I haven’t been on here in quite some time, but DeeJay is 16y 9m old and has had Kidney Disease since Nov 2013, she is in stage 3 now. Over last weekend she started walking like she was drunk and had decreased eating despite being given Cyproheptadine (appetite stimulant), so I took her to work with me (I work for a vet), we ran bloodwork, her BUN levels decreased from 56 to 38 but her CREA increased to 3.6 since January when it was 2.8. Her phosphorus levels are 3.8 at the moment. Her white count was BARELY above normal it was lower end normal at 3.79 normal is 2.87. She was 10% dehydrated so she was placed on. Monday afternoon my Dr came and got me and told me that DeeJay was doing something neurological, it didn’t appear to be a seizure (she’s had grand mal seizures recently), and she was really out of it, so I called my hubby to come up so we could say our goodbyes. I took her into the break room and held her for about an hour, she slowly started to respond. When my hubby got there, he immediately got her purring/paddling etc, so we decided to give her a little longer. We think she just had one of the worst seizures she has had that day due to stress of being at the vet/blood draw etc. We left her at the vet to get rehydrated with fluids.
She started eating a little bit better. It took her until Friday to get fully hydrated as she was a stubborn stink about keeping her leg pulled out so the fluids ran and blew a catheter and she wasn’t drinking anything on her own. She is on an all canned food diet. So I did some research and in talking to my dad (semi retired vet), we added some things to her protocol.
She was already on: Tramadol 50mg ½ tablet twice daily for arthritis
Phenobarbital ¼ grain ½ tablet twice daily for seizures
Cyproheptadine ¼ tablet as needed for appetite
Adequan injections twice weekly (she has severe arthritis)
So we have added the following:
Subcutaneous fluids 100ml 2-3x a week
Gabapentin (seizures and arthritis) about 15mg twice daily
Krill Oil 1 capsule once daily
Famotidine ¼ tablet once daily
Mirtazapine 15mg 1/8 tablet every 3 days as needed for appetite stimulant
Vit B Combo injections once a week
We are cutting back her Phenobarbital to ¼ tablet twice daily since the Gabapentin will help with seizures as well.
Also switching her diet to lower phosphorus canned foods (whatever I can get her to eat), I have to rotate brands/flavors a lot for her and sometimes I am able to sneak raw in…..she was on raw when first diagnosed but as per her normal self she quit eating it after a few months…..she is VERY picky. She has a lot of muscle wasting so increasing protein as much as possible to hopefully help stop that. As far as how she is doing now, she just wants to hide, she is still a bit unsteady on her feet. My dad thinks it’s possible she had a stroke or some other vestibular event as well as every seizure they have can cause permanent damage. This was so stressful, I am 6 months pregnant with our first child and DeeJay has been my baby since she was 6 weeks old. I am not ready to lose her yet. Monday my dog also was sick and we thought she had an intestinal blockage…..hers turned out just to be a tummy bug but omg this week has been very difficult on us. We do think it's possible she has a brain tumor as she has been having focal seizures now just in her face for about 2 years but in the past 3 months she has started having grand mal seizures. So we are living on borrowed time with her. My dad thinks she has something that is 'eating' her White Blood Cells as that is not a normal level for her, hers is a lot higher usually. He thinks it's possible that she could have an abscess somewhere (no fever or anything) and/or cancer. We do know she has nodules on her spleen due to a previous ultrasound but not sure what they were as due to her age/health we didn't want to put her through a biopsy.
She was already on: Tramadol 50mg ½ tablet twice daily for arthritis
Phenobarbital ¼ grain ½ tablet twice daily for seizures
Cyproheptadine ¼ tablet as needed for appetite
Adequan injections twice weekly (she has severe arthritis)
So we have added the following:
Subcutaneous fluids 100ml 2-3x a week
Gabapentin (seizures and arthritis) about 15mg twice daily
Krill Oil 1 capsule once daily
Famotidine ¼ tablet once daily
Mirtazapine 15mg 1/8 tablet every 3 days as needed for appetite stimulant
Vit B Combo injections once a week
We are cutting back her Phenobarbital to ¼ tablet twice daily since the Gabapentin will help with seizures as well.
Also switching her diet to lower phosphorus canned foods (whatever I can get her to eat), I have to rotate brands/flavors a lot for her and sometimes I am able to sneak raw in…..she was on raw when first diagnosed but as per her normal self she quit eating it after a few months…..she is VERY picky. She has a lot of muscle wasting so increasing protein as much as possible to hopefully help stop that. As far as how she is doing now, she just wants to hide, she is still a bit unsteady on her feet. My dad thinks it’s possible she had a stroke or some other vestibular event as well as every seizure they have can cause permanent damage. This was so stressful, I am 6 months pregnant with our first child and DeeJay has been my baby since she was 6 weeks old. I am not ready to lose her yet. Monday my dog also was sick and we thought she had an intestinal blockage…..hers turned out just to be a tummy bug but omg this week has been very difficult on us. We do think it's possible she has a brain tumor as she has been having focal seizures now just in her face for about 2 years but in the past 3 months she has started having grand mal seizures. So we are living on borrowed time with her. My dad thinks she has something that is 'eating' her White Blood Cells as that is not a normal level for her, hers is a lot higher usually. He thinks it's possible that she could have an abscess somewhere (no fever or anything) and/or cancer. We do know she has nodules on her spleen due to a previous ultrasound but not sure what they were as due to her age/health we didn't want to put her through a biopsy.