Sweet Little Oatmeal

So we took Oatmeal to the vet at the end of September with some concerns that we thought were, at worst, a doggy UTI. Our vet wanted to do some bloodwork and a urinalysis. We were surprised to get the call that Oatmeal had higher than normal creatinine and phosphorus levels, and that her urine was not concentrating properly. Our vet had us start her on a prescription kidney diet food and a renal supplement, with plans to retest in a month. 

Right after the wedding and before our honeymoon, we took her back to have more bloodwork and another urinalysis. The levels had fortunately come down some, probably as a result of the new food, but were still higher than the vet thought was normal for a 1 year old puppy, plus her urine was still dilute. The vet recommended we see a radiologist for an abdominal ultrasound of Oatmeal's kidneys, so on Tuesday I took her to that appointment.

We found out that Oatmeal has renal dysplasia, meaning that she was born with too small kidneys that have a lot of scar tissue (like at least 75% of her kidneys are non-functioning scar tissue). We took her to an internal medicine specialist in Maryland on Friday, and did some more tests and talked with us a lot about what we are going to do moving forward. For now, the treatment will focus on trying to make sure Oatmeal doesn't lose more kidney function, so the prescription kidney diet food she's been eating helps with that. They want to recheck her urine, blood, and blood pressure (it was high on Friday, she may need blood pressure meds) every month, then every three months, and if the levels stay stable, then every six months. She has an appointment in December at our regular vet to have all that tested again, then they will forward the results to the specialist who will call us with the results (that way we don't have to go all the way back down there). 

The internal medicine specialist said she can't really give us a prognosis, since every dog is different, but that hopefully Oatmeal can live many more years. Fingers crossed for our adorable puppy, we love her so much and want her to live a long and happy life! We certainly appreciate any and all prayers and/or happy thoughts sent our way!