ARF...not the noise my sweet Samson makes

It's with a heavy heart that I update my blog today.  My very sweet 10 year old dog, Samson, is very sick this week.  We returned from our Boundary Waters trip to find that he'd started vomiting again on Tuesday.  He stopped eating and looked just generally unwell. The vomiting and loss of appetite has been a chronic problem for my buddy and we've been doing symptom managment really well over the past 6 months. In the middle of the night on Tuesday, he got up and peed in the bathroom on the rug.  I was so astonished! He's NEVER peed in the house since he was just a puppy, so I knew something was up. He also started drinking huge amounts of water and peeing a TON. So we went to the vet yesterday and they kept him to run some tests.  After checking his urine and blood work, it was determined that he is in Acute Renal Failure (ARF).  This means several things.  1. Something is causing damage to his kidneys and they are shutting down.  So we continue to run tests to determine the cause of his ARF. 2. His lab values indicate that his kidney function is somewhere in between 1/3-2/3's of the normal function.  The bottom line is that we won't know how much damage is done and if it is reversible for a few more days. 

So he is at the animal hospital getting fluids for 14 hours per day (the hours that the vet is open) over the next few days until we have results of the diagnostics and some answers.  Today they are checking for leptospirosis (a bacteria transmitted via water) and doing an ultrasound of his kidneys to look for physical damage or indication of the source of infarction.

It's so hard to have your four-legged best friend get older and have health problems. I have had Samson since he was 10 weeks old...my little dumpster dog! He was digging for trash outside of my apartment in Nashville, TN when I found him.  He was a hot mess...mange, round worms, whip worms. You name it. But he grew into such a sweet and loving dog.  We've been through so much together.  So keep him in your thoughts and keep your fingers crossed that we'll be able to reverse this kidney failure and get my boy back.