Chronic Kidney Failure in Dogs User Group

[tonyb286]

If anyone wishes to join the Group (your input and participation will be appreciated) or anyone that has a dog with Chronic Kidney Failure and wants information, advice or support ... please click the following link: http://www.medhelp.org/groups/chronic_kidney_failure_in_dogs

Tony

[ginger899]

It's hard for me to give an opinion. Age 15 many people would not choose to go down the surgery route with their dog. But my girl had a half breast-strip age 14 and completely bounced back from that! (Something else -quite unrelated to the breast issues or the successful surgery came and took her in the end.)

If you do decide to have his teeth extracted, ask the vet to be especially careful with him, and to put him on fluid support during the surgery. That is iportant with kidney issues. The anesthetics themselves according to my own vet, are safer than they used to be and less stressful for older dogs.

Then he will need good nursing care and support afterwards. You can expect he will take a little longer to recover than a 4 year old would. And at first may be off his food because his gums may be too sore to enjoy eating. But careful nursing will help.

[tonyb286]

Hi. Fairly typical of me ... I couldn't leave it ... so here I am. Firstly, the good news is that most of the blood levels are absolutely normal. It's a bit tricky sometimes, because the normal v abnormal levels are slightly different in the US to the UK, because labs do the work in a slightly different way - so it all took a little double-checking on my part.

There are some very interesting results, however, which need attention. First, the white cell count is about 100% above normal, which means there's an infection somewhere. It's more than likely it will be a urinary tract infection, which is common with kidney disease, but your vet can confirm it. It needs treating. Antibiotics are not ideal in kidney disease, but needs must.

Next, the red blood count is actually high, not low, according to my understanding. And this is very likely due to dehydration. This makes fluid therapy much more important. If I were you, I would ask about starting Sub-Q fluids at home. This wouldn't be forever, but just long enough to get your dog rehydrated and it will help flush toxins too.

The usual indicators of kidney disease when it's out of control, include high BUN (blood urae nitrogen) and creatinine. The levels you have given me show BUN to be just within normal limits, but creatinine is high (upper limit is normally 138).

It's more than likely the kidney disease is causing the high creatinine. Get the kidney disease stable, and the creatinine will reduce.

Phosphorus is just above normal. This can be reduced further by maintaining a good kidney specific dog food diet. Once it's within normal limits, you should ask your vet about starting your dog on a phosphorus binder.

Amylase (AMY) is just slightly high. This may be due to the kidney disease, but equally it could be a blip, because amylase can alter suddenly due to a variety of day-to-day events, including food intake. I think your vet has identified this as indicative of anaemia, but I'm not convinced, given the other readings.

One of the levels that is very high is TP - this stands for total protein. Proteins are very hard for kidney disease dogs to process, which is why the TP is showing so high. The answer is to reduce the protein intake dramatically - again, this means keeping to a strict kd tinned diet - or devising a very low protein home cooked diet - or only using high quality proteins, such as human grade chicken.

A lot of information, I know, but hope it helps you decide on some management interventions.

Tony

[Debsbrett]

Yes, that will be fine. Thank you. I am going to see if she will try and eat some hamb/rice mixture... will try and teaspoon. The vet has some anti-nausea meds, not sure of the name... will post when I get it. There are two meds and not sure what they are for. But any help is so worth a try to make her feel comfortable. :)

[tonyb286]

Hi. Thank you for typing that little lot ... must have been a pain to do. Let me take a look at the relevant figures and get back to you. At first glance, the kidney levels don't look dreadful and not nearly as bad as I was first thinking. I've certainly seen much worse. But, I realise the kidney levels are only part of the story ... the white cell count and red cell count are more relevant here, I think. It's late now in the UK, so I may have to get back to you tomorrow, hope that's okay.

Tony

[Debsbrett]

Also a couple more figures.... I'm thinking this one is her red blood cell count. June 8 it was 26.0 and June 13 it was 14.8 (HCT). They circled this as well: WBC June 8 it was 16.4 and June 13 it was 30.7.

Thank you.

[Debsbrett]

Hi Tony, I got the lab results, don't quite understand what they mean, but there are a lot of figures with astericks beside them so I'm sure its not good. I'll post here two readings one from June 8, 2015 and one from June 13, 2015. I went to the vet and both are busy but will get back to me shortly on what Max can eat her anemia and some anti-nauseau meds. She ate the watermelon! She is drinking water and has not thrown up or had the runs (so far) today. She even walked out onto the deck (a short distance) and enjoyed a bit of sun. She is in her kennel now and lays a foot away from me while I type at the kitchen table. Here are her lab results:

June 8, 2015    
ALB 23      25-44 G/L
ALP 28     20-150 U/L
ALT  59    10-118 U/L
AMY  1296   200-1200 U/L
TBIL  5   2-10 UMOL/L
BUN 42.9  2.5-8.9 MMOL/L
CA  2.25  2.15 - 2.95 mmol/l
PHOS 2.43  0.95-2.13 MMOL/L
CRE  319  27-124 UMOL/L
GLU 7.3  3.3-6.1 MMOL/L
NA+ 138  138-160 MMOL/L
K+ 4.7  3.7-5.8 MMOL/L
TP 46  54-82  G/L
GLOB  23   23-52 G/L
QC OK   HEM 0    LIP 0  ICT 0

JUNE 13/2015 (After receiving fluids IV for two days)

ALB 18
ALP 35
ALT 56
AMY 1135
TBIL 5
BUN 23.2
CA 2.20
PHOS 2.53
CRE 200
GLU 5.7
NA+ 144
K+ 4.2
TP 46
GLOB 28
QC OK   HEM 0 LIP 0   ICT 0