Questions Re: Uti/kidney Disease

[galgrey]

My senior galgo, Cruz, has not been eating well lately and I've tried everything. After reading a couple of threads here re: dogs with kidney disease losing their appetites, I got concerned and took him in today for tests. He has elevated kidney enzymes AND a pretty nasty UTI. I feel horrible that I had no idea he had a UTI and there's no telling how long he's had it. He's shown none of the symptoms I've seen in the past with my females dogs with a UTI. Vet said it's possible that he's had it a long time and it could be the cause of the elevated values or it could have damaged his kidneys. His BUN = 77 and his creatinine = 3.2 He also saw transitional cells in his urine which could be due to the infection or could be indicative of bladder cancer. The urine is being cultured but in the meantime he's on amoxicillin.

 

Anyone had a similiar experience? Is it possible that his levels could go back to the normal range after the infection clears? I feel like a horrible person for not taking him in sooner. I thought he was just being picky since he would eat a new food for several days and then not eat until I changed it up again.

 

Anyone else found out their dog had a terrible UTI and had no idea? I feel so guilty and I'm so very worried about my sweet galgito.

 

Thanks for any insight any of you might share.

Edited June 13, 2012 by galgrey

[MaryJane]

What was his urine specific gravity and is there protein leaking into the urine?

 

Did the vet put him on a kidney diet?

[Guest LittleGreys]

The transitional cells are a bit concerning, but hopefully due to infection. And yes, it is possible for his kidney values to return to normal after the infection clears. At the vet hospital where I work, we see this more with cats than dogs, we see it very frequently with cats. We just this week had a cat with a urinary blockage, he had been blocked for 2 days before the owner brought him in, his kidney values were extremely high, his BUN I think was 160, and creatinine something like 6.5. After 36 hours of treatment, his kidney values had returned to almost normal. Good thoughts for your guy that all goes well!!

[galgrey]

What was his urine specific gravity and is there protein leaking into the urine?

 

Did the vet put him on a kidney diet?

 

He gave me these values over the phone and didn't give me the urine specific gravity or mention anything about protein in his urine. I didn't know to ask. I did ask about his diet and he said to feed him what he'll eat right now and if his values don't look better after the infection is clear, we'll talk about diet.

 

The transitional cells are a bit concerning, but hopefully due to infection. And yes, it is possible for his kidney values to return to normal after the infection clears. At the vet hospital where I work, we see this more with cats than dogs, we see it very frequently with cats. We just this week had a cat with a urinary blockage, he had been blocked for 2 days before the owner brought him in, his kidney values were extremely high, his BUN I think was 160, and creatinine something like 6.5. After 36 hours of treatment, his kidney values had returned to almost normal. Good thoughts for your guy that all goes well!!

 

Thank you for giving me a little hope. I'm so worried and feel so guilty.

[Batmom]

Your vet's approach is a reasonable one.

 

It can take some time for BUN & creatinine values to normalize after a spike (if that's what it is; hope so!). So you may be in for several blood draws after the infection is cleared. Note that you don't have to do an entire chemistry each time -- most labs will do a mini-panel with just the kidney values for a good bit less $ than the full chemistry.

[tbhounds]

May have pyelonephritis. Anxious to see what the culture reveals.

Edited June 14, 2012 by tbhounds

[galgrey]

Your vet's approach is a reasonable one.

 

It can take some time for BUN & creatinine values to normalize after a spike (if that's what it is; hope so!). So you may be in for several blood draws after the infection is cleared. Note that you don't have to do an entire chemistry each time -- most labs will do a mini-panel with just the kidney values for a good bit less $ than the full chemistry.

 

I hope this is just a spike caused by the infection. Good to hear that they can do a mini-panel for the follow ups because today's total was a big ole chuck o change.

[GeorgeofNE]

Please don't beat yourself up. My FATHER, who has Alzheimer's and is not able to express anything rational, had a UTI that was so bad he had to spend two days in the hospital.

[mom2four]

Cynthia, our last female Lab also showed no signs of a UTI until it was really bad, so I never had any idea either. I do know that the antibiotics she was put on, whether it was Clavamox or Baytril never worked the first time unless she was put on it for twice as long as recommended. I ended up putting her on a daily cranberry pill and she did not have any more UTI's. I hope for good news for Cruz.

[Guest LindsaySF]

Don't beat yourself up! Chase (in my sig, RIP) had a UTI that went undiagnosed because she had NO symptoms. We ran bloodwork/tests prior to her dental and her kidney values were off, so we went looking and found the UTI. Then the UTI ended up being resistant to all but one antibiotic, and traveled to her kidneys, causing glomulernephritis (GN). Definitely do a urine culture to make sure you have the right antibiotic. Her kidney values got better after the spike, and while she was in early stage renal failure, she passed away due to another cause (liver failure) several months later. Good luck.

[4My2Greys]

It's easy in retrospect to look back and wonder why we didn't catch something earlier, but there could have been so many other reasons for him not eating. The important thing is that now you do know and you and your vet can work together to get Cruz better again.

[racindog]

No way you could have known. Some dogs just don't tell you. Yes I had a similar experience with Bobber. I too could not understand how I could have "missed" it as I am like a mother hen and am EXTREMELY observant about everything that concerns them. In fact my training and job keys on observation. Anyway one morning I noticed she felt a little warm and when I took her temperature it was 104.5! Rushed to vet. Turns out it was a severe kidney infection vet said may have started as a uti though she didn't have a uti then. Vet said sometimes they just don't display any symptoms until it reached that point and that no matter how hard you try to monitor them you just won't see any prior symptoms. It may have been that thing tbhounds hmentioned. I'm not home so I can't look and see. Anyway apparently it was at this point a serious systemic infection. Vet could NOT get her temperature to stay down. Several different antibiotics were tried-even iv. Going on 2 weeks of carrying such a high fevver I was in such fear that she would start having seizures or something from the fever I took her to my holistic vet to see if there was anything additonal that maybe she could do. After ONE accupuncture treatment Bobber began to improve and the fever was gone within 24 hours and the antibiotics began to work. Clearly her energy pathways were blocked and had not been allowing the antibiotics to work. Once she got accupuncture it opened up her energy pathways and the treatment could work and she recovered quickly and never relapsed and has no residual efffects. But bottom line yes that same kind of thing happenned to me and Bobber and the vet said that it happens-sometimes there just arn't any symptoms exhibited to tip you off no matter how carefully you watch them. Besides the fact is that you DID catch it as soon as possible-you took action right away to check on the lack of appetite issue and found it as soon as anybody could have. Hope Cruz gets well soon!

Edited June 15, 2012 by racindog

[galgrey]

Thank you for sharing and for your good throughts for Cruz. I don't have the results from the urine culture yet, so he's still on the amoxicillin TID. His appetite remains poor, so I'm giving him anything I can get him to eat. Some days he'll eat eggs so he's been getting as many as he'll eat. He wouldn't eat them this morning though. He hasn't turned down canned tripe yet, so I'm giving him his pills in canned tripe and giving him as much as I can. I there's no permanent damage to his kidneys from this. I'll post as soon as I know the results of the culture.