Whisper's Pedigree

To Whom It May Concern:
This is my plea to any dog breeder that is continuing to breed a line that you know has liver shunt disease in their past and for any dog breeder who has not acknowledged guilt in any way but knows  there may be a problem in the line they are breeding from.  I would hope that you would read this true story with compassion and make whatever changes are necessary in your breeding plans.

My little dog, Whisper, would have been 7 years old 6/28/02.  I purchased her from a dog breeder of many years experience who had failing health and died approximately 4 months after I purchased this dear little dog.  I was never told anything about health problems.  She was underfed and only weighed 3.9 lbs. When I got her.  She had no hair on her ears and the tip of her tail looked like a rat.   I purchased her in July 2001.   She had been bred, had one puppy, which died, and so the breeder didn’t want to keep her anymore.  I took her to the vet, had her spayed, gave her nutrients, babied  and loved her and eventually her coat came in beautiful and her ears were soft and furry in time.  Her weight went from 3.9 to 5 lb.  However, in March of 2002, she had a “fit”???  I took her to the vet.  He didn’t find anything.  Then in April, I witnessed a full “seizure”.  She was foaming at the mouth…. Unable to stand, legs going in every direction… eyes fixed and it was evident that she was in pain as she struggled on the floor, while I tried to comfort her.  My vet then ran a “bile acid test” and found that her count was 250 when a normal count would nave been around 5.  I was referred to a specialist.  This was not her only problem.   Her kidney had two large kidney stones, which are typical of liver problems.   Now we had two major problems but without trying to save her with surgery, her prognosis was that she would start seizuring more and would within months be so sick I would have to put her to sleep.  When the Specialist, Dr Vogt, opened her up, her liver was all but completely atrophied.  I had no choice but to let her slip away under the anesthesia.  It broke my heart.  But when the doctor advised that she did have the inherited liver shunt and it was outside the liver and if she had been brought to him before the liver was in the final stages, she would have had an 80% recovery as an older dog and a 90-95% recovery as a puppy.  I  don’t think I will ever get over that!!!!!

She only weighed 4.7  pounds the day of her surgery.  She was a joy to have in our home.  She finally got a good home where she was spoiled on a daily basis and to lose such a little angel due to neglect of breeder and her prior owner’s attention or concern is just unacceptable to me!  Dr Vogt’s Discharge Instructions note that “BREEDING ANIMALS WITH THIS DISEASE OR THEIR PARENTS IS NOT RECOMMENDED!!!!!

I am not a dog breeder.  I am a broken hearted dog lover.   ONLY THE BREEDERS CAN DO SOMETHING TO DECREASE THIS PROBLEM.  Dog Breeders must help Doctors like Dr Tobias to find a marker to breed this out of the Yorkie breed as well as other breeds.  Please, please do not let any more little dogs suffer for no good reason.  God created dog the same as he created man.  I believe that he created dog to give us love and bring our hearts joy.  Should we not give them the same love and joy.  Please help this precious breed to not suffer when it is not necessary.  Please be honest and do not just simply bury your head in the sand by not doing follow up calls on all your puppies if you are a dog breeder.

I would think that a good dog breeder would happily state on any bill of sale “Should this puppy develop inherited conditions including liver shunt during it’s lifetime, I will refund the price you paid for this puppy and you may keep the dog.  I also believe that dog breeders should insist that part of the veterinary exam for their new puppy be a “bile acid” test.  I believe that the AKC could and should consider having an area on all registrations where an owner can state what the dog died from.

This way AKC would have a record of how many inherited diseases a certain line was producing and they might be able to stop bad breeding.  I would think  they could catalog what breeders seem to have genetic problems more often than others from Liver shunt or other inheritable diseases if there was a place on the certificate to note what the dog  died from  accompanied by a medical diagnosis.

I know that nothing is 100%, but Excellence should be the trademark of AKC.

Penny Sanders-Susany
Columbiana, Ohio 44408