I hope that with the arrival of the new grandbaby, good things keep on coming your way from now on!! Congratulations to the granddaughter and have a wonderful time. It is so special the first time you hold that precious grandchild. I was fortunate and was there at the birth of my first grandson. The second one I almost had to deliver myself hahahaha But I did see the head come before the ambulance took off with them. Lucy

@Zande Willson Yes, the post op no running, no walkies, no stairs etc were tough! But my Whisper recovered surprisingly fast too. They said they cut as little muscle as possible with that long belly incision. If your friend’s dog was experiencing symptoms from the shunt before surgery I imagine his energy & appetite would’ve improved. My dog was asymptomatic & her ammonia levels weren’t high. Some dogs have seizures from too high ammonia levels in blood. Yorkies are now one of the breeds that these congenital shunts are showing up in quite often. The challenge is that having a very young puppy bile acid tested won’t always reveal that the shunt exists. I learned that mammals have the shunts until they’re born when they’re supposed to close off naturally. The problem arises when they don’t close completely. While in utero the mother’s liver cleans their blood. At the very least all small dogs should be bile acid tested before they are bred. This would prevent a ”shunt’ dog from being bred. The non-closure issue of the shunt is a genetic defect but not known if it’s a heritable defect. No research has yet been able to identify a gene the defect is linked to so they aren’t able to test a dog for it as they’re able to do with other heritable defects.

I don't know either. Raven you have my prayers for a successful surgery and complete and fast recovery. I hope she can ck in before her surgery. Also after her surgery when she feels up to.

I just had cataract surgery and now have the Toric lenses. I was given a choice of three different options. The first option was basic that Medicare would cover. I'd still need glasses for distance and to read. I had astigmatism and my ophthalmologist surgeon said he could correct it with Toric lenses so I wouldn't need glasses for distance. $4,440 out of pocket for both eyes. He said I may still readers. It turned out my vision is now 20/20 and I don't need glasses at all. After I had each eye done two weeks apart, I couldn't read for two days afterwards. Apparently the back and forth motion of your pupils can dislodge the lens. After those first two days I was back to reading. I also had "dropless" cataract surgery. I would have needed to use 3-4 different eyedrops five times a day. No thanks. Instead, I had the medicine in all those drops put in during the procedure, for a slow release. I then only had one drop to put in daily. Overall, I'm loving not having to wear glasses. My procedure was uneventful. It's amazing how much brighter everything is. I always thought my ceiling is an off white. Removing those clouded lenses and now my ceiling looks white. The difference in colors and the brightness is amazing.