Comments on: Record Adoptions and Liver Shunts in Dogs and Cats

By: sally

sally — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:59:51 +0000

Summer, If you go with diet and medication alone you would not be fixing the problem. The liver would not be getting proper blood supply and would keep shrinking and malfunctioning with time. Since your dog is only 2yrs old i would consider surgery (if she has an extrahepatic shunt). My 5yr old dog was recently diagnosed with what they believe is an extrahepatic shunt and she will have surgery in 2wks. i am still scared because she is older but i think it is worth taking the risk. DogLiver Disease group from yahoo is good.

By: Summer

Summer — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:51:41 +0000

Are there any alternatives or hopes for healing a liver shunt? My almost 2 yr old chihuahuas was just diagnosed with PSS. I’m not convinced surgery is the answer. Would welcome any feedback via email.

By: Tania Triantafyllou

Tania Triantafyllou — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:56:34 +0000

Please i need help!! My 5 years old shih tzu has liver shunt and also heart murmur. My husband is not willing to pay for his surgery.. Martha, please e-mail me so i can talk to you. Maybe you are able to help me. Thank you

By: debra koch

debra koch — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:28:42 +0000

yorkie with liver shunt. I cannot afford surgery but since I put her on science diet prescription KD (we could not find ld) she has returned to perfectly normal and is happy as can be. If I do this and the milk thisle and lactalose(or do I need that) could I even hope that she will live a healthy life and be ok?????

By: Martha

Martha — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:25:14 +0000

I have a 15 year old Lurcher who was diagnosed with a liver shunt in 2003 when he collapsed and went into liver failure.
The vet initially was guarded and did not give any hope for long term success, but I was not to be put off.
The vet gave us a low fat, low protein diet-1c cooked rice,1c greenbeans cooked, 1/2c cottage cheese, 1 T corn oil, 2 T bonemeal, garlic powder to taste, fresh ground flax seeds.
We switched to using only filtered water for the dogs.
The vet prescribed Destolit (ursodeoxycholic acid) 2 @ 150mg/day.
The plan was to feed small meals throughout the day so as not to over stress his system.
From that base I started to do research into natural supplements that would help boost his immune system and help his liver.
I went into the vet’s with a list of what I felt would be helpful and he just said he was only a conventional vet and if I wanted to take a chance we could see what happens-he also asked how many trees I killed copying off information on alternative measures(good naturely).
Milk thistle 175mg(no less than 140mg of silymarin) was one of my main choices as well as lecithin granules 1t 3x day.
(If someone wanted to contact me for more info on my supplement routine they can email me.)
Initially we were doing regular bile fasting tests and each time you would see an improvement in his liver enzymes and a drop in his cholesterol, which I hadn’t thought about happening.
To end the tale Winston is still with us and almost as lively as his 3yr. old labrador sister.
He is also able to eat a more diversified diet as long as one pays attention.
I opted out of the invasive biopsy because he was too poorly at the time to undergo more than the xray and ultrasound.
On surgery the vet said that he felt if we fiddled with the present shunt another or others would develop so surgery was not an option for us and he wanted to be conservative based on his age at the time.
There always is hope and many options to work with, lots of us have experienced something you are just beginning to experience and we are all willing to share our knowledge based on what we have learned and now Dr.AJ has his new material hot off the press!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:08:43 +0000

My Yorkie was diagnosed with a liver shunt last year around this time and I just had an ultrasound done on her last week to confirm that this is true. I have been giving her Lactolose and K/D dog food for the past year and she has only had a few seizures. Her shunt is on the outside of her liver not inside so she can have surgery, but I wanted to exhaust any other options first. I have been told that the surgery costs around $3000-$5000, def NOT $13,000. I was also referred to Garden State Veterinary Specialists in Tinton Falls, NJ. Please do not give up hope on your Yorkie, there is hope!! I am doing a lot of research on this now and I will do anything to save my baby.

By: mariane Avila

mariane Avila — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:48:08 +0000

Is there any funding out there for a dog that needs a shunt surgery?

I recently had my dog (Amber) examined by our vet as she began having seizure recently. The fist one was last March and our vet did not believe it was anything to be concerned about. During the past few months she began having more regular seizures. We again took her back to our vet to checked again. He did a bile acid concentration test on her and found high levels, therefore coming to conclusion that she has a shunt. He told us to get on the internet and start looking for research universities to perform surgery. He also told us it could be upward to $13,000.00. We had rescued this puppy when she was 12 weeks old from a breeder that constantly breed her yorkies. We took two puppies 12 weeks old, the male breeder and the female breeder. The female breeder was pregnant and had to have surgery, upward of $3,000.00 because the puppies two puppies were dead inside of her. During surgery our vet spayed her and four puppies survived.

Our vet told us that if this shunt it no surgerically repaired, we must but our 3 years old yorkie down. We do not have near $13,000.00 for this of surgery. To look at Amber, she looks like a healthy, happy puppy. We are seeking out a second opinion this week and will then begin our search for for research university to perform the surgery.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, Marianne Avila, 8 Grand Avenue, Newton, New Jersey 07860 973-579-6115.

I am also in process of starting a web page for donation for dogs that have this problem. If we cannot help our little yorkie, maybe we can help others who cannot afford surgery.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:38:13 +0000

I have a 6 month old kitten that has PSS. Surgery for her is not an option. I’ve been feeding her Hills Prescription Diet L/D canned food. Can you recommend other foods that I could feed her? I don’t really think it’s good for her to eat canned food all the time. Is there a dry food that I could feed her?