Liver shunts cause serious and sometimes fatal outcomes in dogs. A liver shunt, or portosystemic shunt, is a normal fetal blood vessel that in the womb bypasses liver tissue, allowing the mother’s system to filter out toxins for the developing baby. In some animals, however, the shunt remains open after the animal is born, compromising its liver function, slowing growth, and eventually resulting in death of many affected animals. Congenital portosystemic shunts may be repaired with traditional surgical approaches, but a technique developed at the University of Tennessee several years ago implants an ameroid constrictor, a tiny C-shaped piece of metal ring. The constrictor fits around the shunt, causing it to slowly shut down over several weeks. Dogs receiving this method of surgical repair generally have a shorter surgery and fewer postoperative complications than traditional methods.
Dr. Karen Tobias has performed many successful surgeries to correct liver shunts in yorkies and has dedicated much of her research to identifying a genetic marker that will make it possible for all breeders of Yorkshire Terriers to be able to know, in advance, what dogs and bitches are carrying the disease and therefore avoid breeding to them and to intelligently remove them all from all breeding programs. To date, studies have conclusively shown this disease to be hereditary in Yorkshire Terriers, Cairn Terriers and Irish Wolfhounds.
In 1999, Dr. Karen Tobias began an epidemiologic study of Yorkshire Terriers and other dogs with shunt at 24 Veterinary Teaching Hospitals and a pedigree analysis of Yorkshire Terriers with single congenital portosystemic shunts (PSS). Her objectives were:
1. to determine the risk of development of single congenital PSS in Yorkshire Terriers;
2. to prove that congenital PSS are hereditary in this breed;
3. to determine the mode of inheritance of this disease in Yorkshire Terriers;
4. to determine which other breeds have the greatest risk of being diagnosed with PSS.
Through this research Dr. Tobias showed that single congenital liver shunts were inherited in Yorkshire Terriers; however, the mode of inheritance has yet to be determined. Many other breeds are also at great risk for development of this birth defect. Fortunately, the disease is surgically correctable in most of patients, but surgery requires great financial and emotional investment from the pets' owners.
Through generous donations by breeders and animal lovers, Dr. Tobias has been able to start a "colony of shunt dogs" to be used for breeding. After their shunts have been surgically corrected, these dogs are placed in loving homes and will be bred to each other when they reach an appropriate age and size. Puppies produced by the breedings will be evaluated for liver shunts, treated as needed, and adopted into our veterinary community. We hope that this breeding program will help us determine the mode of inheritance of this disease, so that future breeders can make educated decisions on how best to eliminate the disease from their gene pool.
Please help us continue to search for the cause and cure of this disease by considering a financial donation to this fund.
Donations should be sent to:
University of Tennessee
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences
C247 Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Knoxville, TN 37996-4544
Checks should be made payable to:
THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
Indicate that the donation is for the ANGEL FUND
For more information on congenital portosystemic shunts, see our web site at:
Liver Shunt can strike any breed, Please help us fight this dreaded disease. Your Tax deductable donations to the UT Angel Fund will not only go along way to help reaearch but it will also honor a great lady who lived and died fighting Liver Shunt. Please help make Terri Shumsky's dream come true. Terri is gone but.....what she did to help fight this dreaded disease will continue thru your support of the "Angel Fund"
Terri's words below, how and why TSFMLS came to be in 2003
Terri Shumsky, pictured here with her husband John, who also left us on the same day.
Terri and John may you both be happy together at "Rainbow's Bridge" with all our Yorkies who awaitied your arrival. They knew their Angel would join them.
Terri came to this earth on February 12, 1935
she left us to soon on
March 26, 2005
Click on this link to see what and who Terri Shumsky was.
She will be in our hearts forever
"In 1986 Fanny Mae, died in my arms at 18 weeks with a shrunken atrophied liver. At that time, none of my
vets knew what it was. As soon as we were aware of what it was and the "possibility" that it was hereditary
because the sire had thrown it two out of four in a friend's litter also, I removed all the siblings and Champion
relatives from my breeding program and have been careful to stay away from these lines ever since. I have not
seen one single case of Liver Shunt in my breeding since that time. Recently I have been approached by pet
people who have bought a puppy later diagnosed with liver shunt and have been given sometimes quotes for
surgery in the thousands of $$$. In some cases, the breeders have refused to make a refund to help with the
surgery and in other cases, the cost of the surgery and the care made it a difficult choice for them and they had
no choice but to put their pet down."
"There's always the possibility that this can happen the first time to any breeder.
Hey, there was a first time for me too!! It's not SHAME ON YOU for
"having the problem", but it is SHAME ON YOU if you, as a breeder,
don't take steps to see it doesn't happen again."
Terri Shumsky
Founder of "The Original Terri Shumsky Fanny Mae Liver Shunt Fund" 2003
