All of our bodies are suffering from tiredness and exhaustion of time. People often have hearts most damaged. In dogs, it is often the first kidney to get tired. As you get older, there is a slow and gradual decline in renal function. Indeed, 9 of the 1000 dogs being tested suffer from chronic kidney disease and the most severe kidney (or kidney) failure is the leading cause of older dog disease.
Renal failure is that the kidneys can not remove waste from the blood. Accumulation of toxins causes signs and symptoms of uremia. Renal impairment may occur suddenly (acute renal failure) or gradually over several months (chronic kidney failure). Most cases are of the periodic type, resulting from nephritis.
First of all, there are things you need to know about the role the kidney plays to maintain your dog's healthy life. The kidneys regulate blood sugar levels, blood pressure, blood volume, blood moisture, pH level, and produce red blood cells and specific hormones. Renal failure occurs slowly, more seriously, it often finds disease when the symptoms become clear, it may be too late to effectively treat it. In fact, dogs with renal failure do not show signs of uremia until 75% of functional kidney disease is destroyed. Therefore, considerable amounts of damage occur before noticing signs.
What are the signs of dog kidney disease? One of the first things you may notice is that your dog will drink water and urinate more than usual. At first, this is very normal, so most owners can ignore it. Your dog needs to wake up many times in the middle of the night to get her out or fill more water than before. These signs are because the kidneys were unable to concentrate urine. This results in a large urine output that the dog can not control, resulting in dehydration and thirst.
As kidney function decreases, dogs retain ammonia, nitrogen, acid and other chemical waste in blood and tissues. This stage is called uremia. The extent of uremia is determined by measuring serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and electrolytes. Signs of uremia are indifference and depression, anorexia and weight loss. Your dog will lose weight and become a more annoying companion. A dog at this stage may piss more than usual. Ulcer may occur in the mouth. In nephritic syndrome, dogs develop edema and ascites. Vomiting, gastrointestinal and diarrhea, bleeding may occur. At the final stage of kidney failure, the dog enters a coma.
As mentioned earlier, symptoms often occur predominantly for a long time. In fact, dogs with renal failure do not show signs of uremia until 75% of functional kidney disease is destroyed. Therefore, considerable amounts of damage occur before signs notice.
Kidney failure is rejected for many reasons:
- kidney disease
- Addiction, especially from antifreeze
- complete urinary tract obstruction due to stone
- blood flow to the kidney at low blood pressure decreased congestive heart failure
- rupture of the bladder or urethra
- Shock, lack of blood flow to the kidney
- Lyme disease
- Leptospirosis
Treatment of renal failure
Although chronic renal failure can not be recovered or cured, treatment and management aimed at alleviating contributing factors and symptoms may delay its progress.
Treatment of kidney failure in dogs is done in two stages.
The first step is to "resume" the kidneys. A large amount of intravenous fluid is given to purify the kidneys. This purification process is called diuresis and it helps to make the kidneys function again. If the dog carries sufficient functional kidney cells, the need for body waste may be fulfilled. Fluid therapy involves the replacement of various electrolytes, especially potassium. Other important things of the initial treatment include drugs that control nutritional support, vomiting and diarrhea.
Three possible results from the first stage of treatment of dog renal failure:
1) After resuming function during treatment, the kidney works well for months or years.
2) During treatment, the kidneys function normally, but stop functioning when treatment stops.
3) Kidney function fails regardless of treatment. Unfortunately, there is no reliable evidence to know how income will be.
The second phase of treatment in dogs is to make the kidneys function as long as possible. This shall be accomplished by one or more of the following measures, depending on the circumstances.
Special meal. Ideal diet is not acidified, and protein and phosphorus are low. Such a diet helps keep the blood test as close to normal as possible and may improve the feeling of the dog. Also, as kidney disease becomes more serious, a reduction in protein diet will reduce the workload of the kidneys and help to alleviate dog kidney failure.
2. Phosphate binder. Phosphorus is removed from the body by filtration through the kidneys. When the filtration process is impaired, phosphorus begins to accumulate in the blood. This also leads to lethargy and loss of appetite. Certain drugs are not absorbed because they bind excess phosphate in the intestinal tract, and the concentration of phosphorus in the blood decreases.
3. Liquid given at home. Once your dog has stabilized, you can give body fluids under the skin. It plays a role of continuously "resuming" the kidneys when the function begins to fail again. Depending on the degree of kidney failure, this treatment can be done once a day to once a week.
An agent that regulates calcium and parathyroid levels. Calcium and phosphorus must remain in the blood in a ratio of about 2: 1. As noted above, elevated blood phosphorus levels raise blood calcium levels by stimulating the parathyroid gland and removing it from the bone. This helps to normalize the ratio of calcium: phosphorus, but it can be broken easily by breaking the bone. Calcitriol could be used to lower the function of the parathyroid gland and increase calcium absorption from the intestinal tract. This is recommended if there is evidence of abnormal function of the parathyroid gland.
A drug that stimulates the bone marrow to produce new red blood cells. The kidney produces erythropoietin, a hormone that stimulates bone marrow to make erythrocytes. Therefore, many dogs suffering from renal failure have low red blood cell count and anemia. Epogen (or Procrit) of synthesized erythropoietin cures most dog anemia. However, in some dogs, this drug can not be used for a long time because the immune system recognizes the drug as "foreign" and produces antibodies (immunoproteins) against it. This is recommended when there is persistent anemia.
