Overnight Urination

[Lloyd1073]

Hi everyone.

My 4 year old dog was diagnosed with CKD last month. Since then she's been on sub q fluids (500ML once a day). She's still incredibly active (she's still very interested in playing with her brother and chasing balls in the back yard and we still go to the beach and swim and chase tennis balls and walk the beach at least once a week). Her appetite had been a little off but she would still eat people food as well as treats when offered even though she often turned her nose up at her regular food. I have since started cooking her food and she eats every meal (she would, I'm sure, eat more if I gave it to her). She's on Epakatin to keep her phosphorous low and some vitamins.

This was diagnosed in routine blood work at a physical. She had lost a couple of pounds but wasn't underweight according to the vet. I just wanted to check her out  just in case. My point being, if you looked at her and her behavior you wouldn't have suspected anything was off. Her BUN and Creatinine numbers  came back extraordinarily high (by her numbers she's Stage 4 though she has no other clinical signs -- no lethargy, no high blood pressure, electrolytes were fine as were the rest of her CBC results --- all within normal range -- in fact, based on her clinical presentation they ran a bunch of other tests because they couldn't reconcile her kidney numbers with the rest of her presentation).

We are doing everything we can to support her and keep her comfortable and her life as normal as possible. The only thing that we're struggling with which has started over the past couple of days is that she's having trouble holding her urine while she sleeps. She's not fully letting go of her bladder but does seem to be leaking urine from time to time when she's crated and asleep. I don't mind continually washing her bedding but I'm wondering if anyone has come up with clever solutions to manage that and keep the dog comfortable in case it happens when I'm not home and can't change out her bedding for dry bedding.

[ginger899]

I'm sorry you didn't get an answer before.

My own dog (who passed away in 2012) was diagnosed with 'early-stage' kidney failure in late summer 2011. Her only symptoms were drinking more than usual, and wetting the bed! This came on suddenly.
Her BUN and creatinine were elevated but not phosphorus. All her other blood values read 'normal.

Her energy, love of life, and general condition were excellent.

The vet immediately put her on ACE inhibitors (to increase renal blood flow) and a renal diet. The diet was quite strict but as weeks went by and her elevated values dropped somewhat, she was allowed treats like scrambled eggs, chicken breast, white fish, as well as the prescription diet. And she was always allowed vegetables.

This had results within weeks. Within days she stopped wetting the bed (I used doggy-diapers for those few days, and prior to her treatment, which was not a long time of her wearing diapers but they helped a lot. I also bought incontinence sheets for the bed. They were very useful. All I had to do was take off the top sheet in the morning and wash it, and wipe down the plastic incontinence sheet, before putting a fresh sheet on top.)

Okay, within days the treatment was starting to have some effects and she stopped wetting the bed. I measured her water intake every day, and that started to drop too.

On her first month check, the BUN and creatinine values had come down.

On her 2-monthly check they had come down again. By early Spring 2012 they had come right down to mid-normal. The vet said he would never have known she'd ever had kidney problems. She was happy, healthy and well.

Unfortunately (and no-one saw this coming) she passed from Hemangiosarcoma that June, aged one month short of 15.