End stage renal failure

[spooches610]

Hi I'm new to this forum and stumbled onto it while looking for help with my dog not eating. I have a 15 1/2 year old toy poodle named Chloe. She was my daughter's Christmas present in 1994 but has really become my dog over the years. I have noticed Chloe not eating as much and losing weight but attributed it to her advanced age and problems with arthritis. We had her at the Vet's office 3 months ago and he told me she was in pretty good health for her age with the exception on a slight decrease in kidney function and suggested putting her on KD. She has always eaten dry dog food but did not like the KD and I started mixing it with chicken broth to try to get her to eat better. When that failed, I started trying out different foods. They didn't work much better. After a trip to the Vet on April 12, the Vet called and said Chloe was in end stage renal failure. I saw a different Vet from the one I had seen before. She told me her creatinine level was at 6 and wanted to get it down to 3 so they kept her for a couple of days. I told them she would not eat the dry KD so they put her on canned KD and gave her some IV treatments. When I called to check on her they told me her level was down to 4 and let her go home. I went to pick her up and was given a very expensive bill along with a case of KD. The Vet also told me she had some loose stools and gave me pills for that with the recommendation that she take them twice a day. When I got her home I fed her the KD which she ate a little of and then the pill for the loose stool. She started to heave and I took her outside and she staggered, fell, and vomited. She didn't have any more loose stools so I did not give her any more of the pills as they made her so sick. The following day I again offered the KD but she refused to eat it. I called the Vet and she gave me a prescription for canned Royal Canin. She has only eaten small amounts of that and in fact it has taken 2 days to eat 3/4 of one can. She is not drinking as much water either. Has anyone had any luck with a diet I found on line consisting of ground beef, white rice, egg, and white bread slices? It is breaking my heart to see her starving to death. We have given her thin sliced turkey that I'm sure is not good for her since it is processed just to get her to eat something. Of course she readily eats that. I have read many heartbreaking stories on here and as hard as it will be for me, I know I will do the humane thing and put her down once she is unable to hold anything down. This disease seems hopeless and I am very sad.

[tonyb286]

I think if you re-read the post you'll find the owner says they adopted  "TeddyBear about 4 or 5 years ago and at the time I adopted him I was told he had an enlarged heart and poor kidney function." This infers the kidney problem has been ongoing for some considerable time, and it has now progressed. I do not therefore believe it is the KD food, although other parts of the diet may well be causing allergic reactions.. Tony

[loganinlondon]

She seemed fine 3 months before, generally healthy, then AFTER she was given the KD dog food, she was in advanced renal failure???

I THINK THE KD DOG FOOD WAS THE CULPRIT!!!!

[tonyb286]

Hi. I have a feeling there's more going on here than just kidney failure. I'm tempted to suggest an allergic food reaction (which could easily cause the seizures). The problem is, kidney disease can also cause seizures, so nothing is certain. What you really need right now is to determine what state the kidneys are in, and for that your little dog will need to see the vet for a full blood panel test. The results will tell you the stage things are at and what can be done to help. Please have this done, then come back and tell me what the results are (make sure you get a copy of them).

People food is not always a good thing - but only because it depends what you are feeding him. Some things are fine (and even better for kidney failure than ordinary dog food), while other things are extremely toxic to dogs. I have an article that will be helpful to you:

http://www.infobarrel.com/Everyday_Foods_That_Are_Poisonous_To_Dogs

Just check the list and see if there is anything you have or are feeding that may be causing a problem.

There's another article of mine I would like you to read:

http://www.infobarrel.com/Is_Your_Dog_Allergic_To_Its_Food

which will give you more insight into dog food allergies and it will be worth double-checking the info here to ensure nothing obvious is causing a problem. The final article I have for you is on Chronic Kidney Failure and Diet:

http://www.infobarrel.com/How_Diet_Affects_Dogs_with_Chronic_Kidney_Disease

which should give you a whole lot of info about what may be happening and how you can help improve things, albeit for the immediate future.

Finally, please join our special group at Chronic Kidney Failure in Dogs. Go to the Forums tab at the top of the page, mouse over it and click User Groups in the drop-down menu. Next use the search bar to find CHRONIC KIDNEY FAILURE IN DOGS - then join the User Group and post messages or questions there for a much better and more informed response from other members.

Tony

[IlyTBear]

I adopted My little toy Pomeranian, TeddyBear about 4 or 5 years ago and at the time I adopted him I was told he had an enlarged heart and poor kidney function. He never ever acted lethargic or had any symptoms Except maybe that he always did need to drink more water than my other dogs. Other than the water though he really didn't have any other symptoms for the entire time 4 or 5 years I've had him until RECENTLY. A few weeks ago he started to get picky about what flavour of the raw diet we feed him he would eat. Over the past few weeks he has gotten so picky that he would only eat the raw beef but NOW suddenly he won't even eat THAT and 2 days ago he had 7 big seizures that lasted 2 minutes! He will eat people food NO PROBLEM, BY THE WAY. He hasn't had any more seizures in 3 days now and although he won't eat dog food he is VERY interested in our people food still so I seriously am confused because other than the sudden seizures that came and went and other than the super finicky appetite, there are no other new symptoms to indicate end stage CRF.  Is it possible that he is in end stage without any pain or vomiting or diarrhea or constipation etc??? He is very lethargic  but if I force KD into him by diluting it with water and using a syringe or if I let him eat people food, then he has energy again and acts normal and even barks and walks around. I don't know what is going on or what to do. We went out and bought every brand of raw dog food we could find and we bought 7 different brands and flavours of wet dog food including the KD AND MEDICAL. And he won't eat any of them HOWEVER he is extremely interested in our people food! He will eat lots of people food if we let him.
Any comments or ideas or advice?

[tonyb286]

Hello. First, I am very sorry you have received this diagnosis. Kidney disease is harrowing, and that must be more so with a dog of such an incredible age. I would ask you to have a read of my article about it - and about diet - which I think may help you. You can access it here: http://www.infobarrel.com/How_Diet_Affects_Dogs_with_Chronic_Kidney_Disease

Second, please post any additional comments, questions or concerns on the Chronic Kidney Failure in Dogs USER GROUP, as this is where you will get the most answers and from people that have gone through this or are going through this right now with their own dogs. I administrate this Group and I would welcome you as a member. Please join. You can find User Groups under the Forum button at the top of the page. Once in, please use the search bar to find CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE IN DOGS User Group.

Tony

[Mcoward04]

Hi Tony, I have an 18 yr old dashaund. Daisy has just returned home from vet today after I noticed she was stumbling and not eating. I feel horrible bc she lost weight and I figured it was due to her age. Her bun had went from 156 to 74 and creatine 5 to 3. Her phosphorus levels came back down to the normal range. This is bc she has been at vet for 3 days hooked to fluids.  He put her on special canned food diet twice a day and sent her home with antibiotics. She has still been staggering today and sleeping. She ate small amount of canned food tonight also. We go back next Friday to recheck her kidney values. That is unless she gets worse. I am so scared she isn't drinking enough or I am gonna miss something. I cry thinking about what is to come.