Leptospirosis bacteria and kidney failure stories? (labs, clean, vet, cleaning)
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I was just wondering if there is anyone out there who has a dog that has been infected with the leptospirosis bacteria. My black lab who is going to turn 5 (in 4 days) was just diagnosed with this yesterday. She's been at the vets for just one night and they are going to keep her over the weekend to perform a dialysis to see if that will help her kidneys get a fresh start. The vet said that the blood test was "off the charts" and the kidney failure was surprisingly quick. We have two other dogs that the vet quickly recommended giving a blood test to. They both came out clean thank goodness. This is just heart wrenching to see this happen to my girl. Four days ago she was fetching a tennis ball and today she's hanging on by a thread with (according to the vet) a 50/50 chance of the dialysis being succesful.
I would like to hear your stories and about how your dogs reacted to a dialysis if that is the route you took or other methodes that you were informed about. I'm preparing myself the best I can if she doesn't recover, this was just so sudden ... we were expecting her to be around for another 10 years minimum. At the same time I remain hopeful and keep telling myself she is young and strong. Please share your stories whether they ended in grief or with two shinning eyes on one end and a happy wagging tail on the other.
I feel sorry about your lab. I don't have a story to tell. Is there a vaccine against the bacteria? I know my dog is vaccinated against some bacteria that she may get if she drinks dirty water (infected animal urine contaminated water.)
my dog was 12 when she had the start of kidney failure, this was found by doing a blood test for a teeth cleaning. I was told nothing could be done, and to feed her a special kidney dog food diet. One day she did not eat so went to the vet this one did the
blood work, and her test came back perfect. she lived 2 more years to age 14.
Thank you for taking the time to respond and I'll try to answer your questions about it too. First of all, I have never heard of leptospirosis until now so everything I'm following up with is through self education of this bacteria. For an update, Rozzi went through the dialysis this afternoon and when she woke up the vet office said she was doing good and looking brighter and she even ate a little. I'm hoping the 50/50 thing is looking a bit more on the brighter side. I'm just wondering how the overall effect will be. The vet said that it's possible she will be fine once this treatment is done, but there is also the possibility that she will require at home fluid treatments. Anybody know anything about that? Is that something that is administered by way of a shot? By golly, I hope I don't have to do that.
LingLing, there is a vaccine for it, but it isn't common enough that we hear about it, especially during this time of season when we are suppose to have snow storms instead of thunderstorms. A couple weeks ago we received an enormous amount of warm weather and rain (perfect for these critters to thrive in). And how our yard got contaminated with these buggers is beyond me because we live in town and don't get an aweful lot of wildlife running through our backyard and it's spread through the urin of animals.
mdtoaz, as for a common name, the only thing I could find online was they were refering to it as spirochete because it's a spiral shaped bacteria. My DH spoke to the vet tonight, but didn't ask for any common names.
maggiekate, that's what happened here too. She stoped eating. Even scrambled eggs didn't perk her interest, that's when we were desperate and decided it was time to take her to the vet.
SkiChick, I would check on her vaccine records to see if she had been vaccinated against lepro. Some vets routinely do, others don't. It's part of the DHLPPC bundle, the breakdown of this is Distemper, Hepatitis, Leptospirosis, Parainfluenza, Parvo(virus) and Corona(virus). Some of the more holistic vets will break these vaccines down and only give the DHP (minus the L) and give the parvo and corona virus separately, 2 weeks apart. For what it's worth, labs are particularly prone to parvo (rotties too) and you would always want to make sure she's protected.
If you do have to get her on fluids, the vet techs will give you a good teaching lesson on how to administer subQ fluids, probably lactated ringers. Really, it's not difficult, but I will say that my dogs always behaved for it so much better at the vets than at home! It's a time that they need to just lay still and chill out...
Sending positive thoughts your way, and hope she and you do well through this ordeal! It's tough when our furkids get sick
Yes Valerie is right the L in the DHLPP vac is for Lepto...This is present in rodent pee...that includes mice/rats/rabbits/squirel etc & what dogs dont come in contact with these creatures!!
Hello Valerie and everyone else ... I double checked her records and she did have the lepto shot. Lepto was still one of the possibilities that the vet spoke about but also suggested that it was a genetic problem with the kidneys that she was born with.
For an update, the dialysis over the weekend did not work for Rozzi and we had to put her to rest ... on her 4th birthday. My DH went to visit her, take her for a walk, and when the time came, held her through the entire process. He said she looked at him with understanding and thanks. It's hard to say goodbye to your baby. She went everywhere with us ... work, camping trips, family gatherings, even the dump.
So I'm sure many of you have all experienced this kind of loss. It may be the best thing for our pet, but it by far is the hardest thing in the world to have to do.
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I'm hoping the 50/50 thing is looking a bit more on the brighter side. I'm just wondering how the overall effect will be. The vet said that it's possible she will be fine once this treatment is done, but there is also the possibility that she will require at home fluid treatments. Anybody know anything about that? 
Is that something that is administered by way of a shot? By golly, I hope I don't have to do that. 
