Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 11:24 am Post subject: Labrador puppy renal failure - Belle
Hi my lovely chocolate lab Belle was diagnosed with juvenile renal dysplasia at 6 months old. She has been on a prescription diet (Hills KD) and meds ever since and has been doing great, outwardly. However her kidneys are failing and after episodes of shivering and refusing to eat a couple of weeks ago she was admitted to the vets to have IV fluids for 48 hours and had more bloodwork done; her urea levels are now at 30 and creatinine at 9.9. We and the vet feel that we don't want her to keep repeating the fluids, certainly not at a high frequency so our aim was to keep her eating, which she was doing again at the vets. Within a day or so of coming home she started to refuse the KD so we put her back onto her favourite kibble and now we are onto a different kind which she took a liking to once seeing my brother's dog eating it! Now she is refusing this too. Has anyone had any experience with labs in kidney failure refusing to eat and did anything work to build up their appetite again? We are willing to try 'human' food but not sure what or anything that may keep her going a little while longer. She is still such a wonderful lively puppy who still greets us so happily and enjoys her walks! She is still fighting so we want to fight for her as long as we can. Any advice would we welcome, thanks.
I'm so sorry I have no advice to offer, but just want to send my best thoughts and wishes to you and your little girl Belle.
Good luck, hope someone can suggest something that works for you.
Sue x
____________
Sue - With Megan and Billy too!
´´Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole´´
I know somone on the boxer forum had a bitch with kidney failure at a young age - it was a while ago so bear with me as lot on for work today but I promise I will hunt out the threads for you - she had put a lot of information on there.
No experience of kidney problems but I did have a golden retriever with liver problems.
As it was obvious that her special diet was helping her we did try to persist with it. She was determined that she didn't want it so we spoon fed her it, i.e. softened it and then blended it. She did eventually start eating it herself but she was never keen.
In the meantime we did home cook for her, i.e. white fish, chicken, scambled eggs etc. However, the biggest success rate with encouraging her to eat her kibble was to crumble a bit of mint kit kat on it.
Hoping you manage to find something soon that she will eat. I know how well how you feel as its so hard with a sick dog, especially when they are so young.
Had a quick look at the posts on the boxer forum.. quite a lot to go through but found this to start with
"she has been on the ipakitine for quite a while now, was told that that was 'last chance saloon stuff', she really picked up and had remained steady on this stuff for a while. It has certainly done the trick for the time she has been on it. She is uninterested in her prescription diet - which is normal for a dog in her condition"
sorry - going to copy and paste the posts so you can see it rather than me compiling a precis.... Dee sadly died last year but lived a lot longer than anticipated with all her problems. Apparently some dogs with kidney problems can become incontinent, there were a lot of suggestions about the best products to use.
"Been up to the vets today to discuss the results of Dee's latest tests.
Fisrtly, though, not many will know unless actually met Dee but she is absolutely nuts.
There's hyper and there's hyper but she is in a whole different astranomical level compared to other dogs.
A while ago we got in touch with Burns diet hotline to find out if they had a food to help calm her down a notch or 2.
They recomended their fish based food as it was slightly lower protien.
It worked, a few week after changing she it just seemed to knock the edge off her madness.
Then when we found out about her kidney problems we had to change her to a prescribed renal diet which she's been on nearly 3 week now.
Unfortunately its send her sky rocketing again, to a level even further beyond what it was before.
It's got to the point where it's been politely suggested that it might be good idea if we weren't to go back to agility class.
Knowing that the kidney problems are meant to cause them to be lethargic i wondered if there was something in the renal diet that was to help pep them up a bit.
Vet said "No, it's probably just that she's feeling better in herself"
So now we've to ring round and try find another renal diet that will help calm her down again. Its very wierd as the renal diet in itself is not only special protiens but has an even lower content than the burns she was on.
I think I might have to start taking her for a run on an evening to burn up her energy, used to take my other dog before she got arthritis.
Appart from making sure she has extra water to not dehydrate her kidneys, does anyone know of anything to be careful of with a dog that has renal problems when running them? Forgot to ask the vet.
Right her result, they are still no where near normal but as you'll see, the change towards normal reading in just 3 weeks is just brilliant.
Normanl Urea levels should be between 3.5 and 8.3
She was 1st tested at 26.7
Now she is down to 18.7
Normal creatinine levels should be between 0 and 115
She was 1st tested at 384
Now she is down to 282
Phosphorus should be between 0.9 and 1.7
She's been tested at 1.75 (not sure on original level)
This doesn't look too bad as its only a tiny bit abouve normal upper limit but apparently a small amount can have a big effect.
Her urine specific gravity level was tested at 1.010, normal should be between 1.018 and 1.045.
That means that she's not concentrating it properly and passing more water than she should.
She is still weeing around the house, day and night, but we've seen an improvement in that it is happening less often and the amounts of wee has reduced.
She also has a raised white blood cell count which they say is a sign that the kidneys are likely inflamed.
Basically, reading through it all, we look like we are going to be able to manage this (fingers crossed) long term.
How long that is no one will know but looks like we'll be driven mad (and made to smell of wee) by her looney toons antics for a good while to come. "
"She's on Royal Canin renal food. At the moment she's on the dry food but we sometimes mix in a little of the tinned food of the same stuff to give her bit of veriety.
What ever happens, we won't change her from a renal diet, if we have to cope with the nuttyness then so be it.
We're just going to research the options to see if there is another make of renal food that also has a calming effect.
The priority is to keep her kidneys on top form, reducing the loopyness is a secondary nice to have if possible.
It may be that i can sort her by extra exercise but i'll have to be carefull with that too as she's still young and still developing physically. Don't want to compound her issues by adding joint problems too."
"http://www.urineoff.co.uk/works.html
Not sure if you can find it cheaper anywhere else.
But this is the stuff that they normally have up at Crufts for sale.
Or this is the Simple Solution Stuff that can be bought from Pets At Home and other places
I use this odour killer outside on my shingle and I'm sure you can
use it indoors after testing first to see if it stains..
Big plus point is it's safe for pets "
"Dee has been doing quite well on her special diet but this weekend she had a really bad turn.
She was out of it, being sick, not eating and peeing everywhere.
So yesterday we had her up at the vets to see what could be done, typical though, she'd come round a bit and was being bouncy again.
Vet said that the kidney issue causes problems with the digestive system (think it effects every system in some way) and the blood vessels in the stomach get inflamed causing pain and bloating.
This inflammation can then also lead to infection too.
So she recommended some stomach settling tablets and gave her some antibiotics too.
Apparently we can use these tablet, available for humans over counter cheap as chips, when we see her in little discomfort. Brilliant.
Also, we had her weighed. When we first had her tested for kidney issues she was a very skinny 23kg. Now, with the renal diet, she's up at 27kg.
She looks so much better with bit of weight on she keeps gaining and growing.
Still no sign of a season though so not sure if that is something she won't ever have due to the kidney thing "
JRD is a big problem in Flatcoated Retrievers at the moment, in fact there is a DNA test been rushed out for them. Give me a little time and I'll get on to my Flatcoat friends and see how they are living with the problem.
IF only there were kidney transplants or Dialysis for dogs, sadly there is isn't yet.
I can't offer any advice, but hope you have a bit more time together to make more memories.
____________ Natalie x
LAB LINK RESCUE Co ordinator and Forum Administrator for my sins
Jack, Molly & Maia, watched over by Tara Banana from the Bridge
Thank you all for help and best wishes, I'm very grateful for any advice at this stage.
Belle continued to refuse kibble yesterday even when topped with her favourite, peanut butter! Also tried honey but she wasn't interested. She also started to be sick in the evening which is not good sign, the vet recommended bringing her in for an injection to combat the nausea. I tried her with some scrambled egg before taking her in and to make amazement she gobbled it all up AND kept it down. So for now I will continue with the egg and meat/fish and as long as she keeps eating and keeps it down, we can put off the trip to the vets for a while. She also enjoyed a long walk last night so for now she is happy.
I will continue to check his this thread so if anyone else has any views, ideas or advice on dealing with JRD and renal failure then that would be great! Thanks.
I've heard back from my Flatcoat friends. According to the Broad Institute and the Swiss researchers working on this, the definitive diagnosis can only be made after death, by by wedge biopsy, so obviously vets cannot wait until then so have to diagnose using what tools are available to them. So there is a hope that this is not actually JRD.
I have to say though that if it is, then the prognosis is not good. I've been given the email address of someone else who might be able to offer advice so am contacting them now.
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