Dealing With End Stage Kidney Failure

[macoduck]

Harold ate only part of his breakfast, teased by bits of hot dog. He soaked the pad on his bed last night.

We will be watching him very closely this week. If he was a younger dog we would be trying anything possible.

Harold is tired but still shows us moments of happiness within him. We will do what is best for him.

[dante2zoe]

I don't have experience with renal failure in dogs; I have gone through it with cats. One, we did the subQ fluids and the other I decided to let it run its course. Not fun either way. I have gone through the day to day decline with my whippet. He did receive subQ fluids at home every day and they made him feel better as his body simply wore out. I had to let him go 6 weeks ago. His body was done, but his spirit wasn't. Hardest thing I have ever done. I am still struggling with the decision I made. In my situation, it was best for him, but he didn't see it that way. You are in my thoughts as you figure out what is best for your handsome Harold.

[galgrey]

Harold ate only part of his breakfast, teased by bits of hot dog. He soaked the pad on his bed last night.

We will be watching him very closely this week. If he was a younger dog we would be trying anything possible.

Harold is tired but still shows us moments of happiness within him. We will do what is best for him.

 

My heart goes out to you.

[Hubcitypam]

Ducky - I sent your post to Linda, who is an RN and now places the Slatex dogs. Here's her reply

Sweet Harold. Here's my take on his symptoms and it really follows the path that persons with renal failure would follow. He was urinating and drinking lots earlier since his kidneys could not concentrate his urine. If he isn't urinating as much now--his kidneys are not producing urine. He is anorexic due to the illness. Interestingly enough, many of the patients would turn into vegetarians--just saying they lost their taste for meat--not as a recommendation from their providers. As his kidney function continues to decline--he will become anemic since there is a regulation effect on the bone marrow and the anemia is due to its decline--so taking iron didn't really help these folks and they had to get injections of this expensive medication that would stimulate the bone marrow and correct anemia. As the kidneys continue to decline, his levels of BUN and Creatinine will increase---these are the bi-products of muscle and represent waste that the kidneys would normally rid the body of and that is another reason he is not feeling well. I am so sorry that he is sick--he sounds like a very nice boy. All the best--hug your hounds.

Linda

She agreed with Jordon that, at least in people does not seem to be an issue. She said that they more or less zone out and drift away.

 

Hugs to you and Harold.

Edited September 9, 2012 by Hubcitypam

[Burpdog]

Appetite goes when they have kidney disease, both in dogs and humans. I think the only thing that would help is fluids. I am going to assume that you have cultured the urine recently to rule out an infection that is on top of the disease.

 

My biggest regret with Jesse is that I didn't let her eat the whole chicken the last time she really ate

[macoduck]

Shifting this over from my other thread.

"More importantly --what was his UPC?" (quoting tbhounds)

Didn't get it.

This morning I brought in a fresh urine catch and a letter describing Harold's predicament (see previous thread about Harold).

It can be hard to catch the vets as this busy clinic so the clerk ordered a basic in-house test rather than the full urinalysis that would need to be sent out.

pH was 6.0

LEU neg

PRO 500mg/dl

GLU neg

KET neg

BIL neg

S.G. 1.014

sediment- WBC's : 4 hpf and cocci mild

Harold is now on Clamavox. I am to check with the vet on Friday to see if we'll do a full workup and whether to continue the Clamavox.

So he may have a mild infection. His urine was rather dilute this morning but then he'd had to go out twice during the night. Plus there was a big puddle of pee on pad on his bed.

[macoduck]

Question: Since he's started the Clamavox, does that mean that they couldn't do a culture with the next test? We be repeating the full urinalysis and UPC ratio.

[RaineysMom]

Harold ate only part of his breakfast, teased by bits of hot dog. He soaked the pad on his bed last night.

We will be watching him very closely this week. If he was a younger dog we would be trying anything possible.

Harold is tired but still shows us moments of happiness within him. We will do what is best for him.

 

first of all, no advice but sending TONS of prayers for your sweet Harold -- I hope if it's just an infection, the meds will help him feel better :hope

 

and reading all the replies, I am very scared since it sounds so much like Nube. I hope they can tell if there's something like this wrong with a full blood panel.

 

and I totally know how you feel about what to do with your boy. Sending many, many hugs

[tbhounds]

Ideally you would want to run the culture prior to starting the antibiotics. I think what I would do is run another urinalysis before you d/c the abs-- hopefully, the results will be normal -no red, white cells and no bacteria.. You can run the culture post abs. There are times where a culture is performed while on meds but, usually, you would have a prior culture to compare to. Did I confuse you? :-)

When you repeat the u/a I would definetly make sure it's the first a.m. urine sample that you collect--hopefully, Harold is concentrating his urine.

[Guest 2dogs4cats]

I'm not sure what the question is, but he's not concentrating his urine as SG is 1.014. It's dilute, but not horrible, but he is spilling a lot of protein. You can try cutting protein a bit in the diet and balancing the rest with calcium.

 

You can tell a bit more if he has had blood work recently.

[Dawnnziggy]

This is what I lost my Dawn to just this past March. She did not want to go and fought it to the very end. She could hardly walk. She smelled awful and would not, ABSOLUTELY NOT eat. I could get her to drink milk. She would drink her Ensure, but there was no eating going on. She was in so much pain. I know because of all of the panting. Even though it was cold, she was panting. She also was in liver failure my vet thought. She was pooping blood and her pee was clear. It was just like water.

 

I felt absolutely awful putting her to sleep. She did not want to go but she was in extreme pain. She could hardly walk, couldn't eat, and had trouble getting comfotable to lay down to sleep. She didn't sleep much. She just paced. I still feel guilty about it.

 

Good Luck. I hope he can tell you when he is ready. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

[EllenEveBaz]

Don't know the answer to the questions about the testing.

 

My Scout had kidney disease. His last four months were downhill, starting out with two bouts of acute pancreatitis, which I think kidney dogs are more prone to. I modified his homecooked diet, but he didn't eat much. Then he let me know he wanted meat and only meat. I was horrified (low protein diet! pancreatitis!), but gave him beef and he loved every bit of it for months. He still kept losing weight, though. His time between urinating kept decreasing till finally it was about every 2-3 hours. He didn't want to use the dog door out back anymore; he was getting weaker and there were steps. I put human bed pee pads around the house during the day, which he would determinedly not use so I would put down more ... Finally the house was just one big layer of pee pads. At night I took him on leash out front (fewer stairs) and we had moonlight walks that I'll always remember.

 

He still barked at sounds of dogs walking by, and supervised all my activities. After the pancreatitis bouts were over and he started eating again, I did not see signs of pain. One reason might be I was giving him Azodyl, a dietary enzyme that is supposed to help decrease the toxins circulating in the blood. His creatinine levels did decrease significantly once he was on Azodyl. He and Nutmeg were very close, and they spent most of their time together. He just kept getting weaker, and finally I was having to support him with a sling getting up and lying down, and on steps. I scheduled him to be put down on a Monday, and spent all weekend crying. He always loved shredding up paper, especially used tissues, and he would struggle up and totter over to a wastebasket and start shredding the tissues where I was crying over him and give me his patented "What is your PROBLEM?" look when I protested.

 

On the day before the scheduled euthanasia, he had a very violent seizure and I couldn't bear to think of him having another one. I went ahead and took him in that day. I feel for you, Ducky. (((hugs)))

[Guest LindsaySF]

The incontinence could be due to a UTI, so I guess I would wait and see on that. But I would look for other symptoms that he's getting worse, like lack of appetite, vomiting, signs of pain (panting, pacing), etc. Kidney dogs often have a poor appetite, but if even the goodies like people food won't entice him, I would find that worrying. The panting might also be a sign of pain or discomfort, if it's something new. It could also be that he's dehydrated, some dogs will pant when they are. Chase's liver got her in the end, not her kidneys, but that day she wouldn't eat, was wobbly when walking, weak, and vomited on the floor twice (I don't think she had ever vomited before). She used to love wandering the yard and sniffing every inch, but that day she just stood outside looking confused, panting. I knew something was wrong, and we ended up letting her go that night. Good luck.

Edited September 11, 2012 by LindsaySF