Kidney Disease Signs

[hthackrey]

I had a dalmation, that is past on for 3 years now.  She began acting strange and showing signs of old age when she was 11 years old.  She had a severe thirst for several years, but then for about a week prior to her death, she stopped eating (this was very weird for her), and then we woke one morning to her not wanting to wake to go out to potty.  Once she did get up, she started walking in cirlces....and had a real hard time stopping.  Prior to this happening, for years she had this non stop twitching and almost to the point she would stand in front of you and act as if she were falling asleep and then she would catch herself before she would fall over.  Could all these symptoms be signs of her going into kidney failure?  When we took her to the vet the morning she started walking in circles, they said without testing her (which I did not want to put her through because of the severity of her symptoms), but they thought it could be liver failure or some sort of nervous system disorder....needless to say, they never said anything about kidney failure.  We have a friend who just recently had a male dalmation who started the same signs...and they told him he was in kidney failure.  It is bizarre to know someone who's own dog was going through the same symptoms....although his were only for 3 days....Amber's went on for years (the thirst and twitching), only the eating and circling thing lasted a short time.  Could you enlighten me on what might have been wrong.  

[Jaybay]

Ditto what Ghilly said.  When the toxins that the kidneys can no longer filter build up very high in the bloodstream, they pass the blood-brain barrier and cause these kinds of symptoms.  I saw it in my dog who died of kidney failure.  Very sad because there is really nothing to be done when kidney failure is advanced, which it usually is by the time symptoms become noticeable.  :-(

[Ghilly]

Seizure activity and signs of neurological problems are common in dogs that are in the end stages of kidney failure due to the buildup of toxins in the body, so it's entirely possible that what you observed was the result of the kidney failure.

Ghilly  

[have 2 kids]

We have had two dogs with kidney failure.  Neither of them acted that way.   It does sound like a nervous system disorder.