Last week I posted about my 16 year old Lab with the poor appetite and the loose stools. Well, after a series of lab tests, we confirmed what we suspected. She has Chronic Kidney failure..her creatinine levels are elevated, but her BUN levels show the most increase, so she basically feels lousy, hence no appetite, the loose stools. Her urinalysis should some white blood cells, so we are treating her just in case it is a kidney infection.If she feels better after 10 days, great! If not, well, that will confirm what is the most likely culprit. I am currently researching kidney support diets I can cook at home since she really isn't interested in any conventional dog food at the moment. She is also on Pepcid to help her tummy feel a bit better; and we are hoping the Cipril will knock out any infection and help with the loose stools. There is no consistent thing she will eat; some days, ok, some days, nothing seems to interest her..except maybe grilled salmon! LOL..she has always been a high class dog.

Thanks, everyone, for your messages of support and kind wishes for her. Our main goal is to keep her comfortable, and have the courage to let her go before she gets too far down the road of poor quality of life...

First off....HUGS to you and your family!!! I was thinking about you and your girl the other day and wondered about the test results. I'm sorry to hear about this diagnosis but I somehow doubt you were truly surprised. IMHO....give her anything she desires whenever she feels like eating.

The most important thing is to keep her hydrated. Are you doing SQ fluids? Did the vet do IV fluids/forced dialysis? It will make her feel better for a few days.
An ultrasound of her kidneys will confirm chronic renal failure.

I say Salmon on a silver platter!!! And if she's up to it, a ride in the car might make her tummy feel better.

Good luck to you and your family in the coming days and weeks. We will all be thinking of you, take care of yourself, too!!!

I hope your girl gets more quality time with you and will feel good enough to enjoy her meals again soon.

Try to work in some Coezyme Q10, fish oil (with vitamin E), vitamin B complex, soluble fiber, and a quality probiotic into whatever you can get her to eat. I did some research online in the past and those things seemed to make a measurable difference in kidney disease studies.

http://www.angelfire.com/anime3/longlease/article6.htm
http://www.dogaware.com/health/kidney.html
http://www.vetoquinolusa.com/pages/pdf/renal_care.pdf

I was thinking of you and wondering how your girl was feeling. There is a homeopathy kidney support called Reneel that did make my girl feel better. I was pleasantly surprised how much so. Mine wouldn't really eat the canned kidney diet from the vets, she wouldn't eat the Science Diet one, but would eat some of the Purina canned kidney diet. I gave her the Orijen 6Fish and some rice and boiled chicken. She also liked cottage cheese too.
I think you know that 16 is a good long life and she deserves to eat what she wants to at this point.For my girl I was more comfortable with letting her eat what she wanted to, it was a quality of life versus length of life issue for her and me.As long as she was happy and still present with her family and her kids, grandkids, greatgrandkids then I was more than willing to cook what she wanted.When she stopped eating completely and said no more we let her go.

Sorry to hear the diagnosis.

If you are prepared to cook for this old girl, there is an amazing email list at Yahoo Groups called K9 Kidney Diet, The will help you to forumulate the best meal for your dog and they have all sorts of tables and programs in their files that can assist. There are also phosphorous blockers that you can add to the food.

Good luck!

Appreciate the update on your 16 year-old, but am sorry to hear the diagnosis. Thinking of you both, and wishing you the best!

I was also wondering how you were doing.
A friend of mine uses "tuna juice" from canned tuna to help her dog to eat.
Thoughts and prayers are with you and your dog. She is lucky to have you to love and care for her.

Cooking for her is no problem. figuring out what she will eat at this point is the problem. The usual stuff..chicken breast, meatload was working for a bit, toast...all no go anymore. I cooked for my cancer dog..her half brother, for over 11 months before he left us. It was only the last two weeks that his appetite went south due to a large tumor on his liver. Blood cell cancer is a cruel beast.

Thanks for suggestion. I will check it out...T3

I am so very sorry about your special girls diagnosis. It helped when my Vet would do weekly IV's for hydration of my boys kidneys. I had the same scenario with my 1st Heart dog Ebenezer almost 5 years ago. He was 11 years old. His appetite disappeared and I spent all my time trying to find out what he could eat. I took him to his favorite Lake and all the places he would want to go with me as I knew his time was very short with this diagnosis. I found he would like a few french fries or Vienna sausages in the end. He also loved his rice with chicken livers. You could try those items. Finally he didn't like those either and told me to help him go or that he had enough of the suffering and I took him to the Vets. Its not going to be easy and just cherish each moment and keep trying to find what she might tolerate. Mackeral in the can might also be tantalizing. My thoughts are with you at this sad time for you and your precious friend. Its so hard.

One of my dogs died of kidney failure. I learned how to be less concerned about food and more concerned about hyrdration.

Food only made things worse. She would eat and then the food would make her sicker. Then she wouldn't want to eat that food again. I came to grips with the fact that food was killing her rather than helping her live. She became very thin, but she did not die of starvation.

Fluids helped to flush out her kidneys, and I learned to give subcutaneous fluids twice a day. I also gave daily Pepcid to help deal with stomach ulcers caused by the kidney disease. Basically at the end she was living on subcutaneous fluids and Pepcid. Then I had to let her go, but I did not do this well. I waited too long. And I still have her ashes. She died 15 years ago.

I hear you, Kate. We are ending the Cipril for now since it seems to upset her stomach. We are trying an anti nausea drug to see if that will help. And I will getting lessons monday on subq fluids at home to see if that will help. Her appetite is nil...even ice cream doesn't tempt her a bit. So, we will see how she is on Monday. I will do fluids as long as it raises her quality of life and keeps her eyes bright. But..if it continues the way it is....better for her to let her go, and we can celebrate and grieve her life...

Thanks. It is never an easy call to make. When it is her time to go, like her half brother, our vet will come here so she is in familiar surroundings and smells. Our vet is only part time now due to duties at a non profit she started that finds vet supplies for international animal care and preservation groups, but she said she would do all she could to be the one to help us say goodbye when it is that time.

I will be learning how to do Sub-Q fluids on Monday, and we will do it a few times this coming week to see if that brightens her up....

I am sorry to hear this. I've been there too.

I highly recommend you email Mary Straus at dogaware.com

be sure and give her all the details including blood work results including the normal range from your laboratory.

she taught me all I know about KF and what to do for it. My girl lived comfortable with KF from age 14 1/2 to 16. Anemia made my choice in the end, not the KF.

Good luck with your sweet senior

Actually, Patty, anemia is a result of KF. The kidneys are responsible for producing the hormone that stimulates red blood cell production. One of the things I did when my girl was dying of KF was inject her with a hormone that stimulate red blood cell production. I even explored dialysis. I'm not recommending what I did because I just refused to give up when I should have.

I'm so sorry for anyone facing KF because I know how awful the experience can be. I pray that you have more wisdom than I did.

I also used that hormone Kate to stimulate the red cell production. It was quite expensive but I too wanted to try everything. It bought me a little more time with Ebenezer, but like you I wonder if I didn't wait too long to say Good bye? He finally told me to stop.

We decided to address the not eating part first because unless she can keep food down, the rest is just hospice, and it is not in the plan to keep her going just for our sake if her quality of life is napping and drinking and SQ fluids. So, anti nausea drugs start today, no eating if she doesn't want to, regular meds, back on the Cipril if there is no vomiting over the weekend. She got fluids today at the vet with some B vitamin added and she will get more on Monday as I learn to do this. We will re-assess at the end of the week with blood tests for kidney values. Still hoping this is a kidney infection, but believe that is grasping at straws.

We need to consider the age of this dog as well as her diagnosis and clinical signs. Kudos to you for keeping her happy and healthy for so long, it is remarkable!
I don't want to be the one to say this, but listen to all the folks that are telling you they feel they waited too long to put their dogs to sleep.
When a Labrador Retriever stops eating with a diagnosis of kidney failure, at a very advanced age, it is most likely end stage. Changing foods, giving fluids, keeping her comfortable is fine, but she may be very uncomfortable and sick, and looking to you for help in ending her life with dignity and good will. She is already sick and feeling crappy, and there is no recovering from kidney failure at her age.
I once spoke to a veterinarian friend of mine who had a lovely bitch out of one of my first litters. At almost 15 years old, she was in chronic kidney failure, and he called me to ask if I wanted to say goodbye to her. He had done all the labwork to document her condition, gave her iv and sub-q fluids, antibiotics, and stomach protectants, etc., etc.
I expressed regret at her failure to be healthy and asked him if kidney failure was something to be aware of in my breeding program. He stopped me and said, "At her advanced age, the kidney failure is the weakest link in her body right now; if it wasn't kidneys, it would be something else, there is nothing anyone can do any more."
I said goodbye and she ended her life with her family at her side, at home.
I know you want to try different things, in hopes that she will recover from this, but in reality, this diagnosis at her age is not something she will recover from.
So sorry for what you are going through with your beloved. I wish you the heart and the sustenance to make decisions for her in time for her to pass peacefully.

I agree with Robin and I heard kidney failure is a painful condition. If she's not eating on her own she's not enjoying life. Let her pass easily before it's too late. I'm so sorry.