Enlarged Liver

[Mikiskye]

Hello, I'm new to the forum. My 11 year old sheltie Skye, suddenly lost weight over the last month. The vet felt her liver and said it was enlarged so he did an x-ray and her liver is enlarged. Her blood work shows a slight elevation in some enzymes but nothing much. He said the next step would be to do an ultrasound. I found a thread about this from May. Would anyone have suggstions.

[BarbV]

Welcome to my world!

First question: What blood work did your vet do? There are a number of blood tests that are a prerequisite before you go into more invasive diagnoses. A dog can have a temporarily enlarged liver if they are coming off some kind of infection, or ate something really bad.

Here are the things that your vet should be testing for before getting into expensive ultrasounds:

Bile Acids - Should be tested both pre-fast and post-fast
Albumin
ALT
ALS
Total Protein

That's kinda the minimum to determine if more diagnosis is required.

My Bacca just had his bloodwork redone. His levels are bad enough to now warrant an ultrashound, and perhaps a biopsy.

Up to now, both the vet and I were satisifed with a slightly reduced protein and milk thistle supplements.

Now he's going on Zentinol, and like I said, the next round of diagostics. And btw....he is only 4.5 years old.

Liver and hypothyroidism is the biggest hidden disease in your dogs. It is there but not actually manifest until physical symptoms until later in life. By that time, the damage is often done.

At 11 years old, you face a tough choice. How much intervention is required to make knowledgeable decisions. And then deciding at that point if the cure is worse than the disease, given the age of the dog. Yeah, I know it sounds harsh when talking about our furkids.

Wishing you all the best and hope the best of all diagnoses! Hug

[Eagle]

I am sorry to hear about your dog.

I have no experience with an animal having an enlarged liver, but several of my pets have had ultrasounds over the years. I do know that an ultrasound CAN give a vet a lot of information, and, for the most part, that has been my experience. My understanding is that the resolution is limited though, so sometimes they can't get the detail required.

I hope your dog gets better soon.

[Lightplum]

yup go for the US...I ended up at the emergency vet with a sick dog back in June...xray to make sure she didnt have a blockage..he said OMG your dog has enlarged liver she has cushings, addisons...etc...I said yea ok thanks I just came for the xray (since my work was closed and I couldnt bring her in there and xray)...as long as its not a blockage and she isnt going to die tonight i'll bring her to my vet who does US...long story short, it wasnt soo much her liver enlarged it was her gallbladder(which lies within the liver all nestled) that was the issue making her liver look enlarged. Go for the US its usually pretty cost effective ie around $120...and should give you a baseline to many different causes.

[Eagle]

Originally Posted by Lightplum

Go for the US its usually pretty cost effective ie around $120...and should give you a baseline to many different causes.

In my case the cost was higher. I am thinking more in the $250 - $300 dollar range, but the ultrasounds were for different reasons, so they may have easily had to ultrasound a much larger area.

Like Lightplum, I have seen diagnosises completely change as a result of an ultrasound.

[BarbV]

I'm not saying that US is the wrong thing to do, but I would want to be sure that all the possible bloodworks have been done first

Bacca is finally going for an ultrasound in January. The quote is $500. so depending on where you are located it's not cheap and you need to pretty clear on your expectations on what results you will receive. But it took the vet and I 1 year to decide that ultrasound was next, followed possibly by biopsy. We explored other, less invasivie options first.

Did you vet try her on antiobiotics? Like I said, certain infections can cause this effect. And please ask for what the details of what bloodwork was done before you sign up US.

If the dog is currently not failing, you have time to work through this and do your own research.

Diet is another factor, which I won't dive into now, because it does really depend on a diagnosis first. Which is what you are truly after.

[Lightplum]

hmm must be opposite here than, some of the lab work they wanted to run was priced at $300+ for just one test...that was kind of a no brainer decision maker for me, US for $120 which gave more of a pin point area to run with or random specialized labwork for $300 with maybe no further information.

I think you have to go to your vet educated. Many vets are not aware of the certain breed spefic aliaments that can affect, ie they may know about Shelties and thyroid issues,or they may not know that sometimes they tend to run low normal but its actually low for them. But you ask hey have you heard how gallbladder mucocele being an issue with them? and they look at you like Or even sometimes their liver levels are off and they are find.. I mean lets face it, Shelties are common, but not as common as say goldens or labs. Unless there is a breeder that uses your vet they may have what 6-7 per practice in a suburban area..and the average pet owner is not going to know all the health issues that can crop up. I recommend the ASSA site, lots of great health info on there.

[Eagle]

I may easily be wrong, but my guess is that ultrasound costs my vary depending upon how large an area they need to ultrasound.

I was asked once if I would be willing to have my dog participate in a research study, his medical history meet the criteria for their study. This involved bringing him in for an ultrasound at no cost to me.

It had also been recommended that I do periodic follow up ultrasounds just to make sure all was well. I was thinking that one ultrasound would cover both things and that I would essentially get a free ultrasound.

I did get a discount because the study paid for part of it, but the purposes of the ultrasounds were just different. What was needed for followup purposes was more extensive then what was needed for the research study.

Another thing that must factor into the cost is if they are planning to do an ultrasound guided biopsy (my terminology may be wrong). Once with my dog, they used ultrasound to help guide what I believe was essentially a large needle to get a small piece of a tumor for biopsy, no surgery required.

[Sheltiemama]

https://www.google.com/search?source....1.Tah7i78yqI0