From:
katharine
Date: 2001-02-24 08:25:00 UTC
Subject: Renal Failure
Alicia wrote:
<I send lots of ehaling thoughts your way. Renal
failure is not fun-- we see
it every so often here. The diet change should
help-- and you may need to
continue the sub q fluids as well. Please know
you are in our thoughts and
prayers.<
Thank you, Alicia. Champ can use lot of prayers
and good wishes. I am continuing the fluids. He
gets 30ml every day.
He actually seems to be coming back to life
today! He has been much more alert and interested
and has even played a little bit. I gave him a
piece of foamy fries and he stood up to get it and
ran off with it. It's like he's improved 100%
overnight. Maybe he has reached that point where
everything is coming together. I hope it
continues.
Dr. Williams wrote:
<So we look at bloodwork and a urinalysis. If the
urine is dilute and
remains dilute even in the face of dehydration,
and the leve of the
BUN and creatinine is significantly elevated (mild
BUN elevations may
be seen in dehydration in animals with normal
kidneys), a diagnosis
of chronic renal failure is given. Some
practitioners may diagnose
chornic renal failure based on bloodwork alone,
which may lead to a
small number of errant diagnoses, as other
conditions may cause
elevations of the compounds mentioned above.
As you haven't mentioned the tests that were done
or the levels that
indicated chronic renal failure, I can't comment
specifically on this
case.<
Dr. Williams,
Thank you so much for explaining renal failure to
me. I was having a very hard time understanding
it. Champ's was diagnosed with bloodwork (several
times over the course of a week; all of the
elevated levels you mentioned above), a urinalysis
to eliminate acute failure (?? I think that's
what Doc said), and they did an ultrasound to make
sure there wasn't something else going on (not
necessary, but helpful).
He fortunately seems to like the K/D. They all
ate a lot of it when Lily was alive because that
was her diet. The others always ate more of her
food than their own. He and Lany are eating
exclusively from the TF for Olders and K/D bowl so
I have removed the other food completely. Will
gradually reduce the TF.
Thank you so much for responding. I now feel like
I understand what's going on. I will do whatever
is necessary to help him.
Katharine