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[cairnrescueleague]

cairn rescue league just had successful shunt surgery performed on a 2yo female cairn (she turned 2 march 21) - her owners started to notice excessive thirst and urination about a year ago, brought her to the vet for that, and she had a seizure in the vet's office - bile acids test indicated a shunt - owners did nothing, they contacted us a couple of months ago because they could no longer care for her - she had surgery 11 days ago for a large extra-hepatic shunt and had her staples removed today - she's gained 1.2 lbs since the surgery and is already starting to drink less, kidney levels were good but she was having trouble concentrating her urine - vets are hoping that will improve - our surgeon (in nh) doesn't use an ameroid constrictor, she says it's six of one, half dozen of the other, she feels she has more control not using a constrictor - fiona was put on a human anti-seizure medication for 10 days after the surgery (finished it yesterday) - a very new study shows that Keppra completely prevents the neurological complications that can occur with 5-10% of dogs within 48 hours of surgery (most of the 5-10% don't make it) - fiona's surgery ended up costing $2127, we received donations from some very generous people! - she's only the second cairn with a shunt we've had in 11+ years, the other was 5 years ago, but i'm actually working on getting another cairn with a shunt into rescue - all from pet stores