Kidney Issues

[cailysmom]

Hi guys,

 

So recently I've been having some issues with my girl Caily. Just a little background about her: She's a little over 9 years old and has always been a pretty healthy dog. The only consistent issue we had with her was having accidents during the night, which we believed to be behavioral for the most part. As of the past couple of weeks she has lost a lot of weight. At one point last year she was overweight at 76lbs and we were able to slim her up to a nice 64lbs by March of this year(a little slim for my taste but the vet said she looked excellent). As of today she is 54.2lbs and looks terrible. She went from being a wonderful eater to putting her nose up to everything and as a result dropped a lot of weight. She also went from acting like the obnoxious, loveable puppy she's always believed to be to suddenly turning into a lethargic, boney mess. On Sunday I gave her a dose of over the counter dewormer that kills hook, round, and whip worms as a prevenative and sure enough she passed some whipworms in her stool. Since then she has started to perk up a little and has eaten a little bit of hot dogs, steak, cheese, just anything to get her to eat. On Tuesday I took her to the vet. They did a fecal (negative), chest xrays (looked great) and bloodwork. I recieved the results of the bloodwork today and they show the real picture of whats going on. I luckily had a senior wellness exam done back in March so we had good results to compare to. The results from March are : BUN- 28 CREATININE- 2.2 TOTAL PROTEIN 6.0 ALT- 1352 mU/l those same tests as of today are BUN- 56 CREATININE- 3.98 TOTAL PROTEIN-4.6 and ALT- 290 U/L. I am awaiting the results of her Urinalysis which I will have tomorrow to confirm the vets suspicions of Kidney disease/ Failure.

 

I was hoping to see if you all had any good recommendations for websites to read, advice and personal experiences. My biggest concern right now is I know they will want to put her on a Prescription Diet. I would much prefer to avoid that if at all possible. The cost of the food itself does not deter me its the ingredients in the food. So if anyone also had any food recommendations as well that would be amazing.

 

Thank you for reading this and any advice!

 

Lauren

[tbhounds]

I would be curious to see the u/a results checking the urine specific gravity and the protein. Some of the elevated numbers could be from dehydration. With hepatic and renal values both elevated I would ask your vet to run a leptospirosis test. Also inquire about running a Lyme test-need to rule out Lyme nephritis.

In the meantime I would get her on Pepcid (famotidine) and try to get her to drink. Sometimes mixing a little chicken baby food in the water makes a nice palatable drink.

[msjpk]

My Lou has just been diagnosed with early onset kidney failure. I am waiting for a copy of the blood work and UPC. Has your vet performed a UPC?

sobesmom who is on Greytalk has written plenty re: this issue.

 

I have just started Lou on Wellness Complete Health (however, Lou has not lost any weight)

This food has low protein and phosphorous.

I boiled chicken thighs and add it to his 1 cup of Wellness. I have also added rice.

 

Lou has just started this regimen, so I won't know if it will help until blood work is repeated.

 

Vet also has put him on Enalapril 5mg every 12 hours.

 

Facebook has a group Greytalk where you can get info.

 

Good luck to you and your pupper.

[tbhounds]

The UPC can't be run until you get the u/a back and find out that it's an inactive sample (no infection). Protein in the urine does not mean your hound has chronic renal disease-what it will tell you is your hound has protein losing neuropathy (pln). Treated with low dose aspirin and a beta blocker like enalapril.

[GreyTzu]

I would be curious to see the u/a results checking the urine specific gravity and the protein. Some of the elevated numbers could be from dehydration. With hepatic and renal values both elevated I would ask your vet to run a leptospirosis test. Also inquire about running a Lyme test-need to rule out Lyme nephritis.

In the meantime I would get her on Pepcid (famotidine) and try to get her to drink. Sometimes mixing a little chicken baby food in the water makes a nice palatable drink.

Yup, insist on it. Despite the vaccine, dogs can still get Lepto.

[sobesmom]

My Lou has just been diagnosed with early onset kidney failure. I am waiting for a copy of the blood work and UPC. Has your vet performed a UPC?

sobesmom who is on Greytalk has written plenty re: this issue.

 

I have just started Lou on Wellness Complete Health (however, Lou has not lost any weight)

This food has low protein and phosphorous.

I boiled chicken thighs and add it to his 1 cup of Wellness. I have also added rice.

 

Lou has just started this regimen, so I won't know if it will help until blood work is repeated.

 

Vet also has put him on Enalapril 5mg every 12 hours.

 

Facebook has a group Greytalk where you can get info.

 

Good luck to you and your pupper.

To the OP - yep, do a GT search and read my posts about my Diana, early chronic kidney disease, diet, etc. I asked tons of questions, and got amazing info a few months ago.

 

Some dogs do great on prescription dogfood, like msjpk's Lou, and some don't like my Diana. I asked every dumb question there is and got amazing info from GT.