Renal failure - what to expect.

[spanglyspaniel]

Hi - just looking for some advice from anyone who has been here before. We have just found out our cocker spaniel has renal failure. He's only 10 and while I know that's oldish, we thought we had a good few years yet, but vet has said that with a changed diet some dogs live for up to another year from diagnosis... which is just heartbreaking as we are clearly talking months at best.

I'm totally devastated, not least for my eldest DC8 who sees the dog as a big brother, and don't know what to say to him about it as need to prepare him and I know he will be in bits...

thing is how do we know just how close the end is?

He's clearly unwell, he's been in the vet overnight on a drip as we think he ate something that's upset his stomach yesterday and he was sick, off his food (v unusual, eats everything) and shaking, with bloodshot eyes. Vet initially gave him an anti nausea injection and sent him home, but then he was just standing in our house not moving, not lying down, swaying and looking like he was going to collapse, and then he did fall over (it looked like he was literally falling asleep on his feet) which was awful to see - so we took him back in and that's when he got the drip and the blood test and we found out from the blood test that his kidneys are failing.

He ate this morning at the vet, but when he got home he immediately had diarrhoea on the floor 🙈 and has been sleeping ever since.

I'm scared that we are assuming he's eaten something he shouldn't and that's why he's so bad, but what if it's the kidneys and he's actually further on in the disease than we think and we haven't even got months? How do we know? Also, when will we know he's near the end? I'm so so sad for him, he's a lovely dog and usually so full of beans. I just can't believe it tbh, but feel I really need to get my head around it and prepare myself so I can be there for DC when we tell him.
Any advice? Thank you

My dog was diagnosed at stage 2 due to urination in the house. This was 2.5 years ago and she’s still going strong just with the renal food. She’s a boxer and 11 years old. She’s still full of life.

Diagnosing kidney failure when there's vomiting and diarrhoea going on is tricky as levels (including the SDMA) will be raised due to dehydration. Have they done a urine sample yet to confirm? If I had levels raised when an animal was ill for other reasons I would normally recheck when they are feeling better with repeat bloods and a urine sample to confirm and assess the level of chronic disease. For example the other day we had a dog that was otherwise ill and it's kidney levels were unreadable, the next day they were normal after treatment. I would focus on getting your dog through this illness and recheck before panicking about the future for now. Any changes seen over that time will also give you a better idea of prognosis as well. Fingers crossed it may not be as bad as it seems right now

[quote spanglyspaniel]@Suzi888 sorry meant to say, the blood test that confirmed after the ultrasound was the SDMA test. The previous test showed slightly elevated markers for something being up with his kidneys but not majorly. [/quote]
^ Yes that’s it. Mine had slightly elevated creatine markers.
He had a torn knee so had to go to a specialist for the op and they carried out the blood test. When they rang to update me they told me he had chronic kidney disease- and said they were very sorry. I was VERY upset. Since then I’ve had him tested and the markers are still there, his readings are 164- but new vet said a dog with disease will usually have 200/300 or 400 even. So I would ask for the normal range and your dogs reading to give you some understanding of how bad it is.

I have blood tests to monitor him once every six months (he has to have the test anyway as he takes pain relief, so they won’t give it to me if I don’t test him, so it’s just another tube of blood).

You are allowed to give them scrambled egg white - no yolk and carrots as a treat- if you boil them don’t add salt in the water. No cheese/crisps. Be careful with anything greasy/roasted and no ham.

I hope your dog will be ok and enjoy a bit more life yet.

Our 14 year old dog was diagnosed in jan 21. I took him to the vet because he was vomiting and refused any food.
The vet said according to his bloods he shouldnt even be alive anymore and she couldnt believe that he was fine just a day before.
We put him on a drip for the day and switched his food. The vet told us to prepare because most dogs dont live with it for very long and his stage was so advanced.
Honestly, i wouldnt talk to your kids about him dying. Just let them know he is sick when he has toilet accidents. Then if something does happen you can talk to your kids and say “remember how he has been sick recently…”
I prepared my kids for the worst over a year ago and our dog is still going strong.

He had a really bad episode last october because our second dog died quite suddenly. He started refusing his kidney food and we started feeding him other stuff. Then he was vomiting again.. but he has recovered again and he has been fit and happy ever since.
We know that he wont be with us forever, but we take it one day at a time for as long as he is happy.

You will notice if he feels bad because they feel nauseous. Throw up, stop eating, lick their lips a lot. If he does that its time to see the vet again.

If he seems hungry have you tried him with fish? They’ll often eat that when refusing everything else. Plain white fish would probably be best but I’ve yet to have a dog that refused a tiny bit of tinned salmon or tinned sardine. Sometimes if you can get just a little bit into them it starts them eating again. You could try Promax paste too, I always keep some in their cupboard. You can buy it online, no prescription needed , cheaper than the vet by far, fro the online reputable vet med suppliers. VetUk do their own which is exactly the same, it’s the one I buy.
VetUk

Hi - just to update - our dog was retested a couple of weeks after the initial episode and his bloods were slightly improved from before, but still not great. The SDMA test was at 56 (whatever that means) at the first bloods, but down to 50 in the follow up. Vet said that the first test had him at the start of stage 4 for KD, but that the follow up had him more in end of stage 3, so a glimmer of positive news. She also said his creatine levels were more like stage 2/3 though as they weren't as bad. We are having another check up in 3 months, he's eating enthusiastically again - on the special kibble - always hungry. He seems largely ok in himself and you wouldn't really know there was anything wrong with him except that if he doesn't go for a walk one day, he's not bothered, so he's clearly less energetic than he used to be. But no vomiting etc since that episode, and he seems generally happy. I just wish I knew roughly how long we have, firstly so I can prepare for how to tell the kids, but also, just from a practical point of view as we are thinking about holidays etc and last thing I want to happen is to go abroad in summer or Xmas and him take a turn for the worse while we are away and not be here with him 😢.

Hi @spanglyspaniel glad your dog is keeping food down and seems ok, despite elevated levels. Is the vet able to give you an indication of when things may worsen at all?

Its hard isn’t it, in the same position with my Lab, (different ailment) can’t really make plans right now.