Health issues

Well it's been over a month since I've written and here's why...Boscoe was diagnosed with kidney failure at the end of August. I had written about his obsessive drinking and I personally thought it might be something like diabetes. I spoke with the vet prior to the blood tests and he thought it was a pyschological thing that is not uncommon in puppies (particularly large breed puppies) and that he would grow out of it. We ran blood tests and urinalysis to be sure. What we found out is that he has 30% of normal function left in his kidneys. Two numbers in the blood they look for in kidney failure we very elevated. After that big shock I started researching and educating myself about the disease and its causes.

We began a prescription kidney diet by Science Diet the day I learned of the test results. A week after that we had a follow up visit with the vet who recommended we get to Cornell for further tests, etc. One week later we were at Cornell. We redid the original bloodwork and his two elevated numbers were still elevated but they had gone down quite a bit, which I'm very happy about. A few other numbers went up though so it's very much a balancing act with the diet. We ran Lyme's disease, heartworm, Leptospirosis, and more tests. We did another urinalysis and a urine culture, which came back negative, as did the above blood tests. We have one more test to run at the regular vet's, hopefully I will be hearing from them tomorrow to schedule that. I also heard from Cornell today that we should be starting a phosphate-binder medication shortly.

As to the cause, we have no answers. The only lead we have is the lysol water he drank. While I agree it most likely caused some damage, I do not believe it is the whole culprit. He drank the Lysol water because he was always more thirsty than hungry since I've had him. At this point the breeder can't find any history of renal disease on the dam's side and both litters the dam has had don't seem to be having any problems. So we can't say that it's genetic or not. I did hear from someone who went through a similar ordeal with test results very similar to Boscoe's that ended up being the psychological thing the vet originally thought Boscoe had. So, while it's an extremely slim chance, there's always that hope. Since changing the food he has been drinking less. I'm going to begin monitoring how much water he is taking in.

He had an ultrasound done at Cornell that showed normal size kidneys. There were no kidney stones, no urinary tract blockages, etc. They did his entire abdominal cavity and showed no abnormalities.

So that's where we are right now. We're looking at another visit to the vet's for a final test for the time being. The Cornell vet plans on treating him as a Chronic Renal Failure patient. His numbers indicate the disease is fairly advanced at this point and it's a matter of management and prevention of further damage until the normal course of nature. His kidneys will eventually begin to shut down. My vet gave me a tenative lifespan of 5-8 years. We cannot get a number really, it's all just a guess, but we do know for sure that his life will be severely shortened. Since he cannot concentrate his urine also this will begin to affect other body systems in the future and cause more problems as well.

Boscoe has a lot of people pulling for him and praying for him though. So far we've seen some numbers in the bloodwork go down so I'm still praying that he'll continue to heal and that maybe it is as simple as the psychological disease causing it all. It doesn't hurt to hope.