Hi all

We received devastating news yesterday that our beautiful 1 year old girl boxer has kidney failure, we could not believe it she is only 1 and the joy of our life, Vet seems to think its hereditary, we have started her on Hills kd diet but apart from that our vet cant do anything else, we go back in 3 weeks time for another blood test to see if her levels are down. To look at her you would not think anything is wrong she is still running around like a mad thing, chasing things around the garden and being so loving and wanting to be with us all the time. the only reason i took her to the vet was that she had started leaking at night but i had thought that this was related to her spading a couple of months back.  My husband and i are distraught cant imagine living without her .  Please any advice on anything else we can do would be greatly appreciated, as our Vet's outlook was bleak.

What devastating news for you :(  I cannot offer any real help but just wanted to say how sorry I am that your dog is ill and I do hope that there is more that can be done for her. Sarah

hi
it can be in the line,but it very unlucky to affect her so young.i had 2 boxers one had heart problems the other didn't.my mum has my boy's sister who is now 11 she has been told that she has kidney failure.she is the same drugs daily, blood test's to check the levels etc but has made great progress generally since having the meds for it. they tell you only the kd food as other things have to much protien in it. emma my mums dog loves the food and can't eat enough. this means cutting out all bisciuts,treats etc.there is other drugs that can be given but he vets only give them when there is need medically. they can also have the dog in and flush the kidneys to help them work better if need.it is heart breaking news but it isn't as bad as you first thing with the correct care they can go on to lead a normal life.it all depends how the dog response's to the treatment. 

So sorry guest..:-(  if it is any consolation to you my sister in law breeds shelties and had a similar problem with one of her bitches. The problem arose just after the bitch had a litter, the bitch was put on medication and a no salt diet and lived for some years afterwards so there is hope :-)

how is she going? another point to make is that no matter what problems boxers tend to have medically.they don't slow down or give up the fight easy. i can say this from my own experience with mine.do what you can for her and just enjoy what ever time you have with her,they are great dogs and i would have another but i didn't want to compare my new baby with my oldies.

http://www.bowchow.com/

I have an 11 and a half year old diagnosed with kidney failure back in February. I asked to be referred to a specialist, so they could do ultrasound etc, to be sure that it was chronic kidney failure. They ultrasound to guage the condition of the kidneys, and my girl has less than a third kidney function left.

Since then I put her on Hills KD, and partly home produced feeding. Values went down. The more I introduced the right amount of KD the more her values went up. Even that is too high in phosphorous which is more important than protein. In fact if you get phosphorous low, you will be had pressed to reach the right amount of protein. I did massive amounts of research on the net, and found an incredibly useful site, here's the web address

http://home.comcast.net/~mstraus/kidney.html

It has been amazingly useful for me, and allowed me to be able to create a diet to regulate the phosphorous and protein my girl has. She was given 2 weeks in February, and she's still with me now and doing great at the moment - her recent test was the best yet. The vets can't believe it.
I don't know how long it will last, but she's happy, alert and playful and no longer leaking, so I'll just make the most of her for as long as I can.

I am so sorry to hear your news, that must be devastating in one so young, but please have a look at the site above and get a referral to a specialist in internal medicine to give you a definitive picture. If you want any more info, leave another message on this site, or leave your e-mail address and I will e-mail you.

Kat

guest? how is it going, so sorry to hear about your girl ,hope you're coping okay ,thinking of you