Rolling Dog Farm Blog

We had some mixed news about Brynn from the surgeons at WSU this weekend.  After 24 hours on IV’s, by Friday night Brynn’s kidney values had improved … her BUN was normal and her creatinine had dropped a lot, but was still higher than normal.  Her temperature was lower although she still had a fever.  As Dr. Claude Ragle told me that evening, "everything’s going in the right direction." 

The potential problem:  They had a difficult time during ultrasound on Friday even locating one of her kidneys.  It’s not clear whether leftover gas in her abdomen from the laparoscopic procedure earlier in the week interfered with the imaging, or whether in fact she’s had a kidney now shrivel up.  (She had both kidneys when we ultrasounded her when she was still a baby.  The photo shows our equine vet, Dr. Bill Brown, examining Brynn when she was 10 days old.)

When Dr. Ragle’s colleague, Dr. Kristin Gablehouse, called Saturday, the news was getting better:  Brynn’s BUN and creatinine levels had returned to normal, and so had her temperature.  Whew!  But … but … it’s possible all the improvement in her kidney values was due to the IV therapy.  The only way to know is to take her off IVs and then re-test.  So they continued to run IVs to Brynn on Saturday and then took her off them today.

On Monday they will do another blood panel and check her kidney values.  If they’re still normal, we can assume she just had a temporary "renal insult," as they call it.  If her BUN and creatinine are elevated again, it means she’s most likely now in kidney failure.  That will make any further surgery pointless.

They will also do another ultrasound of her kidneys on Monday … if only one is functioning … well, I don’t know what the impact will be.  So now we’re anxiously awaiting a phone call from WSU tomorrow.