I am posting this as an FYI in the odd chance that this info will help someone puzzled by appetite problems and a diagnosis of a possible parasite infection that does not get better.

After many years of waiting I picked up a beautiful Shiba Inu puppy named Kuma. She was sweet and rambunctious, and one day stopped eating. I changed her food, and she developed horrible diarrhea. I took her to the vet, and he suggested that she may have a parasite. Treated her with some pills and I took her home. This persisted and after she would eat, she would wobble around weak and like she was drunk, and then she would get diarrhea again. Puzzled and devastated I took her back to the vet and they did some extensive tests.

She was diagnosed as having a liver shunt. It was explained to me that as a fetus, the puppies blood does not pass through the liver, and once they are born the bloodflow that is routed around the liver closes and then shuts down, passing the blood through the liver and removing the toxins from the blood. Since this was not happening, every time she ate it was like she was poisoning herself.

My vet said there would be two surgeries necessary to save her. First, they had to determine if the shunt was inside or outside the liver. If it was inside the liver tissue, they would not be able to save her. If it was outside, there was a possibility that she could be saved. The surgery just to determine if she could be saved was very expensive but I made a promise to little Kuma that I would take care of her, and so I did it.

Kuma Chan is now almost 3 and she is fit as a fiddle. The surgery gave her a long scar along her belly, but the next day she acted as if nothing ever happened. It was very expensive but worth every penny. If you have a pet that is not responding to antibiotics please ask your vet to test to see if there is a liver shunt. Every day counts.