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Questions About Kidney Failure


Guest Mom2Gr8dawgs

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Guest Mom2Gr8dawgs

A few weeks ago, Marky stopped eating and had a couple of incidents of incontinence. We took him to our vet. His blood work came back normal except for a few things, including BUN being slightly elevated and his phosphorus was slightly elevated. He was a little dehydrated, too. My vet felt that this is probably the very early stages of kidney failure, and recommended that I look a diet that is easy on his kidneys. My vet knows I feed raw and doesn't have a problem with it, he just doesn't have much advice, either. He gave Marky an injection of steroids, which perked him back up for a while.

 

I have been doing a good bit of research on kidney diets. The problem I have is that Marky has rheumatoid arthritis, too, and has since before I adopted him when he was 4.5 years old. He's now heading rapidly towards 11. I removed grains from his diet to help his arthritis, and that did help tremendously. Now the kidney diets I find add rice or other grains back in. I feel kind of between a rock and a hard place here. He's lost a lot of weight and needs to gain back at least 10 lbs. Getting around is difficult for him already...I'm afraid that if I add grains back in that might make his joint issues worse, but if I don't, his kidney problems may get worse.

 

If anyone has any experience or advice that might help, I'd really appreciate it.

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First, take a read here: http://www.animalmedicalcentreofmedina.com...y%20Failure.pdf

 

After reading, if you're in doubt as to whether he has signs of kidney disfunction, might want to discuss the article with your vet (or another local vet if yours is not receptive to discussion).

 

If he does indeed have kidney disfunction, then you do want to limit meat as meat is high in phosphorus. I've not had problems with grains making arthritis worse -- have not heard of that -- but if you are feeding more grains, less meats then you usually need to add some fat to the diet ..... GT members Burpdog and patricia can advise about homeprepared kidney diets.

 

Hugs and luck with your pup!

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

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Guest minzenon

My boy has kidney failure, but he is doing ok. He did start to pee in his sleep but we managed to control that with a short course of Sinus Relief (yep human sinus tablets) the tablet must contain only Pseudoephedrine - 1 tablet morning and night for up to five days (Shae was better in 4 so we stopped then and he hasnt had an accident in 2 months)

As for his diet my vet said, lots of pasta, potatoes,rice,junk food (mcdonalds even) low protein, high fat, bread, etc so raw meat is really out of the question. He has been having steriod injections (called Repair) at first they were every couple of weeks now we are down to 1 every month as he seems to be holding his own. My vet said there is really no estimate of time we hope for the best but always expect the worse. The Repair injections will help slow the collapse of the 'tubes/filters' in the kidneys but ultimately they will all fail. I am to keep an eye out for further progession such as vomiting, 'd', not eating etc, I can help a bit with the vomiting by giving gavascon etc, but so far that hasnt been needed. When the kidneys really start to fail the toxins build up in the system and have to be expelled so generally its through vomiting.

But the diet is helping as with the steriod shots so we are hoping for a big Birthday party when he turns 12 at the end of august.

My vet told me to love every day I have with him and enjoy the moment, which I am doing.

Good luck to you and I hope your boy remains as stable as mine.

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Here is a site with tons of links on kidney disease including why reducing protein (at this point) is not warranted. Testing for a UTI is a good idea because of his immune issues but if he does have early kidney disease, the best thing to do is reduce his phosphorus intake. For my kitty's kidney issues, I stopped feeding RMB's (they contain lots of phosphorus) & added ground eggshell powder to add a source of calcium & to bind the phosphorus in the meat. Grains (as you know) are very high in phosphorus & you shouldn't need to add them unless he's in end stage renal failure.

 

The link above also has a nice long list of foods to try when dealing with inappetance. I hope Marky feels better soon.

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Deirdre with Conor (Daring Pocobueno), Keeva (Kiowa Mimi Mona), & kittehs Gemma & robthomas.

Our beloved angels Faolin & Liath, & kittehs Mona & Caesar. Remembering Bobby, Doc McCoy, & Chip McGrath.

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I might also suggest joining the rawfeeding group on yahoo. There have been others on there who have dealt with this who can help you sort it out. I don't believe switching off of raw is in order if he does in fact have kidney problems, but I'm definitely not an expert. Check out that group - the question pops up every so often. You can probably found out a lot of info just by searching the archives.

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Jen, CPDT-KA with Zuri, lab in a greyhound suit, Violet, formerly known as Faith, Skye, the permanent puppy, Cisco, resident cat, and my baby girl Neyla, forever in my heart

"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong."

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Guest Mom2Gr8dawgs

Thanks for the all the info! I'm still doing lots of reading right now. Hopefully I'll find the right thing to help Marky.

 

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Guest TishaT

My Jog has had Chronic Kidney Disease for about 8 months. We have been feeding a version of RAW for the last 2 months. There is a yahoo group for dogs with kidney disease called K9Kidneys that has some great suggestions. My dog gets more veggies than grains. I make him a cooked meatloaf that is ground turkey with low salt tomato sauce, egg white, veggies, and oats. He is doing very well on that. He gets more veggies mixed into that plus yogurt, salmon oil, and some other add ins. He does at times get raw meat - for him at his stage it needs to be boneless. He needs the proteins but with lower phosphorus. The Yahoo site has a list of some of the no no's too - organ meats are on that list. Best advice I can give you is to get him stabilized with something basic (for us the meatloaf) and then slowly add more variety to the diet. If you start getting some leakage you know that you need to back off and go back to the basic diet.

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