Oliver's Story

We adopted Oliver when he was 5 months old in July of 2008. He was very playful, kind of picky to eat and very skinny. Once we got him, he started to look better, became more playful, and started eating a little better.

As I knew he had come from a pet store, therefore also from a puppy mill, I scheduled a Bile Acid Levels test. Sure enough his numbers were very high, leaning towards Liver Shunt.

We wanted to go to the best so we immediately scheduled an appointment with Dr. Karen Tobias at the Small Animal Clinic of the Veterinary College of the University of Tennessee. We already knew the routine since our Julie had also been diagnosed with Liver Shunt back in 2001. Dr. Tobias operated on her and she has been doing wonderfully ever since.

Like Julie, Oliver had one extra hepatic shunt diagnosed with a Scintigraphy (nuclear scan) and had the Ameroid ring put on his shunt. He is also doing wonderfully. As Oliver also has MVD, we will keep him on a low protein diet. Fortunately, there are more options nowadays and there are brands of food that Oliver loves. And of course he loves his steamed veggies and fresh fruits I give him daily.