Re: Juvenile renal disease, please help
Hi,
I have joined this forum as a search on Juvenile Kidney disease brought up this thread. We have a wonderful Cavalier King Charles Spaniel called Pippin who was diagnosed with this dreadful condition at the beginning of the year. We were told then that he had about 6 months left. He is 3 1/2 years old now and has deteriorated badly over the last couple of days.. I am going to have to take him to the vet tomorrow and I am pretty certain they will say there is nothing left to do. Suffice to say I am dreading it!!!
When we first had Pippin as a tiny puppy he showed all the symptoms of this although sadly I was ignorant to it myself. He drank copious amounts of water and was very hard to toilet train, almost a year before being reliably dry. His pee was very light in colour; almost water like. I was worried about this and took him to a vet but they said he didn’t have a urine infection and told me that some puppies do this instead of eating so to pick up his water bowl after he had drunk from it and not to offer it again for 4 hours. I didn't actually do this as I thought it wrong as unrestricted fresh water is, in my opinion, a right.
Up until February of this year he was pretty much fine; he was castrated because he was a humper and the cats were, unfortunately, the objects of his passion, but luckily this seemed to cure the problem ok and the cats could rest safely again. He was lively and loved nothing more than standing at the gate guarding the house by barking at anyone or anything that dared to walk past, even though he would lick them to death if they stopped to say hello to him!
In February he developed bad breath and started vomiting flem especially after drinking water, so I made an appointment at the vets to have his teeth checked. They had a quick look and booked him in for the next day and I duly took him in early in the morning. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am a worrier when animals have operations.. I worry the whole time they are gone and always think the worst so when at midday I received a phone call from the vets I wasn't surprised. She asked me to go in and have a chat with them. When I got there she told me that they suspected he had kidney disease as his teeth and bones were badly affected. They asked to do several tests all of which confirmed the diagnoses of juvenile kidney disease. They told me that it is very likely to be hereditary especially as he has had the symptoms from a pup. He was put on Hills KD tinned food which thankfully he loved and ate without problems. I was told that there was no medication that could be given. This was all such a terrible shock.. to take in a young dog to have his teeth cleaned only to be told he is dying of old age (which is basically what is happening) was dreadful; I was stunned and just stood there as they pointed out the tiny malformed kidneys on the x-ray, not really taking it in!
Since then we have tried to enjoy life together while we can. We also have 2 other dogs, a Chocolate Lab called Ella and an English Springer called Luna and until recently we have regularly taken Pippin out with us on our daily off lead run although he walked next to me rather than joining in with the other two’s ball games most of the time.
Sadly over the last couple of days all he has wanted to do is sleep; he has almost stopped eating now and his breath is really bad. I know that there is nothing they can do and that when I take him in they will suggest the inevitable. It’s so hard to make that decision but I know I have to for his sake; it’s just so difficult isn’t it!!!! It was hard enough with my 2 previous babies but they were 13 and 18 so at least they had had a good long life, but this is just heart breaking! To cap it all my husband is away on business in London tomorrow so he won’t be able to go with me and my daughter of 23 will have to stay at home and look after my 11 year old dd for me. My best friend is away and there is really no-one else that I am close enough to that I want with me for something like this. I could wait until Tuesday but would that be fair on poor Pippin?
I would love to hear from anyone who has got/had puppies suffering from this terrible condition, and especially anyone who has had an affected Cavalier as I have been told by my vet that it’s not been recognised in them before. Also did any of you tell the breeder about it as I haven’t done so yet and know I should have but what with him being so ill, then I really couldn’t face it. My vet said there isn’t any point as it’s not recognised in the breed but my answer to that is that there could be dozens of vets saying the same thing to CKCS owners all over the country.. world even.. and not one of them would know about the other!
Anyway sorry for going on so much! I send all my love and thoughts to anyone else who is going through something similar to us; I am here for anyone if you want to talk to someone about it as talking/writing does help! Thank you for listening!
Take care and a Happy Christmas to you all!
Carrie ~
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