My dog has end-stage kidney failure. How can I help him live longer?

I do not know much about Kidney Support Gold but what I typically use in my renal failure cases is the following: 1. Prescription renal support food such as Hills K/D 2. Azodyl capsules 3. Rehmannia 8 liquid supplement 4. Renal K+ if potassium is low 5. ACE inhibitor such as the Benazecare that you are giving 6. Standard Process Renal Support for dogs 7. Subcutaneous fluids several times per week to help with hydration 8. Hyperbaric chamber therapy My last case of renal failure (also had cancer) lived 20 months past the expected prognosis of 6 months. This dog also was undergoing chemotherapy but I do believe all of the above helped improve his prognosis significantly. I would discuss these options with your veterinarian as well. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

I am sorry to hear that Memi is so sick. You may want to discuss doing subcutaneous fluids at home with your veterinarian. Also anti nausea medication such as cerenia can also be helpful and appetite stimulants if needed as well. I hope you have some good quality time left with him. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I am sorry to see that Boomer is in renal failure. What I typically recommend for renal failure in dogs are the following products: 1. Rehmannia 8 liquid or tablets 2. Epakitin (to help bind excessive phosphorus) 3. Renal support by Standard Process 4. Azodyl probiotic capsules (if you are not already giving these) 5. Prescription kidney diet such as Hills K/D 6. Renal K+ 7. Anti-nausea medications (Cerenia / Zofran) Some of these are more natural products and obviously the anti-nausea medications are prescription drugs but can help keep Boomer more comfortable. I also managed a kidney failure patient who also had lymphoma with all of the above including subcutaneous fluids and also treating him twice weekly in a hyperbaric chamber. His original prognosis was 3 months and that prognosis was given 15 months ago. If you have someone in your area that has a hyperbaric chamber, you can speak with them about treating Boomer with it. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Poor baby. Kidney failure is usually pretty bad news in dogs. The usual treatment is hospitalization for IV fluids to lower kidney values (since high kidney values make animals feel crappy) and treatment for whatever associated complications an animal has (such as nausea or anemia). Early in the disease, food changes and at home fluids can help. You mentioned that Priscilla has already been hospitalized for two days, so I'm going to assume she has two days of aggressive fluids and her kidney values haven't gone down. If you don't believe in euthanasia than I'd say you need to find a veterinarian who practices hospice in your area. A Google search should turn up an opinion or two. In your own, there isn't much you can do. I will warn you that kidney disease often ends in euthanasia because at the end stages it causes severe nausea, vomiting, severe weight loss, ulcers in the mouth, severe dehydration (even though they are drinking a lot, it just goes right through them). So it's not a good way to go without really really aggressive support from a local hospice vet. I'm so sorry and you are Priscilla are going through this. You'll be in my thoughts.

If she is eating and drinking and not vomiting then you can look into a special kidney diet to help them work. You can get a urine sample to see if there is any protein loss and get her blood pressure checked also as there are pills you can use to help control these factors if needed. You can talk to your vet about donfluids under the skin at home to help take some work off her kidneys The most important part is make sure she is drinking plenty of fluids and urinating. If she starts vomiting or stops urinating that is a sign her kidneys are getting worse.

Poor girl. I would certainly consider at least getting her checked again and fluid therapy (IV or subcutaneously). If her values are not too bad, she may be able to be managed at home with subcutaneous fluids that you yourself give. That is if you are up to the task. Also I am not sure if she is on a prescription kidney diet. If not, then she needs to be transitioned right away. The vet can also prescribe some anti-nausea medication for her to help with her condition. And lastly, I would highly recommend a supplement called Azodyl, which is a natural way to help lower your pets kidney enzymes. Their toxic levels in the bloodstream are directly correlated with how sick your pet will feel, so focusing on lowering these values can improve your pets condition greatly. Here is a website link with more kidney therapy options --> https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4952670 I hope that these additional treatment suggestions help Chloe stabilize and perhaps hold off the euthanasia talks for a while. Best of luck moving fowrard and take care. : )

I'm very sorry to hear about this situation. Sadly, even if Kody would tolerate fluid therapy at home, it would not reverse the renal failure. When we are giving subcutaneous fluids at home, we are trying to keep our pets comfortable and give them more time. In patients that do tolerate it well, it still only helps for a while. Making the decision to euthanize is never easy. What I never want to see is a patient that ends up resenting the care their family is trying to provide, and making their last days miserable for everyone involved. If you absolutely wanted to keep going and keep trying, you could hospitalize with IV fluids, or take him to the veterinarian for daily subcutaneous fluids, but if he hates the treatment, I'm not sure that is what most people would want their pet's last days to be like. I can only access how Kody is doing based on the information provided, but it sounds like you are at a point when it would not be wrong to consider euthanasia. Even knowing it is the right thing does not make it easy. I wish I had better answers for you.