Does anyone have experience with balancing heart and kidney disease?

[iklog]

My dog is 15 and was diagnosed this past week with stage 1 kidney disease and stage 1 heart disease. The cardiologist said no meds are needed at this time and check back in a year, so her heart disease is pretty mild. Her creatinine is a 1.3 and SDMA is 16 so her kidneys also aren’t doing too bad, but I’m noticing she’s getting dehydrated and not getting enough water despite a lot of trying. I’m considering at home subcutaneous fluids but don’t want to overload her heart and progress her heart disease. Has anyone dealt with this? Any advice?

 

[stephenmosesdioscorus]

@iklog There’s a canine kidney disease support group on FB, and from what I’ve read, there are several others dealing with heart + kidney issues. Might be worth checking out. Best of luck to you and your pup.

 

[iklog]

@stephenmosesdioscorus Thank you! I’ll look them up

 

[mdhess]

@iklog I adopted an 8 year old dog last year that was diagnosed with kidney failure to the point that the vet thought she might only have a few months left. Here I am a year later and she's thriving/putting some weight back on. She doesn't have heart failure but one thing that has made a huge difference in keeping her hydrated without needing the subcutaneous fluids is NOT feeding her dog food. If she gets even a little kibble from my other dogs she gets the nausea/vomiting, pale gums, and a trip to the vet.

Usually what I'll make in bulk for breakfast and dinner:

-Boil chicken breast in a stock pot - take out/chop it up
-Boil cubed sweet potatoes in the same water - take those out
-Use the water to cook rice so it soaks up anything cooked out of the chicken/sweet potatoes.
-microwave bags of frozen mixed veg (corn, carrots, green beans)
-mix it all together

Treats:
Mix oatmeal, pumpkin, water, egg and bake in the oven.

The food has a lot of moisture in it in addition to her regular water intake.

 

[iklog]

@mdhess That’s awesome!! Good for your pup, that’s great you gave them care like that. I’ve been suspicious about dog food even before her getting diagnosed. I’m waiting on a nutritionist appointment to make a homemade diet and have been feeding her baby food mixed with water in addition to water can of food she’ll eat for the day. My dog might not be dehydrated, I have a hard time telling and I might just be overly paranoid so I think I’m gonna delay giving her fluids for a bit unless she seems to really need it. Do you have a good method for testing hydration? I know the skin test and mouth test, I just don’t know how to tell if her mouth is like wet or not lol

 

[mdhess]

@iklog The nutritionist is a great idea! I have just been using the foods my vet agreed are easy on the kidneys to process because the vet bills really add up quick. I've also been feeling skeptical about dog food, especially after that list came out of dog food that might cause heart disease. I was feeding my dogs one of the foods and my 10 year old's blood work was showing early signs of heart disease.

Not going to lie.. I get paranoid too but don't really have a good method for checking. I check her gums a lot to make sure they are not pale. I've also noticed that she will get nauseated/vomity like burps if she gets dehydrated.