03/05/2007 03:12
From: Karen M
Tobias
Subject
: Angel Fund
Update..03/05/07
We are not doing any more
breeding studies. We just
finished spaying and
castrating
all of our breeding animals
and their pups and obtained
liver
biopsies
from them. Although the
two most recent pups had
normal bile
acids
at 6 weeks of age, they were
slighlty increased at 6
months of age
( one
was 14 and 9, the
other 9 and 38) and both had
MVD. Their mother
Trouble had a nearly normal
liver (still some mild
changes) 1.5 years after
surgery
, which is good for a shunt
dog.
All of the folks that have
contacted us lately have
wanted to donate dogs
for
breeding; I told them that
the breeding study has
ended. I am asking
them
to contact YTNR or other
rescue agencies so that more
experienced
folks
can deal with the screening
of potential adoptive
parents and a
wider
placement pool.
We've currently got 3
projects:
1. Response of small breed
dogs to steroids after shunt
ligation. This is
because
some of the dogs- especially
the tiny Yorkies- are having
signs of
low
cortisol (stress hormones)
after surgery, leading to
slower recovery
and
poor blood sugar control.
The preliminary work was
supported by the
Angel Fund; the major study
has been funded by the AKC.
2. DNA collection on shunt
Yorkies that have a normal
sibling. The
sibling
must have normal bile acids
(less than 5 and less than
10, or less
than
10 and less than 15,
depending on the lab). We
are freezing samples
from
both. This is being
supported by the Angel Fund.
3. Liver tissue evaluation
on Yorkies with normal bile
acids,
and any
shunt
dog 4 or more months after
shunt surgery. We recently
received
biopsy
results on a healthy Yorkie
puppy with bile acids 14 and
9 that had
microvascular
dysplasia on the liver
biopsy. Previously we
would have
considered
these bile acids normal for
a Yorkie (though our normals
are
less
than 10 and less than 15).
We had a Maltese that only
had fed bile
acids
(they were 2); this dog
also had microvascular
dysplasia on liver
biopsies
. I'm working with a
Tennessee practitioner that
sees alot of pet
Yorkies; she will hopefully
be providing me with samples
from Yorkie
with
normal
bile acids. We'll offer free
spays or castrations to our
shunt
owners
if they'd like to come back
to us. This is being
supported by the
Angel Fund.
You're welcome to forward
this info on to anyone.
Karen