Success Stories: Ally

A Little Champ Beats the Odds

Ally - a nine-year-old Pomeranian - weighs in at just under 16 pounds. She may be tiny. But her fighter's spirit - and her owner's dedication to getting her the very best specialty care - have literally given this little dog a new lease on life, not once, but twice.

Zoraida Diaz, Ally's owner, has raised her from a puppy and nursed her through the years. In February 1999, Ally arrived at her new home in Miami with a case of kennel cough, which was easily cured. Much more worrisome: Ally had frequent bouts of vomiting, which various veterinarians attributed to food allergies or general "nervousness."

Just before her fifth birthday, Ally had an especially bad few days of vomiting, then refused to eat and started seizing. Her owner immediately rushed her 35 miles to Dr. Jeffrey Toll at Veterinary Specialists of South Florida in Cooper City. Dr. Toll quickly suspected liver shunt and confirmed the diagnosis three days later. By that time, Ally was continually seizing and Dr. Toll recommended against surgery for the shunt because of her condition. Even though the ACVIM internist gave the dog only a 10 percent chance of surviving surgery, Zoraida knew she had to try.

"Ally came out of surgery like a champ," says her owner, "and stayed with Dr. Toll for 10 days. She began to look better, her seizures stopped, and he actually began to entertain the idea of letting me take her home! She came home on November 10th, 2003, her fifth birthday, with a bag full of medication and a special low protein diet."

Ally's eventual diagnosis, portosystemic shunt, can sometimes be tough to call. A portosystemic shunt is a blood vessel that bypasses liver tissue, carrying blood from the intestines, stomach, spleen, and pancreas to the heart before it can be filtered and cleansed of toxins. As a result, the liver doesn't develop properly and is smaller than usual. Symptoms associated with liver shunt include poor growth rate in puppies, mental dullness, and seizures.

It's extremely rare for a five-year old dog to be diagnosed with liver shunt - the affliction is more common among younger dogs - but it's even rarer to develop a second shunt. Six months later, Ally had another seizure, and Dr. Toll suspected a second shunt. Ally's story ends happily, though: Zoraida consulted with two specialists at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville, and Ally had a second successful surgery. Today, she is doing well, taking medication, and on a low-protein diet.

Zoraida looks forward to several more good years with Ally at her side.

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