Old Dog Vestibular Disease
Red flags: Sudden onset of head tilt to one side, loss of balance, circling, falling over, vomiting.
What' wrong?: Suspected problem within the inner ear, which functions in hearing and maintaining balance.
Treatment: Dogs typically recover within hours to weeks but need help with eating and drinking, and anti-motion sickness medications such as meclizine. Veterinarians may prescribe oral antibiotics to head off inner ear infection. Thyroid supplements are needed in cases where the nerve supply to the inner ear may be affected by insufficient hormone production of the thyroid gland.
Kidney Disease
Red flags: Increased thirst and urination, weight loss, muscle wasting, decreased appetite, vomiting, rapid respiration, pale mucous membranes.
What's wrong?: Kidneys gradually stop functioning. Waste accumulates to toxic levels in the blood when the kidneys are less able to filter waste products. Phosphorus, calcium or potassium levels also may become abnormal. Anemia develops because the kidney no longer stimulates the bone marrow to produce red blood cells.
Treatment: Therapeutic diets adjust protein levels and reduce phosphorus to decrease build-up of toxins. Phosphorus binders mixed into food prevent your dog from absorbing the mineral during digestion, so less needs to be eliminated by its failing kidneys. Injections of supplemental erythropoeitin, a human-derived hormone, stimulates red blood cell production to treat anemia. The anabolic steroid stanozolol can improve appetite and help slow muscle wasting. A kidney transplant can help some dogs.
Page
1 |
2 |
3 | 4 |
5 |
6