Acute Renal Failure

[Newgreymom]

We think Dylan is having kidney issues of some sort. He had more bloodwork today with results coming in tomorrow. Does anyone have any experience with renal failure with their greyhound and what symptoms did they present?

[CaliforniaGreys]

Please keep in mind that there's a big difference in kidney disease, and kidney failure.

 

Hoping for good results for Dylan

[sabrina]

paws crossed for you Dylan

[gazehund]

As Claudia said, big difference between kidney disease and kidney failure. What was the first symptom I noticed with Pearl? Weight loss.

She is headed into her third year post diagnosis and still doing well.

Good luck with your boy.

[Guest Energy11]

About 5 years ago, Goldie was diagosed with Acute Renal Failure due to a VERY BAD UTI, ... welll now all her renal functions are NORMAL, but. ... and this is WEIRD ... if I take her off the renal diet, she ends up peeing more...?????? I dunno, but, "if it "ain't broke ..." dont fix it ... " so they say.

To make a LONG STORY short, I keep her on the Purina NF, and all is well ... Goldie's initial symptoms were excessive drinking and urinating, and ... no appetite... WELL, that was about four or five years ago ... she is WONDERFUL NOW.

 

GOOD LUCK with all of this!

Edited May 18, 2010 by Energy11

[Newgreymom]

We still aren't sure really what's going on. After a course of Clavamox, Baytril and 2 days of Previcox, he started drinking excessively and urinating more than usual. He is eating OK and seems a bit "off". On the Previcox warnings, it said "Can cause increase thirst, urination and discoloration of urine." I called Merial(drug company) and they said even just 2 days of Previcox could have caused this. They were in touch with our vet. I guess I need to see what the blookwork shows tomorrow.

[Remolacha]

When Sugar went into acute renal failure, she quit eating. I mean, nothing passed those lips. I tried everything anyone on here suggested, but after a week, I realized she was ready and let her go. Her kidney numbers were also quite high and didn't come down even after all day sub-q's.

 

Hope Dylan has something else!

[Guest Energy11]

We still aren't sure really what's going on. After a course of Clavamox, Baytril and 2 days of Previcox, he started drinking excessively and urinating more than usual. He is eating OK and seems a bit "off". On the Previcox warnings, it said "Can cause increase thirst, urination and discoloration of urine." I called Merial(drug company) and they said even just 2 days of Previcox could have caused this. They were in touch with our vet. I guess I need to see what the blookwork shows tomorrow.

 

Goldie was put on a SIX WEEK prescription of Clavamox, and whatever it was ... PASSED, but is DID weaken her kidneys. As I metioned previously, she is GREAT now, BUT, I have to keep her on the prescription renal diet, IN SPITE OF perfect "renal numbers," in her blood work! IT COULD BE a lot worse!

Yep...see what your bloodwork shows and go from there! Goldie sends you her love!

[Rickiesmom]

Jaynie went into acute renal failure following her spay. Since all other possible causes were eliminated, we think this was due to an injected loading dose of Metacam following her spay. Of course we didn't know any of that at the time, what we saw was:

 

- day after, she was lethargic, didn't seem surprising considering

- day two, would not eat, lethargic, drinking well

- day three, continuing to drink, no food, didn't want to leave her crate, started to have muscle spasms - seen by two vets but due to her history, they were looking in the wrong places

- day four - all the same symptoms, muscle spasms worse, admitted to clinic and put on fluids - bloodwork revealed what was going on - and by that time her kidney values were off the charts, liver values not thrilling, and platelets were way, way down

 

It took 2 weeks in hospital under the care of an internal med specialist to bring her back. She is still on a kidney diet supplemented with a daily unsalted buttery one egg omelet. At last check, in February, her creatinine was still high, and her specific gravity was somewhat low. Her next recheck in end of June.

 

If you suspect acute kidney failure, get your hound to a vet asap. And, before any fluids are given, ensure urine and blood samples are taken. Once the dog is on fluids, a urine sample is almost useless.

 

Fingers crossed for your pup.

[brandimom]

Sending prayers and good thoughts for Dylan. Tawny, my bridge girl, was diagnosed with renal failure at age 7 and she lived a good quality of life until age 12. We noticed her drinking a lot, peeing a lot and weight loss. When she was diagnosed is when I started taking her to a holistic vet for acupuncture. I really feel the Chinese herbs and acupuncture gave her a quality of life.

[greyhndz]

There are two general types of renal failure: acute and chronic. Acute renal failure is usually pretty catastrophic - the dog is *sick*. Depression, lethargy, anorexia, vomiting, increase water intake/urinary output, but dilute urine. There may be bleeding in the GI tract and anemia, from the renal failure itself. There's no question that you would be looking at a gravely ill dog.

 

Chronic renal failure may not even manifest symptoms, or perhaps PU/PD (incr. drinking/peeing). There may be sporadic loss in appetite, weight loss but the dog may appear to be pretty healthy.

 

Besides checking bloodwork, hopefully your vet also checked the urine carefully (including micro exam) and ran a urine culture. If the renal functions tests are elevated, a renal ultrasound would probably be in order.

 

I'm a huge fan of internal medicine vets. Renal disease can be difficult to manage at times, and both my vet and myself appreciated having the IM vet to consult for any problems.

 

I hope all kidney function tests come back normal, so this thread will be unnecessary. Hugs to sweet Dylan!

[NeylasMom]

My experience with renal failure is weird. Neyla was diagnosed with acute kidney failure about a year after I got her. She was having increasingly frequenct accidents (at her worst, every hour or so) - I don't remember if she had other symptoms, what they were. I would imagine she was drinking excessively too if nothing else. Her diagnosis was confirmed via ultrasound, but we never figured out the cause. She had a limp that would not resolve (we believe due to a muscle pull) so she had been on and off various meds and was on a certain cocktail at the time this all started happening. We took her off the meds, ran TBD tests and a test for lepto(both were ultimately negative) and in the meantime, started treating with doxy just in case and she got better.

 

To this day, I believe it was the meds that caused it and that taking her off of them fixed it, although perhaps the doxy did something.

 

The weird thing is that the internal medicine vet who did the x-ray told me that in order to call it acute kidney failiure the kidney needs to have less than 25% function. I don't know if it wasn't as bad as he suspected based on the US or if she just had this magical recovery - will never know, just glad she got better.

 

I hope you figure out what's going on and get her healthy again in no time.