Austin Pets Alive! | Spoon’s Shunt Surgery – FUND COMPLETED!
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Feb 13, 2018

Spoon’s Shunt Surgery – FUND COMPLETED!

It’s always hard to see a tiny puppy, like Spoon, with a severe health issue. Three-month old Spoon has an intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, which means that there is an abnormal vessel inside the liver called a “shunt” connecting the portal vein that drains to the back half of the body, bypassing the liver. The job of the liver is to “clean” the blood that travels into the heart, but when the blood from the intestines enters the shunt and bypasses the liver, the blood never gets cleaned by the liver and allows for toxic metabolites and ammonia to enter systemic circulation. These toxins can cause abnormal behavior for Spoon such as ataxia (wobbly walking), seizures, and weakness. The amazing team at Texas A&M is planning a very large scale surgery for sweet Spoon, and we need your help to raise the funds that will save his life!