Unfortunately, kidney disease isn’t one where we can really put an amount of time on how long your dog will live. It depends on so many factors to include; how advanced is it, does your dog have other co-existing problems, what caused the kidney failure, and more. What we do know is that there are some treatments that have great evidence to both lengthen and improve the quality of life for your pet.
Specifically, the best thing we can do is put a dog with kidney disease on a therapeutic diet designed to protect the kidneys. Many over-the-counter diets are too high in the waste products that their kidneys have to filter out. We know these kidney diets are expensive but it is truly one of the most effective treatments to give your pet more time with you and your family. Other therapies like medications, subcutaneous fluids, etc. are effective but more reactionary to problems that develop with kidney disease.
The most important thing is that we give your pet time but that the time you have together is good quality time. Please listen to the Senior Pet podcast as we discuss this and other important diseases of senior pets.
– Dr. B