So sorry to read about this.

I've no experience with this condition in any of the dogs I've had but we've unforturnately had it with a few cats.

Fingers crossed XX

Whoa hang on in there. Its normal for them to lose a lot of weight - you can often see Katie's spine. As Mini, i think said, they often feel sick & dont want to eat. Extra protein is really a no/no & you do learn to balance it out. It hits you like a sledge hammer. In Katies case its congenital which made it harder for me to accept.

Occassionally i lightly cook chicken breast in a pot with some water. Keep the stock its cooked in & mince or chop the chicken finely. Mash the k/d with a fork & mix about a tablespoon chicken threw the k/d of the minced chicken & spoon over about tablespoon of the chicken stock that the chicken cooked in & mix in. This will often kick start her eating again, then gradually taper the amount down until shes just getting the stock mixed threw it.

Its not unusual for them to go 2/3 days without eating. After 2 days we visit the vet, reason being the weight falls off a renal dog as you know. I have hand fed her jarred baby food, dipping my finger into the food & letting her lick it off, "if" i can get her to take it.

What did help Katie was the start of "Rubenal" (vet recommended) to her diet. She cant tolerate the recommended doseage which is two a day, she can however take one a day, half AM, half Teatime. Its a medicine for animals in renal failure. Its helped raise her bloods up a bit & she isnt so skeletal looking most of the time
Cooked Chicken skin believe it or not is something they can tolerate so anytime we have chicken, that is her special treat spread over couple days
Be careful of biscuits & treats. I find Wainwrights (petsathome) biscuits are ok altho having said that she would only get one a day. Occasionally both dogs get raw marrow bones to gnaw. After about an hour or sooner if she leaves it, i remove them. Keeping the food including bones, fresh appears to help.

Zantac helped Katie at first now it has no effect. When she is poorly we find a week on Omeprazole (perscription) & week off over three week period, can help: so week on it, week off, week on, then we can usually get a few weeks or so without it.
Did your vet say what stage your dog us in?

To your dog he/she needs their routine kept as normal as possible, regular walks but not as far, as their stamina is lower now & they need you to be strong for them

You can PM me anytime if you want to check anything or just talk.

Katie was diagnosed approx 18 months ago & is holding her own at Stage 3 - there are 4 stages in renal disease. Above all enjoy your dog. x

How's Duke doing? I agree with Mini, while you need to be mindful of the condition, it is also very important to make sure that he is eating something. I remember green tripe being listed a very good food for kidney failure and most dogs love it. Has the vet given you a phosphate binder to put on his food?

There are as we know different causes of kidney failure and the age and general health of a dog plays a part in the success of any treatment.
I said in my earlier post..
Chronic kidney disease which can lead to kidney failure can respond to treatment however if a dog has advanced kidney failure treatment may do very little at all.
I now know Millie my little dog had advanced kidney failure. Days spent on drips at the vet, medication, diet were all futile because her kidneys had past the point of no return.

When Millie had been on a drip to flush out the toxins the first time,on returning home she ate a little but rapidly returned to not wanting to eat. A special diet would no doubt have taken time to work , time was something we didn't have, Millie was fading away before my eyes so we tried anything she would eat to keep her going in the vain hope she might improve .

We did all this because I needed to try and Millie was only 9 months old .

I think it is important to look at each dog individually. While in some instances a dog can be treated for kidney problems, sadly this may not always be possible.

Your experience with Millie is so similar to what happened with my Moon he wasn't as tragically young as Millie, but he was only around 3-4 years old he was on and off drips for a week but as soon as he came home, he just went downhill again. It came on so fast, the shock made it worse.

I do hope Duke is responding to treatment and that you can get him comfortable and eating (((hugs)))

I have no experience but just want to send you lots of (((hugs))) and gentle hugs to Duke.

Thankyou guys for your support. Duke has managed a little walk today but still won't touch the dog meat so we resorted to chicken and rice which he loved. I don't think hes got very long left so im just feeding him what he will eat but hoping it doesn't cause him more pain
Hes not on any meds, vet said there wasn't really anything he could have?

When he had the blood test for his kidney he was 26 (should be between 1 and 11 i think) after 24 hours his level came down to 24 then after another 24 hours it was 17, this was when they said he could come home.

I am so sorry, big hugs to you both.

Eating shouldn't cause him more pain. It's the acidic empty stomach and bile that makes them uncomfortable, so small regular meals of anything he will eat should make him more comfortable. At the end I was feeding Moon KFC popcorn chicken out of pure desperation to eat as he was refusing everything (in not necessarily advocating it!). As said before, green tripe is very good. Stick to white rice as its lower in phosphates than brown rice. This link might help http://www.windyhollowvet.com/Docume...ailureDiet.pdf

I'm glad he went out for a little walk. My Moon continued to enjoy his little walks so we kept those up right to the end. If he is advanced, I don't think there is any medication that will help. Moon was just on phosphate binders but really he was too far gone to make much difference. I would ask about a stomach settler though, it could help. Apparently the toxins in the blood make them feel like they have a really bad hang over

My heart is breaking for you kidney failure can be so cruel. It can hide itself so well and come in so fast. I really hope you can make Duke comfortable and enjoy him. I'm still hoping for a miracle x

I'm sorry to hear about Duke, no advice just warm thoughts to you both.