Ellapeptic

About to do that - thanks for the kind thoughts

Hi - sorry to butt into your thread - I was just wondering of anyone with experiance of tramadol knows how long it takes to kick in? My poor boy is in agony, his usual metacam isn't working and he's too ill to go to the vets, so we picked some Tramadol 50mg up. He had one at 4pm and is still the same. If it doesn;t sort him out we are going to call the vet out in the morning and I've a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach tht there is only one option left to us as he is in so much pain....so please, if anyone knows that it takes a while to kick in I'd love to hear it so that I can relax a little...

Thanks all for your kind words. Felling brave so I'll say what happened. We finally decided we really weren;t happy with our vet and took him elsewhere on Tuesday night, and saw a fantastic guy, who gave us a lot of hope and said that he didn't feel our other vets had done things right either, We went home with him, due to take him back in the morning to begin treatment, he was breathing a bit funny and he said to cal overnight if we were worried, but he didn't want to keep him in as he'd be all alone. His brething got a little maybe a little bit more strained towards the morning but we thought we'd wait until he was going in at 9 as we didn't want to disturb him. We were up during the night regularly cuddling him, and our other dog curled up close to him throughout. My partner got up in the morning, gave him a cuddle and went and got dressed and came back to take him to the car -and he was gone. We thought we felt a heartbeat and rushed him to the vets incase but it was just wishful thinking, so we bought him home so our other dog could see he body and say goodbye as we were told it would help him understand, then took him to my partners parents garden (we haven't got one at the mo) and buried him in the spot where my partner does the BBQ's in Summer so he's always close. I'm really struggling to cope and feel so heartbroken, being at home without himfeels awful and walking our other dog alone is so hard - I hope things get easier in time. I didn't realise just how much of our daily routine revolved around the boys, doing things in a different order feels strange,and the past few weeks had revolved around him 24/7. I'm worried about our other boy, I don't think he really understands. I'm glad it's raining here, as hopefully it's washed his scent away, it must be confusing for our other boy when we walk him and he keeps looking for him, but then so do I. I'll never know if we made all the right choices, maybe we should have taken him back during the night, we should definately have followed our instincts about the vet. But I would have been heartbroken if he'd died alone at the vets and am comforted by the fact he went at home, on his own bed with us He passed away a few minutes before he was due to go to the vets to be put on a drip - I like to think he held it together through the night so he could be with us, then choose to go before he had to continue his struggle - maybe he'd just had enough and wanted to be at peace. I keep thinking I should be feeling okay and everyone must think I'm nuts as he was "just a dog", but I don't think I've ever been so heartbroken over a human, he was so special and I miss him so much

Thanks everyone for your advice - on Tuesday night we changed vets and saw a fantastic guy who spent a long time with our baby and outlined an action plan which filled us with hope. We took him home, but he passed away yesterday morning. He was in his own bed with us and our other doggie by his side. No more to add as I can't really cope with it all right now and am struggling to hold it all together, but just wanted to say thanks - and if anyone ever doubts the treatment their pet is recieveing, please get a second opinion sooner than I did.

thanks, he's on the dry food but we're giving him a home made diet now, but I'll ask the vet to try the wet stuff - at the moment he won't eat anything at all - I've left a plate of chicken next t him and he's fallen asleep with his head in it! He can still make me even when he's this ill bless him! I'll try fish and he did have gravy the other day and liked it (low salt). I'm giving him salmon oil so not so worried about the omega 3 at the mo. I'm going to get a copy of his blood test next time we went in, his last ones (last week before he went on IV)were very high, if you mean creatine it was over 100o, which they were very shocked about and seems to be the main thing to get down, I'm giving im coQ10 as it's meant to help. definately going to get another vet, but think we'll get the next lot of bloods done at the same one as they're due in the next day or so and they're dealing with the anti-biotics he's on at the minute, would also like to take my time choosing another one. thanks for you thoughts!

That's a wonderful idea, thank you, I'll check that site out. He's not too good, I was up most of the night, I syringed a mixture of pureed veg and water at 10ish, 12ish, 2ish and 4ish, hoping that by the morning he'd be a bit more alert, but to no avail. Had to rush him out for a toliet trip at about 4.30 when his poor tummy started gurgling though, think I might have overloaded it with veg, felt bad as he ahtes going out at the mo and is very wobbly. I got him out again for the loo this morning, but he won't eat or drink anything at all, I cooked some chicken in butter, which hasn't failed yet to tempt him to a tiny bit, but he won't touch it. Have given him all his meds and a little water with a syringe incase his mouth was dry, but just leaving him to rest now. On the plus side, his heartbeat, which was very fast yesterday has come right down, and he's stopped shivering, so hopefully the vet won't want us to take him in today. I don't really know what to do anymore, I hope it's the infection that he's got that's keeping him subdued and that once the anti-biotics kick in he'll perk up, but I can;t help fearing that it's just the natural progression of the illness thanks for your kind thoughts

It's good to know there are success stories, thanks! thanks, I've already used that site and the k9kidney one, they've both been very helpful. Thanks, will take a look Thanks - yes I don't think asking for advice on supplements is that radical, but you'd think I'd suggested treating him with chrystal therapy and nothing else by the way they reacted!!??

Wow, lots of replies, lovely, thank you all! I'm afrraid he has got more wobbly throughout the day, I've had to resort to purreeing veg with loads of water and sqiuting it into his mouth with a syringe, although he did eat some chicken. I'm basically on the edge of my seat waiting to see if he perks up by the morning and hoping he won't be sick overnight, not sure what to do if there's no improvement, I'm starting to lose hope a bit but really can;t face the thought of our home without our beautiful boy, our other doggie would be totally lost too. Thanks, a lot of the stuff with cat and dog renal failure seems to overlap, I think fortekor is genarally used more with cats though, but it's good to know it was helpful I'm in Norwich, I've been emailing local vets to see if I get a good "vibe" from any of them, a bit of enthusiasm about treating him would be great, any reccomendations of good vets in my area would be wonderful! Thanks, will do that! well, that's what's confusing me, when we picked him up we were given the pills...no-one's actually told us why yet! no heart problems that I know of, unless they haven't told us, in which case I'll be pretty unimpressed. Gonna ask them when we next talk. That's great thanks, will add that to my list of food ideas! PM on way

Hi all, this is my first post so I hope no-one minds if I jump straight in as I'm pretty desperate for help. I was wondering if anyone had any experiance of canine renal failure? My dog is a 11 year old whippet, who was diagnosed in December with mild kidney failure which the vet treated with a prescription diet (which he now refuses to eat) and a phosphate binder called Ipakatine. since then he has gone slowly downhill, plummeting very badly in the last week, when we took him in and his blood levels where so bad they put him on a drip for 24 hours. He is now home but had to go back as he was peeing blood and blood clots, he's now refusing to eat much and is very very weak with a fast heart beat - the vet said to bring him back tommorow if no improvement. I am not getting on very well with our vet as I'm not confident in their advice so far ( ie we were told to give him cod liver oil which is very bad for kidney failure) and after his next blood tests will probably move elsewhere. Following some arguement from the vet we have chosen to feed him a homemade diet, a mix of low phosphate/protien meat (although we're getting conflicting info about the allowance of protien), carbs and veg, although the past few days we have been giving him anything to try and get him to eat, and also giving him supplements - a B complex, CoQ10, vit C and E, salmon oil and a pro -biotic. We are also looking to change him to an aliminium binder, and are interested in finding out more about the use of drugs like Claciatrol, Erythropoietin and the use of Sub-Q fluids at home. Our vet has not been much help with these queries and others, hence me asking in lots of places like here! He's been prescribed Fortekor (not sure why, will be clarifying with vet as well as asking for all blood results when we next go in) and the anti-biotic Synulox for an infection (whatever's making him pee blood). if anyone has any experiance in this and can tell me if I'm doing anything right/wrong, or think of anything else that may help my poor boy, please let me know! thanks in advance