Congestive Heart Failure in Dogs – What We’re Doing – Sophie’s Story Pt. 6-Kidney Failure?

Previous post re-cap:

• Sophie’s follow up echo cardiogram results were not good. Her heart dis-ease is severe and didn’t seem to be improving at all
• Dr. Lindholm, Sophie’s cardiologist, suggested doubling her dose of conventional medications and trying the Spironolactone again.
• I ordered the homeopathic remedy Alcoholus from New Zealand, the only place I could get it.
• Two floods, mold, illness and getting out of that house

Our Journey

 

Sophie had zoomies for the first time in months this morning. I savored the sight completely.

 

A lot has happened over the past few weeks, which is why I’ve only written now. When I last wrote, we were living in a motel, about to check out and into an AirBNB to avoid going back to the house that flooded where I believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, had dangerous mold. What’s happened since? It’s a bit of a rollercoaster.

Sophie, Ani and Suki have been real troopers. Moving them from house to motel to AirBNB is a lot. They handled it all with grace. It was apparent they didn’t understand what was going on, and the AirBNB posed challenges I wasn’t made aware of until after I booked. It was a second floor walk up; no elevator. So, Sophie had to climb two levels of stairs at least a couple of times a day to go out. She managed it well and when I felt the need, I carried her up or down. She’s funny; anytime she hears me say the words “pick up,” she would march up or down the stairs to avoid it. I might have mentioned, Sophie isn’t a cuddler and doesn’t love being carried.

We spent three weeks in the AirBNB, a vanilla-type apartment complex, but it was a place to lay our heads during that time and, for that, I’m grateful.

During this, I purchased an ERMI mold and bacteria test, a $500+ test done by a company called Envirobiomics, very respected in the space. It would tell me which of the different types of mold and bacteria caused by water was present. I chose to do the test after the handyman came in and did his quasi-remediation work, pulling off baseboards, looking inside to see if he could see the mold (he never quite understood that many types of dangerous mold are microscopic), and then replacing those boards or putting on new baseboards. I’m so glad I did this way!

Results of the Mold/Bacteria Tests in The House We’d Been Living In For 10 Months

 

The results were undeniable. Certain dangerous molds were in 100 times greater quantity than “normal” for a livable house, and the overall score of the house, taking into account the different mold and bacteria found, was double what is considered livable. Anything above 15 requires further remediation. Our house scored a 30.

In the report, it stated one could get sick in that house. And that includes the animals. The more I think about how Sophie’s manageable Grade 3 heart murmur could’ve been exacerbated  by living in that moldy house and playing in that mold-infested backyard for ten months breaks my heart and I feel angry. Three vets concurred it was possible.

Now, I had my proof that, post remediation, what the owner agreed to do wasn’t close to being enough. It was time to talk with a lawyer.

Some of you may know that, when finances is an object, it’s not easy to find a lawyer to work on a case on a contingency basis. I was given a name of someone who is a litigator. In our first conversation when I was still at the motel, after hearing my story, he gave me a list of laws the owner had broken. Afterwards, on a site he’d recommended me checking out, I found a law that had been enacted in January of 2022, seven months prior to when I moved into the house, that stated a landlord was legally bound to let a tenant know in the lease, whether that house had been flooded in the last five years. There was nothing in the lease addressing this and I had found out from someone at the management office after the first flood, that the house had flooded when the owner lived there, well within the five year period. He had presented the house and I had signed the lease under false pretenses; deceptive practices.

I was urged by a couple of smart friends in and out of the real estate business, to write a letter to the management company and send it certified mail. In the letter, I put in what I wanted to see happen, so everything was laid out in writing. I got no reply except that the owner would let me out of my lease if I agreed to the terms. Eventually, I received that document, which said yes, I could get out of my lease with no repercussions, but they also wanted to keep my security deposit for…whatever…and they wanted me to release the owner from any responsibility or liability. This wasn’t something I was going to sign.

Then, I got a great call, while I was walking the aisles of the supermarket.

It was the lawyer. After looking over the documentation I’d sent and thinking it through, he felt I had a case around deceptive practices and he was willing to work on contingency, if I paid a small fee for the lawyer’s letter he was originally going to write. Now, I had a professional to help me get my security and get reimbursed for the motel, AirBNB, moving costs…what I had to unexpectedly lay out to get us out of that house. Yay!

That’s where we are today on the legal front.

How Is Sophie Doing?

 

Sophie did zoomies for the first time in months this morning! She appears stable. It took a bit of juggling, though.

For anyone with a dog or cat on heart medications that include furosemide (Lasix), it is a powerful diuretic and hard on the kidneys. As often happens on this drug after a time, the BUN or Blood Urea Nitrogen levels, which measures the amount of urea nitrogen found in the blood, gets higher. Urea nitrogen is a waste product made when the liver breaks down protein. It’s carried in the blood, filtered out by the kidneys, and removed from the body in urine. As the BUN levels rise, it is an indicator the kidneys aren’t able to perform their function as well as usual, so the urea nitrogen levels or unhealthy waste products, are rising in the blood.

That started happening in Sophie. We were instructed by Dr. Lindholm, the cardiologist, to have Sophie’s chemistry panel with electrolytes checked every two weeks. The high end of the normal BUN is 27. In the first test, Sophie’s was 52. High. Because Sophie was not doing that well at that time, Dr. Lindholm suggested upping the Lasix dose to 1/2 a tablet in the morning and at mid day and 1/4 of a tab at night. And, to get another chem panel with electrolytes done in a week. Her BUN shot up to 78. I was alarmed. My girl was now developing kidney dis-ease.

The cardiologist felt the same, so we decreased the mid day dose to 1/4 of a tablet  and a week later, she was tested again. The BUN had come down to 54. Dr. Lindholm was happy and even Dr. Ruskin was happy. I wanted to see the BUN back to normal. Thankfully, her Creatinine level was still normal, but I’m told it doesn’t elevate until the kidneys are 75% not functioning. We definitely don’t want to wait for that.

So, here we are. Her current protocol of the conventional meds – Furosemide, Sildenafil, Pimobendan and Spironolactone –  have stabilized her. Her complementary protocol – BioCardio, Systemic Enzymes, Heart & Kidney Glandular and Standard Process Ligaplex II – are working to support her body.

What New Proactive Supplement I Added

 

I love the company Pet Wellbeing. I’ve been using their products for decades. When my cat Isabel was diagnosed with intestinal lymphoma back in the early 2000’s, I started her on their Life Gold for cats. So, in looking up ways to support Sophie’s kidneys, one of their products came up – Kidney Support Gold. I looked into it; had a conversation with one of the company’s representatives and asked a lot of questions. Once I was satisfied with what she told me, I went to Dr. Ruskin. Because many of the complementary products have active ingredients like herbs (remember my concern about BioCardio’s Hawthorn with Sophie’s conventional heart meds?),  I wanted to make sure this product didn’t have any ingredients that would be contraindicated with any of the other complementary products Sophie was already on.

Once I got the green light from Dr. Ruskin, who also loves Pet Wellbeing, I ordered and Sophie has been on it now for just under a week. I’m praying it will support her kidneys and, along with feeding her raw kidney organ and a good, whole fresh food diet, her BUN will return closer to normal. I’ll keep you posted.

I have not yet tried the homeopathic remedy Alcoholus on Sophie. It took weeks to arrive and with the move, I have to dive in and see if her symptoms today still merit trying this remedy. I’ll let you know if I do and what I find.

I will also be doing a post soon on a brand I interviewed the chief formulator of recently that is wonderful and about the importance of vegetables; certain kinds of veggies for dogs. And why. We thought for a long time that veggies weren’t that significant a part of a dog’s diet as they would graze them but really didn’t eat much of them in the wild. We’ve since learned the fiber is a really important balancer for a raw diet. More about that in another post.

Sophie is stable; mom is very happy every time I see her zoomie here or there or get excited about going somewhere. We are now settled in a new house in the old neighborhood we were in a year ago and Sophie likes it here. We have friends. So, she’s happy to walk around and there’s plenty of streets around this and adjoining neighborhoods for her to walk, if the temp stays below 100 degrees! Texas summers!

I’m concluding this thread on Sophie’s congestive heart failure for now, and will keep you posted with how things go over time. Pray with me that Sophie stays strong, retains her vibrancy and not only remains stable, but does so for long enough so Dr. Ruskin can try weaning her off the pharmaceuticals, one by one, little by little. I will definitely let you know what happens there.

Hold your babies close and cherish each moment.

To their best health ever!