# Liver Shunt



## kgfreckles (Dec 5, 2008)

This past summer my miniature schnauzer was diagnosed with a liver shunt. He is now far along the road to recovery. But I'm always curious to hear about other people's stories. 

If you had to battle a liver shunt with your dog, please add to this discussion. 

I've also created a blog talking all about Leeland's story from diagnosis to surgery to recovery. Pleas check it out! 
http://leelandslivershunt.blogspot.com/

Thanks, 

kg


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## lulusmom (Nov 12, 2008)

Leeland is absolutely adorable and what an inspiration. You did an incredible job of putting Leeland's story together and bless you for sharing it with us here.

With having special needs dogs, I have experience with a lot of conditions but not a liver shunt. I have two Maltese and I know that Maltese and Yorkies are two breeds that have a genetic predisposition to this condition. If I were you, I'd check out forums for these breeds and post your story. It's a serious and terrifying condition and you and Leeland can make a huge difference for anybody that may be facing a new diagnosis. 

All my best to you both!


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## kgfreckles (Dec 5, 2008)

I'm so glad you checked out the blog, and enjoyed it. 

That's a good idea about posting on yorkie and maltese forums. I just remember being so discouraged by the lack of personal stories about liver shunts, I vowed to share Leeland's story in the off chance it could help someone. 

Thanks again for checking out the blog! Be sure to share the link with anyone you know that might find it useful! 

-KG


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## Moonshadow (Nov 9, 2008)

I had a dog with not one but 2 liver shunts. Our story is a bit different than your's. This was one of our puppies. At birth she was normal size, everything was fine. As weeks went on she had constant loose stools, we couldn't maintain her weight easily, once she was walking all she would do is walk in circles. She would go to the edge of the whelping box and go around in circles, if we had her in an xpen, loose in a room, she would go to the far edge and go in circles around and around. We had her to 5 different vets, not one had a clue what was wrong with her but they all had the same answer "something is very wrong with that puppy, you should just put her to sleep" Sorry but while she wasn't well she wasn't in pain either so we were trying. She lived on Nurtical and supplements and while she wasn't skinny she wasn't growing much either. 

We took her to Cornell with the rest of the litter for eye checks. All of the other puppies were twice as big as her. She was still doing her circles and she would just sit and stare into space. We saw a internal specialist at Cornell and he suspected a shunt, tested her and he was correct. He said he rarely sees puppies at this age, generally they won't show symptoms till they are about a year or so. He said that most who are this bad don't make it and no one ever knows what was wrong.

He gave us the same options you were given. Medically manage her for as long as possible, attempt surgery (on a 10 pound collie puppy who wasn't doing all that well) or put her down. We chose the surgery....I couldn't put a puppy down who had a chance and given how bad she was at such a young age medically managing didn't seem to be a good option.

When they went in there was one huge shunt and one smaller one. The smaller one they closed off completely. The large one they could only close off 50 percent. Her liver just couldn't handle it closed completely. 

At this point Aimee had what seemd to be 10 percent vision in one eye and 30-50 in the other eye. She was 10 pounds when her siblings were 20-24 pounds. She was cut from one end to the other and given the amount of damage that was done in her short life from the shunts they said that she would need to be on a low protein diet and medication for her life. We had to do bile acids tests every 4 weeks and play around with the medication. With her being a baby and growing it was a constant trial and error with the meds. She also had seizures. With her having the shunts she couldn't go on medication for the seizures so we just had to deal with them and hope for the best. The vets at Cornell told us to be happy if we had her for 2 years. 

After about 6 months her bile acids test came back indicating the other shunt had closed up on it's own. They did say that there was a VERY small chance this could happen but it was very rare, especially with the size of that shunt. We repeated the test and it came back the same. Looked into it a bit further and yes...it seemed to have closed.

Still everyone was pretty sure that she wouldn't live a very long life. She was to be on low protein food, etc. still and we did it for a while and I got sick of giving that low protein crap to a puppy. I put her on Eukanuba original (which is like their performance now) and eventually she was switched to grain free when they came out. Her seizures were not bad as she aged, she would have one or two a year. Of course her eyesight we could do nothing about. She was a little girl for that line but she was between 55-60 pounds as an adult.

We just lost Aimee a couple of months ago.....while I would have loved to have her around longer Aimee was 12 years old....not bad for a puppy that we should have been happy to have for 2 years!


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## kgfreckles (Dec 5, 2008)

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing your story! 

Leeland's shunt was also rather large, and then only partially ligated. It was also determined that his closed the rest of way. 

I'm thankful that Leeland was older, and normal weight when he was diagnosed. Being as fragile as Aimee would have been extra worry. It is so inspiring to hear that you fought so hard for your puppy. Putting so much time and effort in must have been very draining, but so worth it in the end. 

Thanks again for sharing that, I loved reading it. Sorry for your recent loss. Aimee was so lucky to have such a devoted parent. 

-KG


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## LisiMarie (Oct 18, 2011)

Hi, I was searching for threads on liver shunts and came across yours. My little guy has been having trouble eating well and dropping weight. He seems to eat well for a few days , then lapses for a few days with little to no appetite and with occasional vomiting. Our vet thinks it may be a shunt and is having a bile test? possibly tomorrow. I was wondering if your dog had issues like what I have described.


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## kgfreckles (Dec 5, 2008)

Hi there. I'm very sorry to hear about your dog, I hope you have some answers soon. 

Leeland did lose his appetite before his diagnosis and vomited fairly regularly. After his diagnosis we put him on a prescription wet food that he loved so much he actually gained weight. 

Let me know if you have any more questions. I'll be thinking of you and your little guy. 

-KG


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## LisiMarie (Oct 18, 2011)

Thank you. He has been having issues with food for a very long time ie. eating fairly well then having no appetite for days. Hence the weight loss. He has gone from 13# to 11# since Nov. Tonight (and today with 4 vomitings) has been rough, he is very restless. Ever since he work up today he was acting weird...restless, going in my closet, trying to go under my bed. This evening hes been more antsy and more restless...keeps jumping on sofa with me, then jumping off and laying at my feet, then going to his bed and digging in it for a while,lays down to only get back up and jump on sofa with me within a matter of minutes. His dr appt is tomorrow ar 9am and that can't get here soon enough. It's going to be a long night if he keeps up this restlessness. He will sit up and just look at me like he is trying to tell me what's wrong. I don't know if he is just uncomfortable, or hurting or what! :-(


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## MyDogsCallMeMa'am (Jun 3, 2014)

Back in 2003, we adopted Molly, a MinPin/Chihuahua mix, from an Adopt-A-Thon at a local pet supermarket. She was two years old at the time. I made an appointment with our regular vet to have Molly checked out. That's when we found out that she had luxating patellas, and that she had demodectic mange and we would have to pay $80 per week for I don't remember how many weeks (6? 8?) for medication and shampoo treatments. She also needed all shots updated, so that visit cost about $180. Then the $80 per week for the mange. Once that was treated, we boosted her vaccinations as suggested, then we opted to have her get the knee surgery she rather obviously needed once the vet pointed it out. (She was a very happy, bouncy girl who wanted to wiggle in your lap and be petted, so we hadn't noticed that she barely put weight on her back legs and had a chest like Lou Ferrigno from doing so). So that surgery cost us just under $4,000. I picked her up from the surgery, where they sent her home with pain meds and said to keep her kenneled and calm for 2 MONTHS while she healed. Well, she was still quite happy and wiggly and I had to carry her outside to use the bathroom, where I found out she very easily walked on only her front legs and kept her back legs off the ground by 4 inches! She was doing great! At first. One day while working, my husband called to say that the dog was acting crazy in her kennel. I said she must be feeling much better already, but not to let her out because it had only been 2-3 weeks. He called again a few minutes later and said she was acting like there was a snake in her cage trying to kill her. I said to take her the the vet. He called while in the vet waiting room to say she was hyper sensitive to sound. A car horn, the car door shutting, she would collapse into a seizure of sorts. He then called me an hour later to say the vet was keeping her overnight. Well, our vet called me the next day to tell me that she had Distemper. I asked if it could be treated and he said, "Well, it could... if she didn't also have a liver shunt." After explaining what it is, and how unusual for her to have survived to this age without treatment, I asked if the shunt could be treated. He said, "Well, it could have... if she didn't have distemper." So, the vaccinations weren't being filtered into her system, so they weren't protecting her. The pain medication wasn't being filtered, so it was slowly poisoning her. I had to make the decision to come in and say goodbye to her. She could hardly stand to hear me speak, she was so far gone by then. Hysterically terrified, convulsing, trembling. It was AWFUL. I'll never forget it.


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## LisiMarie (Oct 18, 2011)

First of all I am so sorry to read about Molly. How terrible for you, I'm so sorry for your loss.
Quick update of my little guy....diagnosed with liver shunt 4/25/14 and surgery for repair with ameroid constrictor 5/15/14. He has gained over two pounds and doing great. He will have blood work at the 6 week mark post surgery and I'm hoping all will be well. He is on neomycin and lactulose 3 times a day and eating ld hepatic food , which he loves. I hope his bile acid test comes back good and he will eventually be weaned off the meds.


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