Where to start for Tinkerbell 8 y/o w/ allergies kidney failure?

[Tinksmama]

Just a (very) short background. My dog Tinkerbell has had some bladder issues (reoccurring bladder infections, crystals in the bladder) and allergies (hives) off and on since she was a couple years old. She increasingly became allergic to all the dog food we tried even her prescription hydrolyzed dog food (hives all over her body).  I found information on Plechner's syndrome online and took Tink to another vet who tested her blood and started steroid treatment-after learning her thyroid and immunology panels were all low.  We also switched her food to Natural Balance duck and potato dry food. At the time December 2015 her creatinine was 1.1, BUN was 37.  Since December, she has not had hives a single time. I thought she was doing well.

She recently was peeing in the bed at night, I was prescribed Proin for her.  The next two days she lied around and vomited a couple times.  I assumed it was a reaction to the Proin-as she has had negative reactions to meds in the past.  The vet asked me to bring her in.  I took her in last Monday 5/16/16 her BUN was 107 and her creatinine was 4.1+.  They kept her for 3 days on fluid Iv's and her creatinine went down to 2.4 and BUN went down to 62. They sent her home and put her on the royal canine renal food and subcutaneous fluids twice a week.  She has since had normal stool with a small amount of blood followed by diarrhea with more blood.  I have given her plain yogurt the past two days but may stop that now. The vet wants to put her back on her old food Natural Balance-I got the can instead of the kibble and wants me to give her famotidine for the diarrhea.  

She is still drinking some water and peeing.  She seems a little weak and I can tell she has lost some weight in the past 2-3 weeks since this all started.  Her appetite is fair.  She vomited once Thursday 5/19, but hasn't since then.

I don't know what to do! I have read soooo much information over the past week my head is spinning.  Should I give her the famotidine or try something else? keep giving her plain yogurt or another probiotic? we don't know her allergies so I am hesitant to give her flavored supplements.


Should I give her the can natural balance duck and potato or try something else?



I already asked about the steroids causing kidney problems and they do not believe it is causing them since her liver panels are so good.  

[Tinksmama]

Thank you very much for your response.

[tonyb286]

Hi. This is quite a tricky one to respond to. The blood values put her in stage 2 of kidney disease. That means a restricted protein diet (as in all prescription kd dog foods) is not necessary just yet. Once she moves into stage 3, then it becomes much more significant. However, any protein that is given should be the highest quality, and that means ideally human grade meats and poultry.

In the case of allergies, it is often productive to use unusual proteins. Something ideally your dog has not had before. So duck is a good one, so too is rabbit. Dry foods are invariably bad for all dogs (they contains lots and lots of preservatives and chemicals), but they are much worse for kidney dogs as they contain no water content at all (cans have about 80%) and the preservatives in kibble dramatically increases the toxins in the canine body.

You may never find out what started the allergies ... and once an allergy starts to become a problem, a dog seems to become even more sensitive to an ever-increasing list of things. It is indeed the immune system that's at fault here and there is no easy remedy.

I would stick to the old diet (canned) for now and see how things go. Supplement with pure coconut oil or pure organic salmon oil (with a vitamin E cap) or natural honey - in rotation - and just a teaspoon dose of each ingredient. You should also add a little amount of cooked chopped green cabbage, which will help offset any stomach ulcers forming. To help the kidneys, feed tiny amounts every 2 to 3 hours if that's practical. Smaller and more frequent amounts prevent the kidneys being stressed by having to deal with a large meal all at once.

Has your vet undertaken a blood pressure check? This is very important and needs doing if it hasn't already been done.

The only problem I have with Natural Balance is the fat content, which is a huge 44%. This may ultimately give rise to pancreatitis, if you aren't very careful with it. It's actually a reasonably good dog food, but that's one very big drawback. What you might do is try giving half the usual amount and then substitute the remainder with a few kidney friendly ingredients that you also know won't cause issues with the allergy. It may take a little trial and error to work it out, but I'm sure it would be worthwhile.

Tony