Marina came into our lives at the tender age of 8 weeks January 2001. She immediately stole our hearts with her sweetness and fun loving ways. She has never met a stranger. Everyone falls into the category of friend and deserves a good sloppy doggie kiss. She is the typical Yorkie, very smart, stubborn and wants things her way. Marina appeared to be in perfect health running and playing hard with her human sister until the young age of 2.5. Marina became ill with seizures, loss of appetite, drinking excessive amounts of water, sleeping for long periods of time, vomiting whenever she did eat, none of the behaviors were normal for her. After numerous tests, she was diagnosed with a liver shunt. A liver shunt is a heredity disease in small-bred animals, especially Yorkies, which before I knew nothing about until her veterinarian first mentioned it as a possible cause for her change in behavior. I don’t really know whom to blame for all this. I don’t know if the breeder knew about the possibility of Marina and her siblings having liver shunt. I took Marina to a reputable veterinarian for a check up, but he never did any blood work or performed the all-critical Bile Acid Test. He gave Marina a clean bill of health. So I took my precious pooch home to love and spoil. Marina is a very important part of my family. She is very well loved. I now know that a simple Bile Acid Test would have saved me from the anger, hurt and pain I feel now. It pains me greatly to see her now. It hurts my heart to hold her in my arms while her little body is being whacked by a seizure, knowing there is nothing I can do. It pains me greatly to sit and hold her down and force food down her throat when she does not want to eat or take her medicines. Marina now must take special medicines daily and maintain a low protein diet because of her condition. The only way to correct this problem is with expensive surgery. When I purchased Marina, I expected to get a dog that would live a long healthy life. What I have is a very young dog that is very ill and will die a slow and painful death unless it has surgery to correct the liver shunt. Marina’s symptoms can be medically managed for a while but without surgery, her liver would slowly shiver up and she would die from liver failure. Marina will get her surgery at a tremendous financial cost to my family, and with the help of a great organization that is dedicated to helping liver shunt babies. But what about the other Marina’s out there who don’t have such great support? What about all the beautiful and loved fur children of families who can’t afford the life saving surgery? What do we do with all the breeders who ignore or don’t care about the heartache they cause by continuing to breed the producers of this heredity problem all in the name of money? You see, Marina had 3 other siblings in her litter, what has happened to them? I can’t tell you how many more litters her parents have produced since I purchased her. Everyone, not just breeders need to be educated on this terrible problem so that it can be stopped and no more families have to standby helplessly and watch their little bundle of joy suffer needlessly.