Rolling Dog Farm Blog

My heart sank when I got a call last night from Dr. Kristin Gablehouse, the resident equine surgeon at WSU.  Yesterday they noticed Brynn seemed depressed and a bit listless, not her usual self.  They ran a blood panel and found her critical kidney values — BUN and creatinine — had suddenly shot up. 

Despite all of her urinary issues and plumbing problems, Brynn’s BUN and creatinine levels had always been normal.  Now her BUN was at 54, while she had been at 21 and the high end of the normal range is 27.  Her creatinine was at 3.9, while she had been at 1.2 and the high normal is 1.7.  Percentage-wise, these were dramatic spikes.

What makes these so alarming is that typically you won’t see a change in BUN and creatinine until you’ve already lost most of your kidney function.  In fact, you might have only 25% of one kidney still functioning before you see a change in these values.  In economics we’d call these a "lagging indicator."

Dr. Gablehouse said they didn’t know for sure what was causing the change.  It’s possible that because of the lengthy laparoscopic procedure the day before (on Tuesday) and her earlier procedures, she isn’t drinking as much as she used to or needs to.  Our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, told me this morning it’s also possible that the sedation on Tuesday could have lowered her blood pressure and reduced blood flow to the kidneys temporarily.  Dr. Gablehouse doubted it was due to infection in her kidneys since Brynn was already on antibiotics. 

Whatever the cause, they hooked Brynn up to IVs last night to get more fluids pumped into her.  That definitely helped, because today her kidney values had improved.  The BUN dropped to 29 and the creatinine dropped to 2.9.  Unfortunately, she now has a fever as well.  She started the day at 102.6 and by tonight had actually gone up to 103.  The surgeons are going to ultrasound her kidneys Friday morning to see if they can get a better idea of what’s going on.  They will also run another blood panel to see if the kidney values continued to improve or not.

So we are clearly worried about our little blind girl.  Please keep your fingers crossed.

These photos were taken during Brynn’s procedure on Tuesday.  I just received them from the hospital staff yesterday, which is why I couldn’t post them on the Tuesday evening blog.  In the first photo Dr. Ragle is operating the laparoscope inside Brynn’s abdomen.  In the second photo Brynn is being comforted by Teri Olson, a senior vet tech at the hospital.  In the third photo you see Brynn with one of the vet students who was present for the procedure.

(Click on photos for larger image.)