I blogged a few months ago about my dog. He's 12yrs old and was drinking a lot, peeing a lot, with some accidents in the house. We ran the gamut of xrays and all kinds of labwork, all normal.
Wednesday I brought him to work for vaccines and regular labwork. While examining him, he peed all over me and the floor. He has never, ever done that. So I did a water deprevation test, withheld water for almost 10 hours and checked his urine to see if he can concentrate it. Nope. It wasn't dilute but it also wasn't as concentrated as it should be. Also one of his lab values is above normal, an early indicator of kidney disease. It's what I had suspected a few months ago when this all started, but I think we were too early. So now he goes on a special diet to help his kidneys not work as hard. Nothing can cure kidney disease, but I can treat the symptoms and use the food to slow the progression. This disease will eventually lead to kidney failure. It just depends on how well he responds with meds and food. I'm sad and worried, but also kind of expected it since this started 2 months ago. Duke is my buddy and I have had him since he was a 4 month old obnoxious ball of fluff.
