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Maggie's Story - Kidney Failure - Part 1

My beautiful fur child is Maggie, a 15 year old Pomeranian cross.  Maggie is my first fur child and I've raised her since she was a pup.  Last summer my vet recommended that Maggie get her teeth cleaned.  I was worried about him putting her under anesthetic so I requested a geriatric screen.  Everything came back ok, her kidney levels were slightly elevated but still in the "normal" range and that she was healthy.  I went ahead with the teeth cleaning and he recommended that she eat KD soft dog food as a treat twice a day.  She loved it, went wild for it and then I asked my vet if I should switch her hard kibble to the KD hard kibble, he said yes.  She loved that too.  But then a month later that changed and she refused both the soft and hard KD.  She refused her old dog food and treats.  She started to loose weight and was very weak.  Maggie was always food motivated so to see this happen was devastating.  Maggie could be sound asleep in my room, the tv is loud in the living room and she would come running if I opened the fridge or a bag of chips!  This ten pound dog risked it all and jumped onto a kitchen chair then onto the kitchen table and then onto to the kitchen counter and stole a whole loaf of bread!  That's determination so to see her like this breaks my heart.  The vet ran some tests and she was now in kidney failure.  How does that happen in a matter of a month or two.  My vet prescribed an appetite pill but she still didn't want the KD so I then tried other kinds of soft dog foods and she would like them for a week and then turn her nose up to them.  The vet then suggested to fix her hamburger and rice.  She liked that for a bit and then she wouldn't eat it.  I have literally spent hundreds of dollars on different kinds of dog food and people food.  I have tried everything imaginable including all of the suggestions listed in this community. Her current diet is chicken nuggets and vegetable beef soup...sounds awful to feed her that but the way my vet put it is, it's better that she eat something than nothing and keep her strength up.  Even when it comes to chicken nuggets she's picky, first she would only eat Costco chicken nuggets now she only like the Janes brand from Safeway.  My advise to anyone in the same situation....try anything and everything.  I never fed Maggie "people" food her whole life except the odd time for a little taste.  Her appetite changes too.  For a couple weeks she was eating 4 meals a day now she only wants supper and a midnight snack.  I know how devastating it is to watch your dog not eat.  Things that I have tried: scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, fried ground pork-turkey-beef, rice, beef veggie soup, chicken nuggets, meatballs, sausage, hotdogs, lunchmeat, Rotisserie  chicken, Rotisserie turkey, baked ham, hashbrowns, cooked carrots and potatoes, cottage cheese....I'm sure there's more.  Maggie has had bouts of diarrhea (not fun because she has lost muscle mass and her hind legs are weak so she loses her balance and often steps on it...), vomiting, incontinence.  I work during the day and Maggie always "held", same thing with at night but not anymore, not for many, many months.  I come home on my lunch hour to be with her and she can't even hold 4 hours.  I have never used so much rug cleaner in my entire life but then I started laying pee pads wherever there's carpet, so about 15 pee pads.  I get about 3 hours of sleep a night because she wakes me up twice to go to the bathroom.  I have insomnia and I'm a full time single Mom so that part *****.  People think I'm crazy for doing all of this but like the others in this group, Maggie is my child, she just happens to have fur and 4 legs.  

To be continued....have to pick up my daughter and rush home to fur child Maggie.
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1916673 tn?1420233270
A not untypical story here, I'm sad to say. Obviously, the chicken nuggets is a concern, because it will have all kinds of bad things in it - even the chicken is probably the lowest grade you can buy. On a more positive note, has your vet tried Mirtzapine? This can have wondrous effects on inappetence, stress and other kd symptoms.

Also, if you know the blood numbers, let me have them - particularly for BUN, creatinine, phosphorus, RBC, potassium, calcium and amylase.

Tony
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