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4th stage renal failure in my dog

I have a nine year old lab  "Sandy Grace".  She is in fourth stage renal failure-Of course she has seen her regular vet for fluids-ultra sound revealed she has one kidney which is failing.   Creatine was 13-subs at home-now using hollistic and homepatic treatment.  Recently more bad days than good.    I am giving her ice chips which seem to work better for her than lapping.  Pedialyte ice is also better.  She throws up until she staggers and falls-I am continuously trying to hydrate her and giving her baby food-At times, she is able to keep it down,  other times the vomiting is horrible.  She continues to try for us, and we are fighting so hard for her-LIke others, I tuck her in at night (she sleeps on the loveseat with her "bankie" covering her).  I am sleeping in the den with her so I can give her support throughout the night.  Neither of us are getting much sleep.  I have her spoiled now with hand feeding other than her baby food, and I hold her plate while she licks it up.  I am using a recipe of egg yellow / whites, honey, and whole yogurt with a touch of dry powdered milk.  This works sometimes.  Sandy Grace is not ready to leave us-she continues to try-we try for her twenty-four hours a day.  Is there any over the counter medication that I can give her that will help with her vomiting?  We love her so much and she loves us so much-my husband and I feel like we will know when she is ready to go.  We went to grocery store yesterday to  buy more food supplies and liquids for her, when we got home, there she was looking out the window-barking for us to hurry and come inside-you open the door and there she is  - -so excited, still wagging her tail for us.  What can we do, this is our baby, she is so, so sweet-I know her days are numbered, but she is just not ready to leave. Help.    Aggieone
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17833667 tn?1460553807
As long as the Dog is still happy. My Springer died on his 10th year due to Renal Failure. 5 Hours before he died, he was running along w/ my other dog in a preserve area board-walk and also went for a swim chasing THE Ball and jumping off some docks into the H2O.  He ran to me in the house wanting to go outside and then was hiding in the bushes. He started ( appear to )  want to vomit. He ate ( I spoon fed him ) 3 hours earlier. I knew when I saw him, he was dying and called my wife to let her know that I was making arrangements to end his life humanely. He died when I was consoling him in his favourite spot on the sloppy-hill in our side yard. my tears speak of all my emotions that  volumes of written & spoken words CANNOT DESCRIBE my passion for Re'Tale. He was a Therapy Dog that gave back to the community and loved life. He drove me .... and that is another story. Re'Tale was appropriately named. He has a story that will always be told and re-told. I will miss him and always love him.  My wife & I would only eat-out @ dog friendly places so we could take our 2 dogs ( Charm- American PitBull / Australian Cattle Dog  - Rescue from age 5 ). Ace & Home Depot's were familiar territory to them as well as customers & employees. The magnitude of all this, is, not many heart felt emotions come around in life, the kind that love brings and when no longer w/ us hurts. Memories & knowing he was happy to the end, makes it all worth while. I want to feel this again, not too soon, but again, It is what makes us human.
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Feeling such great empathy for your post. Our Springer is also 10, a kind and good soul and also on his last day or two with this horrible disease. It is such a cruel thief of our wonderful companions. Wishing I knew best practical steps to create his best comfort but these threads don't seem to contain that specific advice. Not ready to euthanize. His sentiments, not mine. This is the worst pergatory. What can I do?
1916673 tn?1420233270
Hi. I am very disappointed your vet did not prescribe to you how much SubQ fluids to give. The blood numbers are very high, suggesting quite late stage kidney failure. Did the vet undertake a blood pressure test? If not, that needs to be done. Did the vet ask for a urine sample so specific gravity could be checked? If not, that also needs to be done.

I would suggest 20ml fluid for every kilogram of body weight in one spot - so you could inject 200ml in one go in a 10 kilogram dog. The vet needs to prescribe the amount of fluid. If it is more than the calculation for one spot, you should move to another spot to insert the remaining amount of sub q fluid up to the actual dosage amount.

The other question I have is what type of fluid has been given? The best for kd dogs is usually Lactated Ringers, unless there is a low sodium count in the blood results, in which case saline is preferred.

Tony
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I agree with Tony.  SubQ fluids will help so much. I think of it as crude dialysis for my dog who can't get dialysis. The extra fluids help flush some of the toxins out that the kidney can't do anymore. My 15 y.o Shih Tzu was diagnosed with kidney failure 10 months ago.  He weighed 16 lbs at the time.  We started with 100 ml every other day.  For the last 6 months, he has been on 350 ml everyday.  His CREA has ranged from 5-14. 14 was when he was dehydrated. He was back to 6.7 yesterday. Our vet also likes to switch off between Lactated Ringers to Normosol to Sodium Chloride depending on his electrolytes (which shows up on n his bi-weekly blood test). A simple test to chc k if he's dehydrated is to pinch the loose skin on his scruff.  Pinch, lift and twist.  If the skin takes a long time to flatten out, then he's dehydrated.  If it flattens out immediately, he should be hydrated.
     Kudos that Bailey is still eating. My Riley stopped eating 5 days ago but we supplement with Ensure Plus and NutriCal so he gets liquid meals.
     As for vomitting, I found that Metoclopramide works wonders for Riley.  He has also been on Cerenia.  Best of luck BaileyGirlMom!  I know how much we love our kids!
Avatar universal
Hi Tony,

I finally have numbers for you.  We took Bailey to her doctor on 1/8/16 and they were as follows:
100 BUN
5.7 CREA
18 BUN/CREA

The doctor said that she was dehydrated and we decided to give her the SubQ fluids.  We haven't given her any sense because we were trying to see if it made a huge difference.  She seems to be acting the same as usual.  She is still eating and always waiting for food.  She tries to drink water and she still loves to eat ice but I know it isn't enough to flush out the toxins in her body.  I'm new to all of this so I have no idea how often we're supposed to give her the SubQ fluids.  She is starting to heave like she is trying to throw up but nothing comes out (it is so loud when she does it).  She sometimes stumbles when she's walking.  

Any advice is appreciated.  I know she is not well.  I just want her to be comfortable and happy to be with her family while she's still with us.  
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441382 tn?1452810569
This thread is 8 years old with over 900 responses.  There is very little chance that you will receive an answer from the person you posted to because, while there ARE quite a few regulars who post here, for the most part once the people who ask questions have their answers they move on and do not come back.

It would be much better if you started a new thread for your question and gave us a brief explanation of what is going on and then asked your question.  The trouble with these very old threads is that the Community Leaders really don't monitor them any more, that's why we make posts asking newcomers to PLEASE not tack their questions onto the ends of existing posts, but to start a new thread for their question.  By the time a thread has many, many comments to it like this one we can't even figure out who is asking what of whom.  Please start a new thread.

Ghilly
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17005792 tn?1452982808
Not sure if you still monitor this thread, but if you do, would you mind telling me how long Vinny lived after this and if you chose to assist in his death or let him go naturally.  I got my dogs bloodwork back today and it is quite similar to Vinny's levels.  My Vet told me he doesn't have long (7-10 days) and I'm wondering what to do and what he will go through in the next week.  Any insight?

Sue
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1916673 tn?1420233270
You are very welcome. I'll wait to hear from you.

Tony
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