As I’m sure most of you know, Frankie took a turn for the worst Tuesday evening again. While he returned back to himself the past month, he showed the same symptoms from the renal insufficiency (kidney failure) he was diagnosed with last month. The doctor’s still are trying to determine what is bringing this on, testing for everything. It seems to be down to one of two causes, one being a disease called Leptospirosis. Leptospirosis is a bacteria infection which can be caused by drinking, swimming, or walking through contaminated water. It is a very contagious disease that can spread to humans as well. This is tested by a sample of blood being drawn and sent to Cornell for testing. We should know the results by Monday or Tuesday of next week. The other cause of the kidney failure is that he ingested some kind of toxin. Now everyone knows how careful Missy and I are with our dogs, especially since Mosley is a chewer. We have thought of one example of a toxin that Frank may have ingested. Last year (2006) we bought two real Christmas trees. Frank loves to dip his head in the bowl and drink the water from the tree stand. Now, I can remember bringing Frankie to the emergency room around this time (Christmas 2006), for an upset stomach. He was given anti-nausea medicine and given fluids to re-hydrate him. He was fine, till this past Christmas, when he got sick again. This time was worse because of the kidney failure, which without treatment could significantly reduce a animal’s life-span. I mentioned this to our regular vet (who is on my shit list) and they dismissed this notion. However, I’ve read of rare instances online of animals (mostly cats) who have ingested toxins from drinking from a christmas tree stand. While Frank was getting discharged last night from the vet, we asked the doctor about this. She told us she has heard of some cases of this, while rare, are possible. She even printed up and example of this. Anyways, Frank is resting at home right now. He is up almost every two hours to go to the bathroom because he is drinking so much. He is on anti-nausea medicine and amoxicillin. He is going to his regular vet on Monday to get his blood levels checked again, and when we get the results from the Lepto test we will know what course of action to take. The ER vet discussed with our normal vet that we (being me) will have to give Frankie subcutaneous fluid injections. Normally when humans have renal insufficiency, they will go on dialysis to filter their blood, since the kidneys can not perform this function. This is not a common practice in animal medicine, so the injection of the subcutaneous fluid is to help regenerate kidney function loss, the same way a dialysis machine works.
Anyways, Frankie has been home since last night, we picked him up at around 5PM. The good news is he hasn’t throw up, the bad news is that Mommy, Mosley, Frankie and I aren’t sleeping because of the constant peeing, which is normal from all the water intake and iv fluids he was on. He just pooped this morning, and it looked really healthy!! (I know- to much info, but this is a good sign).
For anyone worrying about us, we are hanging in there. Missy is a lot stronger than I thought she would be in this situation, which I keep accrediting to her being like her father. We will know more hopefully Monday, and I will pass the news along.
p.s. Mosley says Hi to everyone!!!
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