bun high
 

Hi, this is my first post, I'm new to this site. A little about me, I'm a 240 pound Harley riding ain't scared of nothing guy. Until my wife talked me into a Yorkie. I have always had big dogs, Doberman's!! So when this little fur ball showed up I wanted nothing to do with him. Well guess what, he's dad's little boy, he bosses me around the house makes me play with him everynight, "don't tell the guys at the club about this"! Well here's the problem, about 2 weeks ago he had the runs and it was very dark brown. So we took him to the vet, he had a bacterial infection so 2 shots and some pills all is good. Then last week the runs return only it's normal color, again more pills and shots, seemed to be good until last night. He woke me up 3 times to pee. Then this morning we was throwing up, shaking and whinning. So back to the vet, he said his BUN was 50 and his red and white counts were a little high but nothing to worry about. The vet said he could have kidney damage. His diet is baked chicken breast in the am and at lunch, then science diet at supper. We were trying to give him the best diet we could, we figured if it's good for a human it's good for a dog. The vet seemed to think that is way too much protein in his diet and is causing the problem. They are keeping him over night and have him on IV's. The vet called and said he was much better after the first IV and was going to give him another on tonight and in the morning. I asked the vet if we could cure him, he said we need to manage his diet? So we are going to change his diet as soon as he gets home. There is a problem, he's a very picky eater"gets that from me" and he won't eat it! We tried he'll eat it if he gets hungry enough!! WRONG didn't work. So am I over reacting to this, I'm worried sick about him, he is only 2 1/2 years old. I have read on other sites the high protein in the chicken can cause this problem, but can be fixed with a proper diet. Before this we really have not had any major problems with him. We would really like to hear from other Yorkie people.
Thanks,
Dave,Jodi and Rascal

Don't have any answers for you, but I hope all goes well for your furbaby.
:animal-pa Cathy, mom to Sarge :aimeeyork and Lexi :aimeeyork :animal-pa

You really do need to listen to your vet and find a food that your pupster will eat...one that is good for him!

One thing I want to share with you is this: I hear people say this all of the time; that their pups will not eat the food they give them. I believe that it is simply a problem of the owner giving in too quickly and giving them other foods. These little darlings can train us quickly! :) I have fostered and owned many yorkies and most of them came to me as adults. I have yet to have one refuse to eat. Oh, it sometimes takes a day or two...even up to a few days (which is rare); but they all eat!! So...hang in there ... make him eat what is good for him so that you can enjoy him for many many years!

Welcome to YT! You will learn a lot here. I suggest you browse the Health and Diet forum where you will find lots of great information.

Here is a website you might want to read...Is he on prescription Science Diet? or regular Science Diet? Regular Science Diet is not that great...

The Dog Food Project - How does your Dog Food Brand compare?

Did the vet bring up Liver Shunt at all?

:thumbup::thumbup: I agree! If you are supplementing his food with chicken breast, etc. to try to get him to eat, his diet may not be nutritionally balanced.

There are some wonderful commercial diets available. Science Diet is really not one of the best IMO. If you check the Heath & Diet section, you will find lots of great food recommendations. Perhaps you could research a few and discuss them with your vet?

Thanks for the replys, I will be going to the vet around luch time. I will post what happens.
Thanks,
Dave

Dave - Your post made me laugh because my husband was exactly like you! He has a Harley, fast sports cars and has always had German Shepherds that go EVERYWHERE with him. When I brought Lola home, he would not even hold her. She got sick the first weekend we had her and had to go to the emergency vet. The first night they told us we could come visit and she was so tiny, just a little over 1 lb and was hooked up to an IV. Well, she looked up and saw us, and who do you think she dragged her little body body over to see? My husband...and things have never been the same! She is now 3.5 lbs and she is his baby. He sleeps with her, carries her around the dealership and even talks "baby talk" to her whenever he sees her. No one else is allowed to pick her up because he is afraid they might "drop" her! Anyway, Lola would not eat and the reason she was so sick was because she had liver disease. The vet did not Bile Acid test her for over a year after this incident and that was a big mistake. She has since been diagnosed and we have had the problem repaired and she is good as new. Has your baby been BAT? I'm sure that is probably not the problem, but I'd definitely want to rule that out. Good luck and enjoy your sweet little guy!

here is what i think - due to the diarrhea and vomitting the bun was high due to dehydration. It is true too high of a protein diet can affect the kidneys but if your dog had kidney probs the bun AND the creatinine would be high not just the bun so I think your vet is running a little wild with that. I would add a little chicken to his kibble in the morning and a little in the evening but keep it mostly his kibble if that does not work get some low sodium organic broth from whole foods put it in ice cubes and freeze it pop them out and put in a baggie and defrost one every 3 days and put a little on his kibble and mix it up as it will get him eating his kibble as i had a picky eater too but sometimes they are picky due to teeth issues or it makes him feel sick to his tummy so be aware of that as well.

The white blood cell count was up due to infection and red blood cell count being up makes me nervous this is HGE which is very serious so it is good they hospitalized him so ask your vet if he ruled out HGE as due to diarrhea and vomitting this would be my first concern especially since red blood cell count is elevated.

here is info on hge it is when the red blood cell count multiplies rapidly and thus shuts down the organs it is very serious so i would keep an eye out on this - usually the diarrhea is a raspberry jam like diarrhea as the blood is coagulating - I know you said no red blood in diarrhea so it may not be this or you caught it early

Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE)

sometimes they have diarrhea and vomitting from the antibiotics so what antibiotic did they give you metronidazole? Is the shot covenia?

some dogs cannot tolerate chicken that have ibd and allergies so be aware of that as well

another thing that happens is if the immune system is lower then when you put them on antibiotics then take off without doing probiotics the infection if not completely gone comes back twice as bad :( as you are killing good and bad bacteria in the gut so the bad can take over if dog is not balanced so adding good bacteria in can help balance them back up

also diarrhea is much more dehydrating than vomitting

I would definitely have this little one bile acid tested as he could have mvd/liver shunt but with that amount of protein you have have seen seizures if liver shunt but could be mvd

Absolutely could be dehydration. I still would look at that diet!

Let us know how things go today! Thinking positive thoughts! :)

Ok we just got back from OSU Vet hospital, went to vet first thing this morning, his bun and cret. numbers were up a little more. So he suggested I go to a specialist. We live about 90 minutes from Columbus,Ohio they are suppose to be the best around. They ran every test, nothing. They weren't as concerned with the bun number, yea a little high but not outragous. So they did an ultra sound on his kidneys, looked good. So next a urine test. The kidneys are working but not up to speed as they should. They are doing a culture to look for bacteria, or infection in his urine. So he is spending the night at OSU and we will be heading back in the am. They are sending him to internal medicine unit first thing. We could have brought him home then took him back, but if we left him, he was sure to be hydrated for his tests in the am. So what are his problems? Not sure, could be one of 2 things, an infection in his kidneys or early early kideney diease. The doc seemed to think both were not a major problem to fix. But we will not know for at least another 17 hours or so.
Hope to have better news on Thurs.
Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers.
Dave/Jodi
PS: Ever notice how slow time goes when yo are worrying?

Sounds like Rascal is in great hands! I am sure, from the sounds of it, that they will get to the bottom of it.

He is lucky to have such caring parents who are making sure he has the best vet care possible!

Thanks so much for the update! Will say a prayer for him tonight!

So thankful you took him to the specialist..many people would not have and hopefully they can figure out what is going on and fix him in a very short time...these little devils sure can wrap their paws around our hearts...can't they/:)

that is a great vet school - dh graduated from there - GOOOO BUCKS - i think he will be ok and good for you for getting to the bottom of it - was any other blood work off at all or only bun and creatinine? Was there protein in the urine did they say? I will pray everything will be ok for the little Buckeye - hang in there but he is definitely in good hands with that vet school

my guess is protein was too high and at least you are getting to the bottom of it now and can get him on a low protein diet and reverse things as he is young - there is a great yahoo group you should join tonight k9kidney at yahoogroups.com they are very sharp and know alot about kidney values so you can get some more info

here you go just hit join now :) i have learned alot from yahoogroups.com as these are pet owners who are dealing with the same issues with their dogs and they are SHARP

K9KIDNEYS : for owners of dogs with Kidney Disease

Sounds like he is exactly where he needs to be. Keep us updated, okay?

Just talked to the doc at OSU he had a great night eat for them, so that is good and he will be seen this morning by the internal Vet shortly. We will be heading out around 9:00am for OSU. I will post tonight when we get home. Hope he gets to come home tonight. I joined the K9Kidney group this morning, thanks for the heads up.
Thanks again,
Dave/Jodi

We hope that your baby is doing better now. I inherited an 11 yr. old Yorkie that was mostly feed people food and wouldn't even consider "dog" food. He turned his nose up for a few days but is now eating a proper diet and has almost got down to a normal weight. He was a whoppimg 11 pounds and he is a small Yorkie. We will keep your baby in our prayers!

that is great you will learn alot on there - hoping all goes well with internal medicine today :)

Back early from vet, no news yet. They thought maybe it was addison's but test come back negative. So it's one of two things, The internal vet said; an infection in the kidney,urine tract or liver areas, or early kidney disease. We are hoping for the first!!!! They were going to run another blood test tonight and call around 5:30 with the results. They have him on antibotics through his IV's. The vet said worst case senioro if kidney disease 1 to 3 years. That just ain't going to work, I'm not ready to let him go!!!!! The vet said his numbers weren't that high so he's thinking it's just an infection causing all these problems. If his numbers come down on this test it will be just an infection let's hope and pray....
Thank you for your prayers and words of hope...
Dave/Jodi

Thanks for updating us. I'm praying it's just an infection.

Just seeing this thread. My thoughts and prayer's are with you and your
little one Dave. Finger's crossed it's only an infection.
He's a lucky little guy to have such caring parents.

I will keep prayers that it's the infection. Let us know how it goes!

Vet just called all his numbers are normal, his bun is 30 which is on the high side of good but much better. He is still concerned about why Rascal got this way, so they are going to do a wormer just in case there is a GI parasite causing all this mess. All that is left is his urnie culture test, we will be called in the am with the results. Next he said we are going to change his diet to something more suitable, this is going to be hard but we have to!!!! We will be going after work tomorrow to pick him up. We took Rascal for a walk today, was very hard to leave him one more night, but it was the right thing to do. I can't tell you guys how much your thought and prayers helped. Once everthing is back to normal around here I'll post a few pics.
Thank you very much,
Dave/Jodi & Rascal Vanderpool

I will continue to pray for Rascal. Hoping it is an infection and they can quickly get him better.

Poor little Rascal! You're a good daddy for all you've done to help him!!!

Thank you for updating! Sounds like little Rascal is going to be fine! I think you will be surprised....he will adjust to a new diet and it will give you so many more wonderful years with him!
:)

great news - continued prayers coming your way

Great news! I am praying a diet change will do the trick!

He is home, good news nothing wrong with his kidneys, the docs at OSU think it was a combination of things. First he had an internal bacterial infection, which our vet gave him antibiodics which also cause the kidney numbers to rise. Then with the runs on and off for 3 weeks got him very dehydrated. So this caused his kidneys to go crazy and the blood work to read high. Also he may have a food alergy, so we are starting him on a new diet which is going to be a chore, he is very bull headed he gets it from his mom Ha Ha.
If it comes back, it is a long word I could spell if I tried, but it's like human Irritable bowl syndrome. So I stopped the doc and asked, so I understand it, whatever he has we can fix it, his answer was YES, that is all we needed to hear. We are to keep a close eye on him and take him to our vet on Monday for more blood work just to be safe. He will be on Pepcit 1/4 pill everyday forever and a couple of drugs for the next 3 weeks just in case the is a bug still hanging out inside him. So far he's just played and played until he couldn't go anymore and curled up with mom in my lazy boy and zonked out. We can't move without him watching our every move and following us around. He has never been away from home for more than 1 day. When we vacation he goes with us, no boarding for him!!! I will try to post a coupleof pics this weekend.
Thanks again for all your support and prayers, He's proof the prayers work, I firmly believe this.
Dave/Jodi & Rascal

was it inflammatory bowel disease as that runs in this breed? my guess is this is it if they think he has a food allergy - it is probably food intolerance as if allergy they itch and intolerance they vomit or have diarrhea.

Any med is processed through liver and kidney so it would make sense antibiotic would affect the bun and yes dehydration as well so glad no kidney issue

What diet are you feeding as my dog has ibd

Pepcid for life ?? not sure if ibd that is necessary if you get the right diet going. That controls the acids in the stomach

what other meds did they give you ? my guess is metronidazole or tylosin (tylan) powder as antibiotic and anti-inflammatory agent for intestinal issues.

here is info on inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Dogs