Hi,

I just got back from the vet with some depressing news. My 11 year old
border collie was diagnosed with kidney disease today. I don't have the
numbers from the test, but needless to say they were off the chart.

Today they gave my dog 3 liters of fluid intravenously to try to jump
start his kidneys. We'll be doing the same tomorrow and check his
kidney function on Friday. If his kidney function improves by Friday,
we may have some hope of prolonging his life. If not, we'll have to put
him to sleep soon.

I'm guessing others must have been in the same boat as this disease is
fairly common in older dogs. For those of you living with this, what
kind of quality of life does your dog have? Is it hard administering
the treatment (subcutaneous fluid injections)?

Thanks,
Richard Wagenknecht

wrote in message
oups.com...
Today they gave my dog 3 liters of fluid intravenously to try to jump
start his kidneys. We'll be doing the same tomorrow and check his
kidney function on Friday. If his kidney function improves by Friday,
we may have some hope of prolonging his life. If not, we'll have to put
him to sleep soon.

............I'm so sorry. I wonder, though, if they've checked for
Leptospirosis? What were the symptoms that led you to the vet?

Is it hard administering
the treatment (subcutaneous fluid injections)?

........Depends on the dog, but no, generally, it's not a big deal. I'd join
the K9kidney group at Yahoo to get practical information from dog owners.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

He started with diarrhea and vomitting followed by lots of water
drinking and then no appetite.

buglady wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Today they gave my dog 3 liters of fluid intravenously to try to jump
start his kidneys. We'll be doing the same tomorrow and check his
kidney function on Friday. If his kidney function improves by Friday,
we may have some hope of prolonging his life. If not, we'll have to put
him to sleep soon.

...........I'm so sorry. I wonder, though, if they've checked for
Leptospirosis? What were the symptoms that led you to the vet?

Is it hard administering
the treatment (subcutaneous fluid injections)?

.......Depends on the dog, but no, generally, it's not a big deal. I'd join
the K9kidney group at Yahoo to get practical information from dog owners.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

wrote in message
oups.com...
He started with diarrhea and vomitting followed by lots of water
drinking and then no appetite.

...........Hmmmmm, wonder if Lepto is worth mentioning to your vet. Vomiting
I could see being connected to kidney disease, but diarreah is questionable.
And if this came on suddenly perhaps it's not just an old age thing.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. I hope it ends up just being an
infection.

Unfortunately, I just lost a 1 1/2 year old brown standard poodle to
kidney failure last week. We had to put him to sleep on Wednesday.

He started acting funny on Friday night, so I took him to the vet on
Saturday morning, thinking he had an obstruction, since he liked to eat
socks. The gave him some meds to pass anything just in case that was
what it was. The next morning he was not any better, so I took him
back. They ran blood test and the numbers were off the chart also. I
don't remember what they were. They started him on an IV of fluids. On
Wednesday when I went back to see him, he was worse and could barely
hold his head up and was vomiting. I had to make the awful decision to
put him to sleep. I couldn't stand to see him that way.

When they did an x-ray and sonogram, they thought it looked like he
only had one kidney. I am waiting for the pathology report to see if
he ingested anything, but I don't think so.

Since my husband and I both work all day, we could not feasibly do the
fluid treatment.

Did they ask you if your dog got into any antifreeze or chemicals?

Sandy, Meg and Bob
http://www.standardpoodlesusa.com



wrote:
Hi,

I just got back from the vet with some depressing news. My 11 year old
border collie was diagnosed with kidney disease today. I don't have the
numbers from the test, but needless to say they were off the chart.

Today they gave my dog 3 liters of fluid intravenously to try to jump
start his kidneys. We'll be doing the same tomorrow and check his
kidney function on Friday. If his kidney function improves by Friday,
we may have some hope of prolonging his life. If not, we'll have to put
him to sleep soon.

I'm guessing others must have been in the same boat as this disease is
fairly common in older dogs. For those of you living with this, what
kind of quality of life does your dog have? Is it hard administering
the treatment (subcutaneous fluid injections)?

Thanks,
Richard Wagenknecht