Another Gallbladder Casualty

Ann

Moderator
A friend of mine lost her Sheltie this week to gallbladder mucoceles. Piper was only 8 years old. She was fine in the morning, ate her breakfast, played, and was completely normal until mid-afternoon when she began vomiting. Not much at first, but as the night went on she got worse. Her owner rushed her to the emergency vet during the night, but it was too late. She passed before morning.

I know I've posted about this before, since several of my dogs have had gallbladder issues, but Shelties are a breed prone to this issue so please....PLEASE Sheltie peeps, screen your dogs via ultrasound after age 5! It's a simple test and not terribly expensive. If Piper had been scanned, it would have been detected earlier and saved her life. If sludge is detected on ultrasound, your vet will do more frequent checks. If they're normal, we scan once a year after age 5. My friend is heartbroken. I am heartbroken that she didn't know.
 
A friend of mine lost her Sheltie this week to gallbladder mucoceles. Piper was only 8 years old. She was fine in the morning, ate her breakfast, played, and was completely normal until mid-afternoon when she began vomiting. Not much at first, but as the night went on she got worse. Her owner rushed her to the emergency vet during the night, but it was too late. She passed before morning.

I know I've posted about this before, since several of my dogs have had gallbladder issues, but please....PLEASE Sheltie peeps, screen your dogs via ultrasound after age 5! It's a simple test and not terribly expensive. If Piper had been scanned, it would have been detected earlier and saved her life. If sludge is detected on ultrasound, your vet will do more frequent checks. If they're normal, we scan once a year after age 5. My friend is heartbroken. I am heartbroken that she didn't know.
OMG!! How sad!!! Thanks for your post
 
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Sad. And scary because so few vets know to recommend it!

Per Ann's recommendation all of my older guys were screened last year.
 
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Zulu turns 5 next month. Marked my calendar so I do not forget. I would have know about this without this forum.
 
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Just breaks my heart. Even though I got the ultrasounds for mucoceles, Deska's gallbladder burst 6weeks later (not from mucoceles tho). I will never forget seeing him shivering from the peritonitis pain at the end, makes me cry to hear of another dog going through this pain. I was going to try to avoid reading the thread, probably should have, now I'll be crying all afternoon:cry::cry:
 
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