Liver Shunt

 Are you doing the fun lactulose every 8 hrs?  Milk thistle and Denosyl or SamE?

Emma had "probably microscopic" shunts, as a puppy. Nothing showed, on ultrasound, but the numbers were consistant with shunts. She was treated with only diet and medication, and she fully recovered, which I've heard isn't generally the case. Her numbers have been great, for years.  I'm still watchful, and careful of her liver, and I always will be.

Lactulose is cheap but it IS a laxative -- it binds to the toxins that collect in the brain and helps them exit the body -- and it's the toxins that shunt to the brain that make them *feel* so nauseated.  So you don't want to give LOTS of lactulose - but 3 times a day is better than a bigger dose twice a day.  It *will* make diarreha -- so you may want to add something to the diet to firm things up (like even a bit of boiled milk -- Jennie could tell you better.)

I've been using Cell Food Sam e on Tink and Billy.  It's a bit cheaper than the pills (and it's a drop so you just drop it on the food which may be easier). Sam E is expensive ... the foil wrapped caplets are about $30 or better.  The Cell Food one is $41.95 for a small bottle but it lasts longer than the capsules (nearly twice as long).

Milk thistle is relatively benign -- it doesn't have much taste.  So you can actually just use the powder rather than the capsules and again just add it to the food (not kibble but anything damp).  It's WAY cheaper that way.  I can get you a whole  POUND of milk thistle powder at Leaves and Roots for about $12.50 -- that's about as much as 4-5 bottles of capsules or more and it's an excellent quality (I figured out the other day it was about $50 or $60 worth of capsules without the capsule.)

 yes...my pekingese used to have a liver shunt. the surgery was very expensive but its worth it. the vet pretty much wrapped a metal ring around the shunt. it was a special kind of ring that gradually got smaller and smaller until it completely contstricted the blood vessel so the liver could adjust to the change in blood flow. good luck with that...i know its a pain to deal with.

Thanks for the info - I sorta forgot about this post for a while!

He is on lactulous - three times a day, as well as a few other medications for infection and seizures. He's no longer at my house - but in another foster home where he's doing very well.

My question NOW is about his food. Does anyone have any expierence with the sd's L/D food? That's all he is eating right now - my understanding was that it was FORMULATED so it was easier to digest for the liver - and it wasn't the ingredients, per say, that were the biggest issue. We are planning on talking to our food lady and seeing if she has anything comparable, but I wanted to see if anyone had a better knowledge about the food first.

 I did not feed L/D. I did the Dodds liver diet, which sort of worked, then ended up on somebody's tofu and rice diet, which was great, for a really long time. The dog before Emma died, very young, of kidney malformations (yes, I pick 'em), so I was hell bent on the wettest diet possible.

I've looked at that - but the only problem is the dog is in a foster home. We are providing the food - and the foster is GREAT - but I don't know if she's able to do the homecooked, honestly. She's already providing some of meds - and of course - her house!

 Yeah.... I don't know the numbers, or the whys, but what about something like Holistique Blendz? Or Precise Light? Something nice and low protein. You'd have to check on the exact numbers, and the copper....

The canineliver-d list on yahoo is pretty UTD on foods. They'd be GREAT to ask.

Thanks - I'll mention those to our 'food lady'

I'm waiting for approval to join a liver shunt group on yahoo - but I'll check out that one too