My puppy died from liver shunt. Should I worry about my other puppy?

With a liver shunt the puppy will not thrive and eventually will die, especially since he already has severe clinical signs of illness. The liver is the main detoxification organ of the body and when it does not work properly the body slowly poisons itself and will die. So surgery is highly recommended provided there is not already serious damage. I am sorry, that the news is not so good.

This sounds like Coco may now have acquired portosystemic shunts. These shunts form to bypass the liver when blood pressure through the liver becomes too high. Unfortunately these shunts cannot be surgically corrected and managing symptoms with medications is the only treatment option. I'm so sorry about Coco's diagnosis. Hopefully you can get some guidance from her veterinarians about what to expect.

Hello, I am very sorry to hear about your Alfie. It does sound that your puppy had liver disease, likely liver shunts. This is almost always a surgical condition. We do not recommend surgery only if it is technically impossible to do. Feeding special diets, giving antibiotics or lactulose it only complementary treatment. It is not possible to bring up a healthy dog with liver shunts only by giving special diet. Finally, it is not uncommon to recommend euthanasia for sick, poorly, seizuring puppies. Some of them just do not give much hope for a healthy life despite all intensive treatment and procedures we can provide. Please, accept again my condolence on your loss.

Congratulations on your new baby! He is adorable! The most common tests we start with to evaluate for liver shunts are baseline labwork (which includes a full chemistry, complete blood count and urinalysis) as well as a pre and post prandial bile acid profile. The bile acid profile is to specifically look at the liver function. Any of those tests results are available within a couple of days. Unfortunately, sometimes those test results are inconclusive, and we have to do additional testing. I have included a link below with more information about liver shunts. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2533 Good luck! I hope that was helpful! Thanks for using PetCoach.

I am sorry to hear about your puppy. In a puppy that size we do worry about hypoglycemia, which can present with these symptoms. A severe liver shunt, a cardiac defect, and a toxicity would also be suspected. If you have other puppies I would recommend getting a necropsy done on the puppy who died to try to help identify the underlying cause in case it is something you need to monitor in the other puppies.

I'm sorry to hear that! It really depends on the severity of the shunt and what kinds of symptoms she's showing, so this would be a good question to discuss with your veterinarian - but in general, surgery is strongly recommended for dogs with liver shunts who are having neurologic symptoms. Medication and diet are usually not sufficient to control their symptoms without surgery.

There is really very little sense in speculating. Even a positive bile acid test will not definitively diagnose a portosystemic shunt. Only advanced imaging techniques can capture this condition. Alkaline phosphatase is an enzyme that is sometime utilized to support diagnoses of the liver and bile duct system. However, alone the number doesn't tell us much particularly in a young and from what it sounds like otherwise healthy puppy. The elevation you mentioned is also very mild, and we frequently see elevations in this enzyme in young growing animals. Just as it is found in the liver, it is also found in the bones which is why it is elevated during the time that pups are getting larger. I obviously don't know the whole situation and there is always the possibility your dog could have a shunt. However, so far you have given me no reason to suspect a serious problem. Please feel from to obtain a consult if you want to discuss the case in any greater detail.