My Furbaby (if you're not a dog person, skip this one)

Pets,

they often become like family.

In our case, that is so true.

want to play?

I snapped a brief piece

on my sister blog

puppy-snow-time.html

back in

2013.

Well, when you do the math,

our little guy is now 15

but not as healthy as he was.

I recently took him to the Vet

thinking that he had an infection.

He had begun to pee in the house.

He had never done that before,

even his 'training' was all done outdoors.

He had become ill of the tummy

and was overall, so unlike himself. 

I was told

"He has Chronic Kidney Disease. Long term, no cure.

He may have a month, he may have years.

We would need to do further tests to

know what stage he is at with it.

But he is old"

Like the fact that he is a senior makes

a difference when it's your furbaby!

I head home with a $300+ Vet bill,

$40+ in special dog food,

and a shattered heart.

This is the same Vet that saw him in the Spring

for a kidney infection!

No mention then, I think, as my brain

later begins to function.

Well, the first food he literally turned his nose up at.

He huffed, swung his head and stomped his foot!

Even for 'grampa'.  This was not good!

Within a few days, when I got my wits about me a bit,

I sent an email of questions to the Vet.

Thankfully, it was answered by the Vet that I like most.

I wasn't 'keen' on some of the answers,

but even within an email they were not as harshly shared.

She also was encouraging in that she

didn't push for vitamins, more tests etc..
In reality, it's probably as much that he is an
older dog, but coming in this manner (see below),
it wasn't so hard to 'hear'.

I like Dr. Darcie.

After reading my email,

 I head over to get the only other option for this

Renal Food hoping he will eat this special

wet stuff until the other dry food arrives.

Thankfully, he's still drinking water.

He seems to like this new stuff.

He eats about 1/4 c of dry and 1/4 of a large can

per day, but he's eating it.
Although he looks much larger,
he's only 16 lbs.
He is an American Eskimo/Pomeranian.

He has his days, like today,

where he just lays around but

then there are others

when he's more like a pup.

Oh, I thought you had left for work already.

VET QUESTIONS:

1.      To confirm he has Kidney Disease, , correct ? At what stage is he, based on his Creatinine levels?  From my understanding of what I have read, he is at a higher stage.
2.      Besides the change in diet, where do we go from here?  I understand from Dr. M and my reading that there is no ‘cure’ for Kidney Disease.  But with diet and additional steps, there may be a chance to make his time with us more enjoyable.  I wouldn’t want him to suffer, and at this point he appears not to be. 
3.      Vitamins  - should he have a vitamin supplement?  Or will needed additional vitamins (such as B & C) be within the special Kidney Food?
4.      Are there, and do you carry, treats containing less sodium?  My reading indicates that too will help.  Not that he gets many (except from Grampa & Gramma lol), but he does at times. 

Please apologize to Dr. M for me. Both for my reaction and lack of questions.  When I took Bailey in, I thought he had a Kidney infection. So, this has been somewhat of a smack.  He is a Senior pooch and we know in our minds that our time is shorter.  I am still waiting for my heart to catch up.  This little fella has been my rock and my little buddy for 15 years. 

ANSWERS:

Hi Shelley, Dr. M. is off this afternoon but he did discuss Bailey with me earlier this week. 

He would classified as an Iris stage 3 renal disease due to the protein in his urine and his kidney levels.  To substage or stage further we would need to get a second  fasting kidney level blood test (nothing to eat for 12 hours) sample.  I often wait until he is eating the wood for a bit before retesting.  

Typical we don't do much vitamin supplementation unless they are not eating well.   I recommend first starting on the renal food as it may take care of many of our issues if he will eat it consistently.  And if he won't eat the first type you try there are other flavours that we can try him with.  

As far as other medications to help I tend to hold off on most until we are seeing significant weight loss and/or decreased appetite.  

The food is in, and we have some treats you can try him with as well. 

Dr. Darcie

And, on that note,
Cya next time.

You can't see me right?