WARNING: Please have a box of tissues handy.
Star's Story
I own one of the most beautiful and sweetest creatures that God ever put on the face of this earth. She has taught me compassion to an extent that I could never fathom before. She has taught me bravery that I never knew existed in animals. She has taught me to love beyond my wildest dreams and she will teach me heartache I have never known before. She is my heart, she is the light that shines so brightly in her eyes when she looks at me in gratitude for helping her through another spell. She is my little liver shunt baby that I know I will lose sooner than should be. She has too many shunts for surgery to fix. Five times I have sat through her spells holding her and crying over her not knowing if she will live through the night or not.
Jean Fritz of Mesquite, TX
"Star" passed 1/99 to rainbow bridge
Star was bred by:
Ann Wylie...Hylan Acres Yorkshire Terriers...Tatum Texas
Theodore's Story: Life of a Liver Shunt Yorkie
It was Labor Day, 1998, and we were about to return from a long weekend away with our children. We had talked on occasion about getting another Yorkie, to add to our family of two children and two Yorkies. We were within thirty minutes of the breeder where we had purchased our other two Yorkies, five years earlier, so we called the breeders to see what they had. This woman told me they had a very special little guy who was ready to go.
Bev Patronas
10-10-04
Our life with Theodore began four years ago today.. He was 8 weeks old at the time. He was a spunky, bright little boy with so much love to give. He did not know how to sit or stay, or what the word NO meant. He never did learn. Theo could do no wrong no matter how many times a day he peed on the floor. He never heard the word "BAD BOY". He only heard "good little boy," as he was the sweetest little soul on earth. He did know a few things though……he knew how to get his "baby" one of his many teddy bears, and he would throw it at my feet and bark, pick it up and run, and expect me to chase him. I always did. When I would tell Theo to come for the "ear luvies", he would run quickly to me and put his little head down so I could rub his ears. Sometimes till my fingers hurt. I loved to hold him up and kiss his little tummy. He would lick my eyelids each and every time. Every morning, Theo would chirp like a little bird when he wanted to get out of the back hall where he slept at night. He never barked, just chirped. I learned to get up on the first chirp, as each one would get progressively louder until he would wake the whole house. When he really had to get up to go potty outside he would make the most unforgettable noise. Like someone was pulling out his toe nails. The first time I heard this I about killed myself getting downstairs thinking he must have gotten his head caught in the gate, only to find a wiggly, squirmy, little boy, jumping like a jack in the box so happy to see me. He would smother me with kisses as I took him outside. Now, it was still predawn, so back to bed we would go, he would get to come upstairs in my bed for a snuggle till it was really time to get up. He would always cuddle up under my chin and I would wrap my arm around him to keep his safe, and he would lick my hand until he feel asleep. He was so precious to look at, I would always lean down and kiss the top of his head. If he wasn’t quite asleep, he would pop up and want to kiss me back. Not what I wanted at 4 a.m. I loved the feel of his breath on my neck, and I loved the smell and feel of his little chubby body. Even when he was smelling a bit funky. I loved him anyway. I loved how each and every time he went outside to go potty, he would be looking over his shoulder at me to make sure I saw him being a good boy. He did not want to miss his praise. He fought many battles with his liver shunt.. He always would win these battles. Yesterday, Theo lost the battle. There were no more miracles for us. My world will never be the same. I have lost part of who I am, part of my inner being. I needed Theo as much as he needed me. We had a connection that I don’t think anyone would quite understand. The sweetest little soul on earth is now the sweetest little soul in heaven. May the angels guard you my little one………till we meet again. Theo turned four years old in July, 2002.
Bev Patronas
Bogie
1996 - 2002
I had a beautiful little male named Bogie that died from liver complications. ( I've attached a picture of him for you to see). I purchased him from a show breeder, Colleen Sinor and Doug Sinor. I was given no health guarantee to speak of. I never dreamed that a reputable breeder would do business the way that she did. He had MVD and was also cryptorchid ( she informed me that they were down when she sold him, and that a lot of time they popped back up!) . The testicicles were located high in his abdomen and were retained. The liver problem didn't show up until he was 5. He began to have seizures and testing revealed elevated liver enzymes with a bile acid result of 176.6. We were heart broken. We fed him the liver diet, had him on 2 different medication for the seizures and spent close to 3,000 dollars to no avail. The seizures were never controlled. He would have them about every 7 days and then they would be cluster seizures, occuring about 6-8 hours apart. He would behave fairly normally during the interim . We were contemplating the next step, but not wanting to think about losing him when he died naturally in his sleep last spring. We do miss our little baby Bogie Horn!
Reisha Horn
“Microvascular dysplasia is microscopic changes in the liver that may cause blood to pass more quickly past the liver cells instead of slowly percolating by and through them. Dogs can have the same clinical signs and bloodwork changes as those with shunts, although more often the fed bile acids are not as high, the fasting bile acids are near normal, the albumin and blood urea nitrogen levels are normal, and the signs are less severe. Treatment includes low protein diets and lactulose, with or without antibiotics. Diagnosis is made by liver biopsy (the results of this are exactly the same as a shunt) and by proving that there is not a shunt. This disease is hereditary.
Note: Any liver disease can cause bile acids to go up and many medications (such as phenobarbital or steroids) can as well.
Dr. Tobias”
Whisper
To Whom It May Concern:
This is my plea to any dog breeder that is continuing to breed a line that you know has liver shunt disease in their past and for any dog breeder who has not acknowledged guilt in any way but knows there may be a problem in the line they are breeding from. I would hope that you would read this true story with compassion and make whatever changes are necessary in your breeding plans.
My little dog, Whisper, would have been 7 years old 6/28/02. I purchased her from a dog breeder of many years experience who had failing health and died approximately 4 months after I purchased this dear little dog. I was never told anything about health problems. She was underfed and only weighed 3.9 lbs. When I got her. She had no hair on her ears and the tip of her tail looked like a rat. I purchased her in July 2001. She had been bred, had one puppy, which died, and so the breeder didn’t want to keep her anymore. I took her to the vet, had her spayed, gave her nutrients, babied and loved her and eventually her coat came in beautiful and her ears were soft and furry in time. Her weight went from 3.9 to 5 lb. However, in March of 2002, she had a “fit”??? I took her to the vet. He didn’t find anything. Then in April, I witnessed a full “seizure”. She was foaming at the mouth…. Unable to stand, legs going in every direction… eyes fixed and it was evident that she was in pain as she struggled on the floor, while I tried to comfort her. My vet then ran a “bile acid test” and found that her count was 250 when a normal count would nave been around 5. I was referred to a specialist. This was not her only problem. Her kidney had two large kidney stones, which are typical of liver problems. Now we had two major problems but without trying to save her with surgery, her prognosis was that she would start seizuring more and would within months be so sick I would have to put her to sleep. When the Specialist, Dr Vogt, opened her up, her liver was all but completely atrophied. I had no choice but to let her slip away under the anesthesia. It broke my heart. But when the doctor advised that she did have the inherited liver shunt and it was outside the liver and if she had been brought to him before the liver was in the final stages, she would have had an 80% recovery as an older dog and a 90-95% recovery as a puppy. I don’t think I will ever get over that!!!!!
She only weighed 4.7 pounds the day of her surgery. She was a joy to have in our home. She finally got a good home where she was spoiled on a daily basis and to lose such a little angel due to neglect of breeder and her prior owner’s attention or concern is just unacceptable to me! Dr Vogt’s Discharge Instructions note that “BREEDING ANIMALS WITH THIS DISEASE OR THEIR PARENTS IS NOT RECOMMENDED!!!!!
I am not a dog breeder. I am a broken hearted dog lover. ONLY THE BREEDERS CAN DO SOMETHING TO DECREASE THIS PROBLEM. Dog Breeders must help Doctors like Dr Tobias to find a marker to breed this out of the Yorkie breed as well as other breeds. Please, please do not let any more little dogs suffer for no good reason. God created dog the same as he created man. I believe that he created dog to give us love and bring our hearts joy. Should we not give them the same love and joy. Please help this precious breed to not suffer when it is not necessary. Please be honest and do not just simply bury your head in the sand by not doing follow up calls on all your puppies if you are a dog breeder.
I would think that a good dog breeder would happily state on any bill of sale “Should this puppy develop inherited conditions including liver shunt during it’s lifetime, I will refund the price you paid for this puppy and you may keep the dog. I also believe that dog breeders should insist that part of the veterinary exam for their new puppy be a “bile acid” test. I believe that the AKC could and should consider having an area on all registrations where an owner can state what the dog died from.
This way AKC would have a record of how many inherited diseases a certain line was producing and they might be able to stop bad breeding. I would think they could catalog what breeders seem to have genetic problems more often than others from Liver shunt or other inheritable diseases if there was a place on the certificate to note what the dog died from accompanied by a medical diagnosis.
I know that nothing is 100%, but Excellence should be the trademark of AKC.
Penny Sanders-Susany
Columbiana, Ohio 44408
