Posts made by Anna

@debradownsouth

Hi Debra, I emailed Pam on March 2nd and she responded very quickly. She was very informative and gave me a lot of suggestions. However, at the time I had emailed her, Lily was eating the cat food with the pills in it. I will have to email her again and update her on Lily’s status. She had suggested that maybe Lily doesn’t feel good when she takes the pills and that’s why she refuses to take them. I think this is a valid point. She suggested giving fewer pills more frequently. I ordered a bacon flavored paste that coats pills from Amazon. When it comes, I will try her suggestion. Thank you for following up. I appreciate it. I will post an update after trying the paste and let you know how Lily is doing. Thanks again.

Sorry, I haven’t posted in a few days. I have tried putting the pills in a couple of new foods and she refuses to eat any of them. I tried tuna fish with a little mayo, which she normally likes, and I also tried raviolis. Anything I give her she is skeptical of. She will not readily take anything until she smells it for a good 2 minutes and if she even thinks it doesn’t smell right she won’t eat it. It is so frustrating because not everything I give her has pills in it. I tried to make a game of it by giving “treats” to Lily and Georgie thinking the competition would help, but Lily insists on smelling everything and doesn’t care if Georgie gets her treats before she has a chance to eat them. She will just as willingly not eat anything. Thanks for listening. I will let you know how things go over the next few days.

Yes, the veterinarian showed us how to give the SQ fluids and it was very easy. @tanza had a great idea using a grooming table. I just put Stuart on a table so it would be easier for me to give the fluids. I know with Lily that she had glucose in her urine but her blood glucose was normal. She also had certain venous blood gases that were not in normal range. All of this combined led my veterinarian to diagnose her with Fanconi Syndrome. Her HCO3 was below normal, her TCO2 was very low, and her pH was low. From what I understand, with kidney failure there is a low urine specific gravity, an increase in protein in the urine, and sometimes the blood urine nitrogen (BUN) and blood creatinine (CREA) are elevated depending on how much kidney function is compromised. So from what I can see there are different things that they look for in the blood work and urine analysis. I hope some of this information helps and doesn’t confuse you more. There is a great article written by Dr. JD Foster, staff veterinarian and director of hemodialysis at UPenn Veterinary Hospital (Ryan Veterinary Hospital). It is in todaysveterinarypractice.navc.com and the title is canine chronic kidney disease. It was written in September/October 2013 but the information might still be relevant. Hope this helps and good luck!

Lily has figured out that the cat food has pills in it. I made a mistake and used liverwurst last night instead of cat food because it doesn’t smell as much. She knew right away that there were pills in the liverwurst and she ate all of the liver wurst and left a few pills. This morning I went back to cat food and she ate all of the cat food and left a few pills. I am going to try to give her the pills she didn’t take later in a different flavor cat food. She is just too smart! I hope it works otherwise I will have to try a different food.

Sorry, I had to reply again because I can’t get the cursor to stay on the line. It keeps going between the lines. Anyway, Stuart tolerated the SQ fluids very well. We also put him on a special renal diet made by Hills. If you have any other questions that I might be able to answer, please feel free to ask. I also noticed that you titled your post Fanconi vs Renal Failure. I have a Basenji that has Fanconi Syndrome. If you have any questions about specific tests to determine if the Fanconi Syndrome is what caused the renal failure I will answer whatever I can. Good luck and hang in there!

What a handsome boy! I hope everything works out for both of you. I had a cat that had renal failure and we were giving subcutaneous fluids and oral potassium gel. The subcutaneous fluids were difficult because the volume was large and the needle was very big. It didn’t hurt Stuart at all but I felt horrible doing it. My husband would hold him and I would just pinch his skin and insert the needle underneath, then squeeze the IV bag so it would empty faster. We were giving anywhere from 500 to 1000 mls once a day. This was about 4 years ago so I am not sure of the exact amount. I

Sorry. The other photo won’t upload because it’s too big. This is the only one small enough to upload.

I have found that the Gooby stretch fleece pull overs on Amazon are the best. Lily has a few of them in different colors. She has ripped at least 4 different wool sweaters that I bought her made by Chilly Dog. I think the wool makes her itchy or she just doesn’t like the bulkiness of them. Anyway, the fleece ones are great. If it is really cold, I put a jacket over the fleece. Also, Lily can get anything off it is too loose or has a zipper so the fleece pull overs I buy are a one piece.

Congratulations! That’s wonderful. I couldn’t find the link to any pictures either but I am sure she is beautiful!

I would like to thank everyone once again for their comments and responses. Just an update. The cat food seems to be working. I am scooping the cat food into little balls using a melon scooper, then I insert the tablet using tweezers, and then I mold it into a perfect little ball using gloves. She is now taking all 7 sodium bicarbonate tablets and 2 vitamins twice a day (18 tablets total per day). I still have 2 more tablets to add to the regimen but am I confident that it won’t be a problem. I can’t tell you how happy I am that she is now taking her tablets. It is such a relief. I know it will take a little time to get her blood levels back up to where they need to be so I will wait about a month before having her blood work checked. Again, I can’t thank everyone enough for their ideas and comments. I am adding a photo of Lily, hopefully it loads. 

Hello. Just wanted to thank everyone once again. Today was a very successful day. I was able to get Lily to take all 7 sodium bicarbonate tablets in cat food. I was very careful when hiding the pills. I used tweezers and gloves and I think that did the trick. Tomorrow I will try 7 tabs in the morning and 7 tabs at night. After a few days, I will add her vitamins to the regimen. Thanks again and I will keep you posted!

I would like to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions. I have been in contact with Dr. Gonto and he has given me a few more suggestions. My veterinarian has been working with Dr. Gonto, he consults on cases of Basenjis with Fanconi Syndrome, regarding Lily since she was initially diagnosed. Dr. Gonto was the one that prompted me to join an online forum to post about Lily and ask for suggestions regarding how to hide her pills so she will take the. I had started with cream cheese, which initially worked, then went on to havarti cheese and many other types of soft cheese. I have tried meatballs, pot roast with lots of gravy, liverwurst, liver treats and chicken treats made by a compounding pharmacy, and even various cold cuts to wrap the pills in. Having read everyone’s posts, I think I have finally figured out what I am doing wrong. Apparently, sodium bicarbonate is extremely bitter and because I am touching the pills with my hands and then coating them with foods to mask the flavor, I am contaminating the foods I am using to mask the pills with sodium bicarbonate, which Lily can easily smell. I am going to try using nitrile gloves when preparing the pills, being careful when I coat them with food and using tweezers so I am having the least amount of contact possible with the sodium bicarbonate. After I am finished preparing the pills, I will remove the gloves and feed them to Lily, while her brother, Georgie gets a treat, so she will be more inclined to swallow them quickly for fear Georgie will eat them first. Dr. Gonto suggested coating the pills in cat food that is fish flavored. I am ready to give this a try and I’m crossing my fingers that it will work. I have also reached out to Camp Basenji for additional suggestions. I would like to thank everyone once again for the comments and suggestions. I’m afraid that getting Lily to take her pills is going to be an ongoing challenge.

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. Lily turned 9 years old in December. My husband and I rescued her from a local Pet shop that closed. She was there for a very long time (4 to 6 weeks?). My husband and I have always had German Shepherds that we bought from breeders so we weren’t familiar with Basenjis. I just felt so sorry for Lily that I had to save her. She is a very smart dog but fiercely independent and she doesn’t listen to anything she is told to do. About a year ago, I noticed she was drinking a lot of water and urinating a lot more frequently so I took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with Fanconi Syndrome. She started the Fanconi protocol but was not getting any better so we gradually went up to 7 tabs of sodium bicarbonate twice a day. She needs to take 20 tablets a day total so forcing her to swallow them is not an option. My husband was doing that for a short period of time but she developed an irritation in her esophagus which caused a cough. We took her to the vet and she was given antibiotics and steroids for 2 weeks. This helped take down the inflammation in her throat. Anyway, I am at a loss as to what to do. I had a local compounding pharmacy make special liver treats (sodium bicar) and she won’t touch them. I had the pharmacy make the treats with half the amount of sodium bicarb in each treat and she still won’t touch them. Then I had them make the treats chicken flavored and still no luck. She is too smart for her own good. We used to put the pills in soft cheese and she would take them but once she figured out there were pills in the cheese she stopped eating cheese all together. She doesn’t like peanut butter. I made meatballs and put the pills in them but that didn’t work. She eventually figures out that there are pills in whatever you put them in and she stops eating all together. This can go on for days. So at this point, she is eating but has not gotten pills in several months. She will take the compounded treats if I wrap them in pill pockets but apparently, the pill pockets, neutralize the sodium bicarb so it is like not giving her any pills at all. I tried to make homemade pill pockets and she won’t touch them. Thank you for your concern and suggestions.

Anna

Hello. My dog, Lily, was diagnosed with Fanconi Syndrome early last year. We immediately started her on Dr. Gonto’s protocol. At this point, she needs 14 sodium bicarbonate (650mg) tablets, 2 pet-cal vitamins, and 2 pet tab plus vitamins a day. The problem that we have run into is that she refuses to eat anything that has medicine in it. Also, whatever food she was eating that had medicine in it, she will no longer touch for fear that there is medicine in it. She stops eating for days. At this point, she has not taken any medicine for a few months. I fear that she is going to get very sick if I can’t get her to take her medicine. I am not willing to jam all of these pills down her throat every day. I feel that it’s not fair to her to do that. I have tried everything, cheese, peanut butter, meatballs, flavored sodium bicarbonate treats (made by a compounding pharmacy), etc. and can not get her to take any medicine. Does anyone have any ideas? Or has anyone had experience with this problem? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Anna