Kidney Failure Explanation Please

by **Besonbully** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:47 pm

Hi there - I have two Dogs, one 2 year old Pittie and a 14 year old miniature dachshund. They are the bestest of friends. Sadly I took our dachshund to the vet yesterday and at first glance the vet though he was doing well. They ran a urine test because he's been peeing a lot(not being able to hold it in) and drinking more then normal. Well I was emailed the results and it says proteinuric(sp?) is 0.5 and he is 3.9 at the moment. One of the comments attached was that he had horrible renal protein loss.

In layman's terms what is going on and how severe is his kidney failure? How much time does he have left? Is there anything that can be done to prolong his life without a lot of pain?

Thanks

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:01 pm

Have you done bloodwork or just the urinalysis?

by **Besonbully** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:18 pm

Just urine.

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:33 pm

I would get some bloodwork done, it will give a much more complete picture.

by **Besonbully** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:54 pm

I'll make sure to do that. Can you explain to me what I was told by my vet by any chance?

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:00 pm

Well, basically it's just what your vet said. Protein at that level in his urine definitely isn't good but without further diagnostics, it's hard to give you a full picture of what's going on.

Here's some easy to understand info on proteinuria:

http://m.petmd.com/dog/conditions/urinary/c_multi_proteinuria

by **MarMar** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:44 pm

Your vet really shoudl be able to take the time to thoroughly explain to you what the urine (and bloodwork) means, what you can do, what to expect from your dog, nutritional considerations etc....if they cannot/will not, then I think you should find a new vet. I hope you can get some answers and sorry about your pup

by **Misskiwi67** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:46 pm

The picture is incomplete.

Without full results of the entire urinalysis (about 15 more pieces of the puzzle) as well as a comprehensive chemistry panel, I cannot begin to tell you what stage, if any, of renal disease your dog is in and if any treatment is warranted at this time.

by **pblove** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 8:46 pm

there is a lot of info on
http://www.dogaware.com

under health section, you can also join the yahoo group for dogs in kidney failure, link is provied on the dogaware site too