05/18/2025
Empower yourself with knowledge about your breed and its unique needs BEFORE purchasing from a breeder... This way, you'll be able to discern if they're genuine when you MEET THEM... Far too often, I hear about people bringing home Irish Wolfhounds at just 8 to 10 weeks old. For ANY GIANT BREED, 8 to 10 weeks is far too early, indicating they missed out on crucial social skills and, even more critically, a liver shunt test. Let's dive deeper into why this is a telltale sign of a responsible breeder versus a backyard or puppy mill operation!!
Thanknks to Irish Wolfhound Club of Canada And my beloved breeder and friend, Julie Schaeffer:
When searching for a puppy reminder liver shunt is a deadly disease and if your puppy is not screened prior to going home you could be destined for heart ache.
Screening cannot be done prior to 9 weeks and tests take time to get back from the lab.
If a breeder is selling puppies at 8 weeks not only are they selling a puppy who does not have a chance to learn proper social skills from litters mates and its mother but also could come to you with a deadly disease that really very very rarely is curable with surgery, most commonly the puppy is put to sleep to avoid the agony of their own body poisoning them slowly. Usually they need to be put down by 6 months rarely a little longer to a year
Shared by Irish Wolfhound Club of Canada
Porto-systemic Shunt in Wolfhound
This month's article focuses on Porto-systemic Shunt, more commonly known as PSS, covered by line 8 of the Code of Ethics and worded as follows:
8. Breeders must have their puppies tested for Porto-systemic Shunt at 9 weeks of age or older, and this, before they leave for their new home.
If you're not a breeder or animal health professional, and you're a relative newcomer to the world of wolfhounds, you need to pay close attention to this congenital disease, its unfortunately often fatal implications and how to screen for it.
Let's start by recalling what a porto-systemic shunt is:
The liver is a complex organ with a vital function: it filters blood from the stomach, pancreas, intestines and spleen.
It also stores nutrients absorbed during digestion and eliminates metabolic waste products.
Toxin-free blood is directed to the heart, from where it is distributed to the lungs and the rest of the body.
In the fetal state, blood vessels bypass the puppy's liver, and toxins are taken up by the mother's liver.
Shortly after birth, this bypass naturally closes, and the puppy's liver takes over the detoxification process.
A porto-systemic shunt occurs when the vessels fail to close and the liver does not receive the toxin-laden blood to cleanse it.
The shunt may be present outside the liver (more common in small dogs) or inside the liver itself (more common in large breeds).
The unfiltered blood then causes a number of neurological symptoms, including loss of vision and convulsions, as well as stunted growth, digestive and urinary problems.
Signs do not appear in puppies for several weeks.
For a wolfhound puppy who needs a balanced diet to thrive, intrahepatic shunt is a disease that is very difficult to treat with a low-protein diet alone.
The surgery or surgeries required to gradually close the abnormal blood vessel inside the liver are highly specialized, difficult and extremely costly.
Testing for PSS
A blood test, performed from 9 weeks of age, can detect hepatic shunts.
Two blood samples are usually taken for this test.
The first is taken after an overnight stay, and the second two hours after a meal.
If there is an increase in bile acids, PSS is suspected.
A second test a few weeks later confirms or refutes the suspicion.
Other techniques may be suggested by the veterinarian.
The importance of this test is clear:
for the breeder, since PSS has been identified as having a hereditary component in the wolfhound breed, and for the future owner, given that several weeks can go by without the first neurological signs being noticed.
As the test is not recommended for puppies younger than 9 weeks, this timeframe is in line with COE line 9, which stipulates that puppies should not leave their breeder before 10 weeks.
Want to find out more about PSS?
