YorkieTalk.com Forums - Yorkshire Terrier Community - View Single Post - Help! My Dog Fainted Last Night-she Is On Blood Pressure Meds! Please Help Us!

sadiesamie · 11-29-2007, 04:41 PM

Well- The specialist says her kidneys are not failing (thank God)
He said because of that he wanted us to start a quality high protein diet but low in fat. And we have increased her benezepril from 1/4 tab 2xs a day to 1/2 tab 2 x's a day. He thinks she was under medicated with the benezepril. Lets hope! We will re-test her in 30 days. (Urinalysis/Culture) protein/creatinine ratio.

We will re-check her blood pressure in 7-10 days. He also wants us to discontinue the Claritin. he thinks it is causing her bp to raise. so hopefully in 7-10 days when we have that checked it has come down.

The Specialist Vet was cut and dry with us. He said that either by increasing her Benazeperil will either stop the protein loss.. OR… she continues to lose protein and further testing is in order. he called this Glomerular disease.
He said that if her kidneys fail and she will go downhill very rapidly. She will become very sick and very fast. OMG it is going to be a long 30 days!

IF after 30 days... no improvment with her protein loss he will want to do a sonagram and xrays- and then his LAST resort -a biopsy of her kidney. He could not stress enough that the biopsy was the LAST thing he would want to do. FOr one reason- it damages the kidney. he said he has seen benezepril change things for the good in dogs on this med. But- he said unfortunately he has also seen the meds not work and it's very sad. He said things happen very rapidly. (oh how that scares me)

So we have started her on a new dog food tonight. However, because of her having pancreatitis… we will do this VERY slowly over a 10 day or more period so she can handle the food switch and not disrupt anything.

Our last attempt to change her food 3 wks ago made her very sick by the 3rd day… vomiting/diarrhea. So I am praying that does not happen. With her losing so much protein she will be very allergic to several things found in food. I started her on WELLNESS WEIGHT MGT FOOD. it was the only food I could find that was high in protein and low in fat. the specialist said that they make several foods out there and to find one high in good quality protein, good carbs and he wanted us to stay at 5 % fat.

Since I have been researching food for months now- I remembered the Wellness line. He suggested Royal Canin Duck and Potato Light (I am not fond of the ingred in this food) so I went with the WEllness. It is 17 % protein and 6 % fat (the Royal Canin had 23% protein and 7.5 % fat) so my husband and I researched Wellness again and we were impressed after reading info on their site (wellnessdogfood.com) If the wellness does not work for her then I have no choice but to go with the royal canin.

It still makes me nervous b/c the orig vet said "low protein" and now the specialist says just the opposite. It's hard to doubt him after knowing he holds 30 years as a internal med spec. He increased her benezeperil and the orig vet told us that she was maxed out on the dosage. so hmm? makes me wonder.

In the meantime... Sadie is not getting the Claritin and she is itching non stop and i just feel horrible. But I cannot give her the Claritin anymore.
Once she gets on this new wellness food 100% hopefully her allergies will stop. I strongly believe this hills pres food is making her miserable. I cannot wait until we are finished with it.

He suggested the low fat I believe bc of her pancreatitis. SHe is not showing blood in her stool or vomiting. and the specialist did not seem concerned with the pancreatitis at all. just changing her food he said would help that. So low fat is what she needs for right now. If we can bump up to the next level with Wellness we can always do that later on. I just want her completely off of the Hills pres diet. (she was only on the hills d/d for allergies so it wasn't like a something major like renal failure or kidney function food. (once again- the other vet said she wanted her on the hills R/d) The specialist said no. He did however get out his "Hills book of food info" and I hated to see that book. I told my husband that I am not opposed to talking to a nutritionist and My husband wants to just go with what the specialist recommended. high protein and low fat. If i feel the need in a couple months to talk to a nutritionist I will push the issue. someone on YT recommended one (Marcel, I believe)

sorry if i sound like i am repeating myself. it's been a long day. but I wanted to post an update :-) thanks for all of your comments! i really appreciate them from the bottom of my heart. I haven't heard anything on the wellness food thread I started. that makes me a little nervous. I hope it's a good one.

11-29-2007, 04:41 PM	#34
sadiesamie YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: McKinney, Texas Posts: 604	Internal Medicine Update... Well- The specialist says her kidneys are not failing (thank God) He said because of that he wanted us to start a quality high protein diet but low in fat. And we have increased her benezepril from 1/4 tab 2xs a day to 1/2 tab 2 x's a day. He thinks she was under medicated with the benezepril. Lets hope! We will re-test her in 30 days. (Urinalysis/Culture) protein/creatinine ratio. We will re-check her blood pressure in 7-10 days. He also wants us to discontinue the Claritin. he thinks it is causing her bp to raise. so hopefully in 7-10 days when we have that checked it has come down. The Specialist Vet was cut and dry with us. He said that either by increasing her Benazeperil will either stop the protein loss.. OR… she continues to lose protein and further testing is in order. he called this Glomerular disease. He said that if her kidneys fail and she will go downhill very rapidly. She will become very sick and very fast. OMG it is going to be a long 30 days! IF after 30 days... no improvment with her protein loss he will want to do a sonagram and xrays- and then his LAST resort -a biopsy of her kidney. He could not stress enough that the biopsy was the LAST thing he would want to do. FOr one reason- it damages the kidney. he said he has seen benezepril change things for the good in dogs on this med. But- he said unfortunately he has also seen the meds not work and it's very sad. He said things happen very rapidly. (oh how that scares me) So we have started her on a new dog food tonight. However, because of her having pancreatitis… we will do this VERY slowly over a 10 day or more period so she can handle the food switch and not disrupt anything. Our last attempt to change her food 3 wks ago made her very sick by the 3rd day… vomiting/diarrhea. So I am praying that does not happen. With her losing so much protein she will be very allergic to several things found in food. I started her on WELLNESS WEIGHT MGT FOOD. it was the only food I could find that was high in protein and low in fat. the specialist said that they make several foods out there and to find one high in good quality protein, good carbs and he wanted us to stay at 5 % fat. Since I have been researching food for months now- I remembered the Wellness line. He suggested Royal Canin Duck and Potato Light (I am not fond of the ingred in this food) so I went with the WEllness. It is 17 % protein and 6 % fat (the Royal Canin had 23% protein and 7.5 % fat) so my husband and I researched Wellness again and we were impressed after reading info on their site (wellnessdogfood.com) If the wellness does not work for her then I have no choice but to go with the royal canin. It still makes me nervous b/c the orig vet said "low protein" and now the specialist says just the opposite. It's hard to doubt him after knowing he holds 30 years as a internal med spec. He increased her benezeperil and the orig vet told us that she was maxed out on the dosage. so hmm? makes me wonder. In the meantime... Sadie is not getting the Claritin and she is itching non stop and i just feel horrible. But I cannot give her the Claritin anymore. Once she gets on this new wellness food 100% hopefully her allergies will stop. I strongly believe this hills pres food is making her miserable. I cannot wait until we are finished with it. He suggested the low fat I believe bc of her pancreatitis. SHe is not showing blood in her stool or vomiting. and the specialist did not seem concerned with the pancreatitis at all. just changing her food he said would help that. So low fat is what she needs for right now. If we can bump up to the next level with Wellness we can always do that later on. I just want her completely off of the Hills pres diet. (she was only on the hills d/d for allergies so it wasn't like a something major like renal failure or kidney function food. (once again- the other vet said she wanted her on the hills R/d) The specialist said no. He did however get out his "Hills book of food info" and I hated to see that book. I told my husband that I am not opposed to talking to a nutritionist and My husband wants to just go with what the specialist recommended. high protein and low fat. If i feel the need in a couple months to talk to a nutritionist I will push the issue. someone on YT recommended one (Marcel, I believe) sorry if i sound like i am repeating myself. it's been a long day. but I wanted to post an update :-) thanks for all of your comments! i really appreciate them from the bottom of my heart. I haven't heard anything on the wellness food thread I started. that makes me a little nervous. I hope it's a good one.