A little too close, but still cute!
Originally uploaded by Adventures In Trucking

Cindy took Willie in to get fixed and they called back to say they couldn’t do the surgery because there was something wrong with his blood work results. The Vet was concerned Willie might have a Porto-systemic Shunt (PSS), here’s more and more. (This site is very good and informative but really sad reading the questions from people to a Vet about their sick pets.) It’s a birth defect of the blood vessels around the liver and is a problem during surgery because it causes a sensitivity to sedatives.

The Vet wanted to keep Willie for observation and more tests before and after he eats to check out his liver. We wanted a second opinion. We got a copy of the lab results and took Willie home. The Vet Assistants told us he looked so scared and hid back in the corner of his cage the entire time. We were so sad for him and wanted to take him out of there right away! Enough stress for one day.

After a bunch of research on the Internet, I’m not sure he has it, but I’m not sure he doesn’t either. He’s not depressed and he doesn’t have a problem gaining weight, he gained two pounds since his last Vet visit. He doesn’t press his head against the wall or the ground, siezures or loss of appetite but he does pee a lot.

He has one symptom out of half a dozen and his lab work has only one thing abnormal, where a liver shunt may cause several readings to be abnormal.

Now What?

When we go to Minnesota we are going to take Willie to Cindy’s Mom’s Vet for a second opinion. The only problem is in order to be completely sure, dye has to be injected and a X-rays taken to trace the die around the liver. It sounds very invasive and not very pain free. For now, another blood test and there’s also tests they can do before and after he eats that may indicate liver problems.

If he does? There’s a good percentage that it’s fixed by surgery. Rerouting a blood vessel to the liver isn’t a cheap procedure. But he’s fine right now, we just can’t get him fixed, and I’m not sure the world can handle any more little Willies. There’s no set life expectancy if he does have it, So, until he starts showing symptoms, I’m not sure we want to do anything till then.