Health issues in Shelties

Tagg said:
Honestly, I haven't lived in the city since 1975. When I visit relatives there all I can smell is chlorine and cannot get their water down my own throat! They don't smell it at all - amazes me every time.
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I am on Baltimore City water, which is supposed to be one of the better systems in the area. Well water smells and tastes awful to me. :ick. My dogs drink city water, or whatever water is handy. I don't carry gallons of water like some people, and I've not ever had one get sick from it. They actually prefer rain water out of mud puddles, so I figure anything else is fine.
 
I smell chlorine in most pipe water and can't drink it:eek2:
as for yearly blood work etc - we do best we can... prevention and healthy management is key to any illness
 
Ew I've seen the testing done on the contaminants in the water (fluoride and chlorine levels at that wazoo--- no way! )

Rain water is actually much, much cleaner than any city water you'll ever drink. It's still polluted to a degree, but I love to let my dogs drink rain water. We're in the process of planing our own home to build and you better believe we'll be collecting rain water to reuse!
 
When my youngest brother was in university he worked part time in the lab at the city's water treatment facility. He hasn't been able to drink the water ever since! As I said, I am just trying to keep extra chemicals out of the dogs whenever possible just as I do for myself.
 
Kidney question for those that know, or the vets.

I'm always told that by the time you can diagnose kidney failure, the kidneys are already shot.

So, with blood tests, how can you tell it's k/d?

I say this because I took Miko in for testing because I was concerned about his water consumption (I wasn't sure who was drinking all the water, just know I was filling up bowls more often). We did blood tests, they all came back normal. No numbers were out of range. Looking back, the numbers were on the mid-high side. Vet said he was fine.

I tested again 6 months later. Numbers went up a bit, but well within range. Again vet said he was fine. Numbers weren't out of range, nor going up enough to be of concern.

Not long after, he was diagnosed because now his BUN/Creatinine numbers were higher and pushing out of range, or were out of range.

So, for something like k/d, how do you tell? When is it time to really take a closer look?
 
k9kreationz said:
Kidney question for those that know, or the vets.

I'm always told that by the time you can diagnose kidney failure, the kidneys are already shot.

So, with blood tests, how can you tell it's k/d?

I say this because I took Miko in for testing because I was concerned about his water consumption (I wasn't sure who was drinking all the water, just know I was filling up bowls more often). We did blood tests, they all came back normal. No numbers were out of range. Looking back, the numbers were on the mid-high side. Vet said he was fine.

I tested again 6 months later. Numbers went up a bit, but well within range. Again vet said he was fine. Numbers weren't out of range, nor going up enough to be of concern.

Not long after, he was diagnosed because now his BUN/Creatinine numbers were higher and pushing out of range, or were out of range.

So, for something like k/d, how do you tell? When is it time to really take a closer look?
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Most of the info I have read says in most cases by the time the blood levels are elevated only about 25% of the Kidneys are functioning.

Vets please correct me if I am wrong.

Gypsy was being treated for UTI's constantly but now I suspect it was the Kidney Disease causing the blood in her urine. We did eventually do an Ultrsound which showed her damaged Kidneys.
 
dawns2shelties said:
Most of the info I have read says in most cases by the time the blood levels are elevated only about 25% of the Kidneys are functioning.

Vets please correct me if I am wrong.

Gypsy was being treated for UTI's constantly but now I suspect it was the Kidney Disease causing the blood in her urine. We did eventually do an Ultrsound which showed her damaged Kidneys.
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Yes that is correct but if you have a base line, changes over time can give one a clue.

I had blood values and urine results for Jazz for 11 yrs prior to diagnosing her with KD. The values where the same or nearly the same for 12yrs. Then the time before I diagnosed her the USG went down just alittle from over 1.040 to 1.038. UM that is the first time it had been above the line. I think the BUN and crea were still pretty close to where they normally where. I repeated the blood work in 6 months and the USG was 1.028ish still normal but not normal for her. Bun and crea were also on the high end of normal. There was protein in the urine so I ran a Urine protein/crea level and diagnosed her with stage 1 KD.

It was the change baseline that tipped me off. She didn't have elevated bun/crea until a year later.
 
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