CHF with early kidney failure

[caroed]

hello,  just  found this site last night,  so wish I had seen it  weeks months  back,  
my conner cairn terrier,  has CHF ,collapsing trachea , and now  early stage kidney failure, the vet said there was nothing to do but keep in him comfortable, that was it,  I had taken him in cause he was  vomiting, and I thought was constipation she said no was  diarrhea , gave meds  for that  he is straining so hard, meds  worked,  he seemed almost back to normal, I had made arrangement to let him go,  but canceled after he seemed better over Fri, Sat and part of sunday,  then he stopped eating again,  it is now wed, he is still straining to go, it went from almost  normal back to thin liquidy, still drinking  some but no where near as much as he was, and loosing weight. he is getting 4 lasiks a day 2 morning and night along with 1 1/2  pill for heart each time, plus remidahl for pain no mention was made about cutting or stoping the lasiks

[tonyb286]

Hi. I am very sorry for your loss. This was never going to be an easy or straightforward combination of illnesses to deal with .. and the outcome was never going to be very good.

Run free Conner.

Tony

[caroed]

thank you.
conner was laid to rest today at 2; pm after our final return from his vet.

[tonyb286]

Hi. I think your vet has it fairly well covered. The Lasix is the best option for CHF and for CKF. It does work well in helping manage both serious illnesses. The real problem is these two issues are at loggerheads with each other, because helping the CHF will ultimately damage the kidneys (medications, etc) - while helping the kidney disease will damage the CHF, because it means withholding certain treatments that would otherwise benefit it. So, the best option is to prioritise on a daily or weekly basis ... treating the illness with priority (the one that seems worse at that point). It's never easy treating both these illnesses in combination.

One point worth mentioning, if your dog is still refusing foods (due to toxin build-up), then ask your vet to prescribe a suitable anti-nausea medication This will almost certainly help improve food intake.

Hope that helps.

Tony