Well here we are again! I posted a couple years ago about the random seizure Lenny had while were on vacation, never found a cause for it (nor has it happened again, thankfully) but that ER visit led us to a diagnosis of stage 2 renal failure. I have been cooking for him for the last 2 years.... up until the shelter in place started and things got crazy with home schooling and remote working and all other parts of life. Then I found a low protein kibble that he liked and spruced it up with some pasta/rice and veggies and other goodies to keep him excited about his food, always added a lot of water and fish oil tablets and Vitamin B supplement. Took him to the vet recently and seems he has advanced to stage 3 renal disease. The vet recommended a Royal Canin prescription renal diet. I gave it a try... it's been a week and I swear it's terrible for him. He's an oldie at almost 15 years old.... before the switch to Royal Canin he did sleep a lot, as these older guys do, but when he was awake he was still pretty solid on his feet - despite having vision and hearing problems. He would trot around the house and sniff things and search for dropped food, occasionally steal something off the table... you know, typical Basenji stuff. I tried out the Royal Canin food and I feel like it was killing him. He suddenly couldn't walk straight... he was super wobbly and disoriented all the time. It seemed like his legs were going to give out on him and he'd have a hard time even circling to lay down. Enough of that! I sat down and reformulated his nutritional needs based on his latest bloodwork and urine results from the spreadsheet from the K9KidneyDiet yahoo group and created a couple recipes for him that balanced his protein/phosphorus/calories/calcium. I have fed him 2 of these new home cooked meals so far and he's back to normal Lenny! What on earth is in that Royal Canin that was making him seem so out of it??!?!?!?!?! No more!

Anyone give their B sub q fluids at home and can give me some tips and tricks? Lenny is in acute renal failure and the vet suggested flushing him with sub q fluids over the next 2 weeks to see if we can get him back to just the chronic kidney failure that we have been dealing with over the last couple years.

I've got the Lactated Ringers, line and needles on order and would welcome any tips or encouragement on doing this at home myself. I've watched a few youtube videos as well as gotten instructions from the vet, but nothing like some first hand advice from fellow basenji owners to ease my nerves......

Well here we are again! I posted a couple years ago about the random seizure Lenny had while were on vacation, never found a cause for it (nor has it happened again, thankfully) but that ER visit led us to a diagnosis of stage 2 renal failure. I have been cooking for him for the last 2 years.... up until the shelter in place started and things got crazy with home schooling and remote working and all other parts of life. Then I found a low protein kibble that he liked and spruced it up with some pasta/rice and veggies and other goodies to keep him excited about his food, always added a lot of water and fish oil tablets and Vitamin B supplement. Took him to the vet recently and seems he has advanced to stage 3 renal disease. The vet recommended a Royal Canin prescription renal diet. I gave it a try... it's been a week and I swear it's terrible for him. He's an oldie at almost 15 years old.... before the switch to Royal Canin he did sleep a lot, as these older guys do, but when he was awake he was still pretty solid on his feet - despite having vision and hearing problems. He would trot around the house and sniff things and search for dropped food, occasionally steal something off the table... you know, typical Basenji stuff. I tried out the Royal Canin food and I feel like it was killing him. He suddenly couldn't walk straight... he was super wobbly and disoriented all the time. It seemed like his legs were going to give out on him and he'd have a hard time even circling to lay down. Enough of that! I sat down and reformulated his nutritional needs based on his latest bloodwork and urine results from the spreadsheet from the K9KidneyDiet yahoo group and created a couple recipes for him that balanced his protein/phosphorus/calories/calcium. I have fed him 2 of these new home cooked meals so far and he's back to normal Lenny! What on earth is in that Royal Canin that was making him seem so out of it??!?!?!?!?! No more!

@tanza

I will email you! We are ok - hanging in there with all of this craziness. Hope you are well!

@donc

Thanks for the info - and LOL re "I'd have to czech". Thanks for the tip about the car taking us to CZ. My husband also found out today from the Polish Embassy that we would NOT have to quarantine in Poland for 2 weeks - we could simply transit on to CZ either by rail or by car... so that may have solved our problem. I see that LOT airlines flies directly to Warsaw from SF, and I could get Lenny on board with me as an ESA. According to their website it's possible but I want to verify with an actual person. I've spent a total of 3 hours on hold today with their call center. I'll keep trying... thanks!

@basenjimom2

Yes, I really don't want to fly him in cargo. I"m 99.9% sure that I would not do it. I have been posting on some Czech ex-pat pages where people regularly fly back and forth (in this case, from Canada) with their dogs and I hear, for example, that Luftansa - is great with pet transport. I'm trying to find out exactly what that means.

I have a friend in MN that has offered to take him for the duration of our trip - which is wonderful and I trust her. But I don't want to be without him.... so trying to find a way to make this work....

Hey Pat,

I am in the process of calling airlines now. According to their websites, they all (except for British Airways) allow ESAs on board flights directly to/from the U.S. But I know things may have changed since COVID so I'm definitely going to confirm. Hoping someone has some insight into how strict they have found the airlines to be in Europe with regards to the stated sizes/weights for the in cabin pets. I was hoping since we'd be transiting and therefore already past the ticket counter and security they might not notice..... and then worst case if they do notice, we could put him in cargo for the 1.5 hours....

Hello! My family and I are going to stay with my husband's family in the Czech Republic for a few months starting around October of this year. I've been looking into all of the different complications of getting Lenny there and it's just overwhelming and I don't know if it will even be possible. I can get him registered as an Emotional Support Animal, but ESAs are only recognized on flights directly to or from the U.S. Right now, there are NO flights to Prague from anywhere in the U.S. :(. We can get from the US to another nearby country (like Poland) with him in cabin. And then from there it gets more complicated.

So seems my options from Poland to CZ are to either:

1. Take my chances that the airline would allow Lenny to be a normal in-cabin pet, even though he exceeds the weight/height limits to be an in-cabin pet? He's about 22 lbs.

2. Let him fly cargo from Poland to CZ. It's about 1.5 hours. (I hate even thinking about this).

He's 15. He's never been on a flight before. He's generally healthy with some minor kidney issues and sight/hearing issues.

Anyone have any insight?

Thanks both of you for your responses. Yes, I was happy to see his UPC went down - the only thing that changed between June and August is that we switched him from his high protein grain free food to the senior diet by recommendation of the Canadian vet. His August tests were also conducted right after his seizure so not exactly his normal state. I talked to his local vet yesterday and we agreed that I'd fully switch him to my homemade diet and recheck his values in a few weeks and see if they come down even more. If not, I will start him on the Benazipril. Fingers crossed!

@flbasenji - I joined that same FB group and posted about lenny a couple times. The first time a couple people told me he had a UTI which is why I got it checked again - but it came back negative. I posted again yesterday and no one responded. I'd be interested to hear more about what you've done with your B's with kidney issues - what have you fed them? Any supplements?

Hi Everyone - it's been a LONG time since I've been on these forums - looking for some advice from you experienced basenji owners.

Lenny is 12.5 years old and always been really healthy until about a month he suddenly had a seizure while we were on vacation. We took him to an emergency vet who did some bloodwork and urinalysis and told us he has stage 2 kidney disease. Probably unrelated to the seizure but a side finding. They recommended putting him on a senior diet, as well as a kidney health supplement and 2.5mg of Benazepril per day. We put him on the new food immediately but have not yet started the Benazepril. We came back from vacation and I started researching home made diets for kidney disease, re-joined the yahoo k9kidneydiet group (i was a member years ago when I had Tayda, our Fanconi-afflicted B), and unfortunately they have not been very helpful. I think the moderators have too much going on in their real lives to answer all of the member's questions. Anyway, they did look at his test results and suggested that he probably had a UTI - so last friday I took Lenny to our local vet and they did a urinalysis. It came back negative for bacteria and WBC but I still asked them to do a culture and sensitivity test to be extra sure. That test came back with no bacteria grown. So we are sure there is no UTI. I'm attaching photos of his bloodwork and urinalysis from June and his urinalysis from last friday. Noteworthy values:

June results:
BUN = 37.52
Creatinine = 1.75
Urine Specific Gravity = 1.026
Protein = ++
UPC = 1.4

August Results:
Urine Specific Gravity: 1.033
Protein = 500 mg/dL
UPC ratio = 0.76.

Only difference between June and August is that in June we were feeding him a grain free high protein diet, and in August we switched him to the senior kibble that presumably is lower in protein.

Questions:

1. Is it correct to say that he's got Stage 2 kidney disease AND proteinuria? Or are they one in the same?
2. Anyone else give their B's Benazepril? The emergency vet said to give him 2.5mg but the local vet said 5mg was the right dose. He weighed in a couple pounds different between the two visits so maybe he's right on the cusp?
3. What side effects can I expect from the Benazepril?
4. Can anyone advise on a homemade diet for Lenny? Based on materials I'm finding I'm targeting about 25-30 grams of protein per day and less than 400mg of phosphorus per day. The recipe I just made contains: 555 cal/30g protein/381mg phos/136mg calcium. To that recipe I add about 1/2 tsp of ground up eggshells to balance the phosphorus and I'm not adding any additional phosphorus binder since his phosphorus is currently in the normal range.

I think that's in for now! Thanks to anyone who has any advice for me!!!

Michelle

Thanks everyone for your input. I'm pretty confident it's not a UTI because when he does pee, he empties his bladder, it's a large volume of pee. Not, small frequent amounts of pee that you see with a UTI. He has had a total of 3 accidents over the past month - possibly 2 months if I think back more specifically. And I actually think one of those incidents was him knocking over his water bowl and soaking his bed. I have been going home at lunch and letting him out mid-day and sometimes he doesn't even seem to want to pee at all. And he has never had an accident when we are home. He usually gets let out at about 5pm and then not again until 7am, and he has had no issues with that long overnight stint.