use the Science Diet LD (liver disease) food. We chose to do the diet treatment because she shows no symptoms other than being a little small, but she is 4 lb. 5 oz. so she is not dangerously small. She is very active and happy. The problem is she does not eat much at all! We keep her food down all day as advised by our vet since she does not eat much. At times she will go and eat a few pieces then run back and play. I just feel like she should be eating more. She almost never eats her daily allowance unless I hand feed her each piece which I have done several times because I was desperate for her to eat her food. Do any of y'all have a problem similar to this with your yorkie? I could use some advice. Thanks!:animal36 |
The Royal Canin LS 14 for liver compromised dogs seems to be very palatable. You may want to give that a try. The L/D canned is also an option. Because of the ingredients in the dry L/D, it tends to be the least preferred out of these three foods. Most of the time, shunts should be repaired if possible. Of course there are exceptions, but if a shunt was found and a vet said to leave it, I'd probably get a second opinion. If it's MVD, then it can't be repaired. What supplements is she on? |
Hey thanks for writing me back! I'm going to email this to my dad because I don't know what supplement she is on or if she has an MVD shunt. I'll be sure to let you know as soon as possible. Thanks! |
Is this your dog or your Dad's??? I agree with Crystal, the The Royal Canin LS 14 is liked by lots of LS and MVD dogs. She should be eating 5 to 6 small meals throughout the day and into the night. Some folks feed the last meal at 1 am if need be. |
It's the family dog; I am sixteen. :) We have a dachshund as well, so Muffy isn't the only dog in the family. Thank you for the information though, about the feeding 5 to 6 small meals! |
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I would really get the Royal Canin LS 14 (from your Vet). And then, you need to figure out how many pieces of kibble she "should" be eating for the day. It may be something like 90 pieces. So you divide that amount by 6 = 15 So, for example, she may need to eat 15 pieces of kibble 6 times a day (like evry 3 or 4 hours). That was just an example though, but you get the idea ;) |
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Oh I need to make a correction. She had been eating Hill's prescription diet l/d. Not science diet. |
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She should be on SAMe (helps prevent liver cell death) and possibly milk thistle. |
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go on to yahoogroups.com and join the liver shunt mvd groups they will help you get her to eat as they are also dealing with the same issues. If mvd and bile acids below 100 then low protein diet is needed 22% with no symptoms 18% with symptoms |
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I also have an MVD dog. We feed Hills L/D and a home cooked diet specially formulated for her. Our dog also has severe allergies and Inflammatory bowel disease so the Royal Canin is out. Before we found out our dog had MVD, she would not eat very much or very often. She would eat one or two kibble at a time and then stop. Like your dog, she was playful and happy. Once she was on a diet for MVD dogs, she ate more and her overall condition improved as did her liver functioning. We now have the opposite problem - she is always starving and barking at us for more food. She's slightly overweight so we stick with low calorie treats primarily made with oat flour since she has food intolerances to pretty much everything else. Good luck with your yorkie. I hope you will keep us posted. |
Yes Hill's L/D. I just didn't capitalize the "L." The problem with having the surgery to correct her shunt is that is would cost $2,000 which my family does not have, as we all know the economy is awful these days. So we are kind of stuck. :( |
As far as I know, she does not have MVD. Our veterinarian only used the term Liver Shunt. We do not know if it is internal (inside her liver) or external (outside the liver). What is this about supplements? Should we be giving her a supplement of some kind? The only thing we are doing for her treatment is feeding her a low protein diet. This is so stressful! :( |
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how did they diagnose your dog? |
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but like I said, he can not remember. He says that he may have written it down somewhere. He will check tomorrow probably. |
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I'll definitely let you know! Thank you soooo so much! |
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Ellie has a liver issue. We don't know what it is, but it's treated as MVD. I, her vet, and her internist can't see supplementing as a bad thing. It can't hurt and it "may" protect her liver from further damage which is a good enough reason for me to do it. I know many people like Marin (or Denamarin) for this, but some don't like the small amount of liver in it. Quote:
You could start with SAMe (Denosyl). |
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I do know that juiced zucchini is cleansing to liver and many juice zucchini with celery and put pulp on food and juice for their dogs with liver issues as the zucchine cleanses liver and celery cleanses urinary tract. |
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Also, EllieMay / Dwerten...what *are* the "cut off" values for liver shunt? |
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I have really terrible news :( I use "gmail" for my email, and there is an archive button. I remembered that my dad had emailed me the numbers when we found out about it. Here is what he had said: "I called Dr. Crouch. He got the lab results back. Muffy definitely has a liver problem. The normal reading on an empty stomach is 7 or less. Muffy's was 15. They fed her and tested her again. After food, the normal reading is 15 or less. Muffy's was 140!" So it looks like she most likely does have a liver shunt. :( |
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there can be a thrown off value due to gall bladder contraction when testing so why we did 3 and now we just keep her on a low protein diet. The first test he did not do pre only post so we had to redo pre and post then i put her on low protein diet and had jean dodds redo it 6 mos later and she was almost normal so this is the least of her issues but still something to be concerned about with meds and anesthesia but she just had dental and dentist said she did great |
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