Hello,
I'm new to this forum. And, like most, I've been researching the internet compulsively to help my dog.
I have a 13+ year old rescue beagle, Gracie. Up until about 4 months ago, she was happy and active. She started drinking a bit more than usual a little over a year ago. I took her in to get her teeth cleaned a year ago and had the usual blood work done. Her vet called and stated all levels were normal, except her BUN was elevated to about 70. He didn't think that was a concern, since her CREA was normal.
Fast forward about 9 months, she's drinking and peeing nonstop. I take her in and the clinic vet runs blood work and urinalysis. She comes back telling me that she has a bladder infection. We treat that with antibiotics, but the excessive drinking and peeing did not stop. More bloodwork, ultra sound.....
The vet diagnosis is Cushings. I asked about kidney disease, but she stated that the urinalysis came back fine. Vetoryl was prescribed, but she still kept drinking and peeing excessively. She had occassional back leg weekness that they thought were back problems reoccurring, so Metacam was prescribed. The leg weekness increased to the point where she could not hold herself up. I continued giving her the Vetoryl, since hind leg weekness is a sign of Cushings.....until she went into a full blown Addisonian crisis last week.
3 days in the hospital...BUN 111, CREA 3.4, phosphorus 13. We took her home after 3 days, and she was so active and so happy. We thought we had our spunky girl back. She was diagnosed with Addison's and prescribed Prednisone. Her numbers were BUN 65, CREA 1.6 when we left....phosphorus was not checked.
It wasn't even 2 days that she vomited and had trouble holding herself up again. She's at the vet currently on her 3rd day of IV with a diagnosis of advanced kidney failure. Her numbers shot back up to where they were during the crash. Their belief now is that she had mild kidney failure which now is advanced due to the Addison's crisis. I'm glued to my computer trying anything that will help her. She was doing really good last night when we took her home, except for some muscle tremors and losing control of her back legs. I have her on k/d food, aluminum phospate, a couple of antiuclers, Azodyl, and the Prednisone for her Addison's. Will start the sub q fluids, too.
I just feel so guilty....she was feeling fine just a few months ago, and now I feel like I've poisoned her.