Canine kidney disease stage 3- advice needed

[Carrotcakeforbreakfast]

Hi all

I'm looking for advice and trying to do what is right by my old girl. She is 15 and 10 months young and I was told a couple of days ago that she has stage 3 kidney disease.
I took her to the vets last week as she was drinking more and had a few accidents while she was asleep. Up until then she had been fine but a geriatric

The vet has advised a renal diet and some tablets to support the blood flow to her kidneys. I have found some supplements online with good reviews which I'm going to speak to the vet about today to have alongside hopefully.

I had a cat die from renal failure and I know how awful it can be. My ddog isn't poorly yet. She seems happy other than the thirst and is still eating. She has lost weight though.
It is basically a very different scenario to our cat as the first time we saw something wrong with her it was days not months or weeks. She couldn't stand and that was why we took her.

The vet has said as it is progressive to keep her stable is the aim.

I guess my question is has anyone had a dog with stage 3 renal disease and what was it like? What happened and in terms of time how much time did you have.
We have a holiday of a lifetime booked for June and I think I'm going to cancel. She stays with my parents but while she is poorly I can't comprehend going.

Also I have decided against the prescription food and try a homemade renal diet instead. Has anyone got any recipes or advice on vitamins I need to give?

Sorry if this seems a long ramble. I am utterly heartbroken and can't really think straight.

I keep telling myself she is an old girl but it isn't helping my pain right now.

Thank you

[ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs]

so sorry to hear this. Kidney disease in dogs is unfortunately, as your vet said, progressive, which means treatment is aimed at stopping it getting worse and making the dog feel better. The renal diet is the main thing that does this really, but it's impossible to predict how long she's got. I've had patients in the past who, going by their blood results, should be far sicker than they were, and others who were the opposite.
The fact she is still eating and happy is a good sign. Some dogs go gradually downhill, while others seem great until suddenly they are not. I don't really have any extra supplements to recommend, but sometimes if appetite decreases there are things your vet could give you.

[TheKitchenWitch]

I'm really sorry, I've been through this with my old girl and it's very hard.
We only noticed that there was something wrong when she stopped eating, and by then it was too late to really do anything except try and keep her stable. Both our dogs were raw fed, but I then changed to a special cooked diet, I'll see if I can find the page I got the recipes from.

The thing which really helped her was getting under-the-skin hydration injections, rather than intraveinous (sorry if I'm getting the terminology wrong as we are not in the UK, so never had to use these terms in English).

She was tired much quicker and was generally slower and sleepier. However, she also had weeks where she was ok and clearly still enjoying life. She came on holiday with us as usual, we just took things a bit slower and I did take her to the vet there once for her injections.

Towards the end she frequently lost control of her bladder and had awful diarrhoea.
She was 11 years old (parson russel terrier), which is not that old for a small breed. Sadly, it was only about 5 months from diagnosis to making the decision to pts.

I really feel for you, it's hard to go through at any time, we love our pups so much.

[Carrotcakeforbreakfast]

Thank you both for your posts. They're really helpful.

The vet mentioned fluid therapy but then said considering how stressed she got from the blood test that she probably wouldn't.
I want to keep her happy and comfortable but I want to be realistic as she is so old and she really does hate going to the vets. I feel like putting her through injections would reduce the quality of her life. Yet potentially increase the quantity.
But I would rather be happy for X amount than unhappy for y amount if that makes sense.

[Carrotcakeforbreakfast]

I'm not sure what her bun score is and I'll be asking the vet later but her creatanine is 359.

[Floralnomad]

My sisters elderly dog had end stage renal failure last year, it was diagnosed in October and he was also severely anaemic , the vet thought he should be pts but for various reasons that wasn’t possible at the time . He survived until March just pottering about and doing his own thing when he did go downhill rapidly , prior to that he had a weekly injection of a vitamin mix and a steroid injection every 3/4 weeks . He also had one lot of subcutaneous fluids . We had trouble getting him to eat anything at all so during that time it was a case of him eating whenever and whatever he wanted just to get something into him . Our vet , who is lovely, was surprised he did as well as he did on the treatment