![]() abnormal, shouldn’t be there) blood vessel. That abnormal “pipe” that bypassed your pet’s liver (goes around the liver rather than through it) is called a shunt. In the case of blood, a portion of the blood in the vein (the portal vein) that carries absorbed nutrients from your pet’s intestines would miss a vital step in detoxification that occurs in its liver and its liver would also be partially starved of nutrients. In the case of plumbing, the hot water would be cooler than it should be. If a small pipe with a slightly higher pressure jumped from the cold to the hot water side of the system bypassing the hot water heater ( think liver) water would still come out of both faucets. You could roughly compare the situation to your house’s plumbing system. At that point, your pet is often suffering from some degree of hepatic encephalopathy. Diagnosis becomes more obvious when organs start to fail or when your dog or cat’s mental status begins to deteriorate. Hepatic shunts are both hard to diagnose and hard to fix. Others are easy to diagnose and hard to fix. Some health problems your veterinarian deals with are easy to diagnose and easy to fix. If it’s still unclear, let me know and I’ll try to walk you through it. If you want a more detailed, scientific explanation with lots of obscure medical terms, follow the article links that I have added. I’ll do my best to keep it as simple as I can. This is quite a complicated article because it deals with a complicated problem. If you have come to this page, it is probably because your veterinarian told you that he/she suspects this could be your dog or cat’s problem. Hepatic Encephalopathy, Pet Owner ExperienceĬlick or tap on me for a fanciful Image of a simple extrahepatic (outside the liver) shunt Hepatic Encephalopathy, A Possible Outcome Of Liver Shunts Portosystemic vascular anomalies (PSVA) and portacaval shunt And also a similar disease: microvascular dysplasia ( MVD) of the liver Ron Hines DVM PhD A Problem With Far Too Many Names: Aka: PSS, Liver Shunts, Hepatic Shunts, Congenital Portosystemic Shunt (CPSS)
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