Chronic Renal Failure in Senior

[Jax08]

~sigh~ If it's not one thing, it's another. Found an ugly growth on Bansh's back yesterday.

[carmspack]

wow -- burnished copper -- love it .

growth-- (the greens -- phyt'n chance) -

[Jax08]

I'll look up the copper. Thanks Carmen. She has other growths that we chose not to remove because we didn't want to disturb them (possibly a return of mast cell cancer). This is a new growth though. Really hoping the one on her face wasn't disturbed to "seed" her body with mast cells.

[mysweetkaos]

Love your pics, she looks so regal. What a wise, sweet face

[carmspack]

no -- don't look up copper !!!!! lol I was saying the dog's coat and colour (my favourite) is like burnished copper - beautiful shine.

[Jax08]

oh lol Yes! She does have that shine! I didn't realize how much until I took the picture

[Jax08]

Good article!

Age in Senior Dogs Does Not Cause Renal Failure | B-Naturals.Com Newsletter

I, personally, have believed from the start that Banshee's CRF was caused by her teeth. We found growths on her about 2 years ago that we think is a return of mast cell cancer. The one of her chest receded, the one on her face has slowly grown over the last two years. We chose then to leave her be. Now there is a growth on her back. MCT are so unpredictable. Removing them could seed her body. Verifying that they are in MCT without removal could seed her body. Putting her under anesthesia, we could lose her. So we chose to leave her be. Her BUN has been high for over a year. We contributed it to her RAW diet as that can throw off results. Asked online and told if the CREA wasn't high then it shouldn't be anything to worry about. All I can say in hindsight is she probably would not be in CRF if we had pursued reasons for the BUN in more depth and if we had made a different choice regarding putting her under anesthesia and had her teeth taken out sooner. Fear of losing her kept us from doing it. We changed diet to a "cancer" diet, added supplements...all of which I would do over again. I don't regret not having the growths removed and think we made a good choice to not disturb them. I hope that if anyone else is in the same situation and they come across this thread that they pursue what we didn't in regards to her teeth.

[Jax08]

Lamenting to DH last night how much I hate driving 40 minutes to go to a vet. I drive 2 hours a day to work and back and just hate to drive any more.

As I stood in the exam room with Jax waiting for the doc, I got my answer on why I do that.

He came in, with his face full of concern and interest, and said 'How is Banshee?" And if I'm in there with Banshee and seeing the other Doc...he always asks about Jax and her knee. yep...this is why I make the drive instead of to a closer vet.

[Jax08]

Thursday, Banshee started limping so made a vet appointment for this morning. Last night, we found a large mass the size of my hand on her chest on the opposite side. Options discussed, Lyme's test done to rule out, xrays taken. Stunned at the size of the mass, I kept asking him how we could have missed that. Can they really grow that fast? The answer was Yes, they can. She was playing Wednesday morning at 6:30am without a care in the world.

The limp is coming from a disk in her back, impinging on the nerves much like a herniated disk would with us. It is completely unrelated to the mass. Funny how things work out. We saw the limp and made the appointment and then found the mass.

However the mass is large, firm and fast growing so he is confident this is a mast cell tumor. He's put her on prednisone to try to slow the growth and to help with the inflammation in her back. We discussed the balance of shutting down the histamines vs shutting down her immune system vs drugs to further damage her kidneys due to the CRF and he explained that is in the dosage and this is the best drug to address all the issues with the last amount of damage to the kidney...basically the lesser of all the evils. It's a 3 week regimen and we are to let him know the progress in 10 days. If it slows the growth, hopefully halts it at least temporarily, then we will do a maintenance dose the rest of her life. If she is still in pain for her back, we will have to do pain killers, probably tramadol. While this will be hard on her kidneys, at this point it's about quality of life.

I know, in my heart, this is the beginning of the end. It's truly the end of an era for us. Banshee has been there to watch my kids grow up, protect them when we were working and they were home by themselves, greet them at the door and love them. We are looking, best case scenario, a few months. Worst case, a few weeks. If the mass continues to grow it will impede her ability to walk on the other front leg. At this time, it is all about the mast cell and keeping her comfortable. He said they would come here when it's her time.

For anyone who may be going through something similar, Doc said that 13 was ancient for a Boxer and said the reason she has lived so long with quality was the changes we made in her diet, the additional supplement, and OTC drugs that gave us an additional 2 1/2 years with her that we never dreamed we would have.

[RebelGSD]

One of my rescues from SC developed a very fast growing lump on the leg and we thought the worst. It turned out to be bot fly and simple meds and antibiotics took care of it. I have never even heard of a bot fly before. Just putting it out there as an option.

Sending you positive thoughts...