Back in May we had a phone call from our vet to say that Cookie our Newfoundland girl had kidney failure. She had become ill after just 5 days of taking the Anti-inflammatory Cimalgex due to an ongoing leg issue. What started as a loss of appetite took a turn for the worse when she began to vomit and drinking excessively. We stopped the tablets straight away and got her to the surgery where she was given a blood test.

The call came later that evening, and though we knew she was unwell we certainly weren’t expecting that. The prognosis wasn’t great and it became clear that there was no cure and it would then be a case of managing the problem long term. After the initial shock and upset we began researching. We joined forums and Facebook groups and by the morning we were certainly a lot clearer and had formulated a plan.

She had been prescribed a binder to help decrease the absorption of phosphate from food in the digestive tract. We knew we needed to make changes to her diet and this was supported by our vet Luc, who never once tried to ‘force’ a prescription diet on us knowing that we were doing our research. Luckily we had a contact that we’d met last year at the Dog Lover Show up in Glasgow. I knew that The Land of Holistic Pets did a renal diet and I got on the phone and called the owner George who is a wealth of knowledge, very approachable and amazingly helpful.

The diet change was made easier by the fact that she absolutely loved it and it really helped to get her appetite back and we knew she was getting some really good stuff inside her. We also ordered some kidney support gold as we’d read review after review about it’s benefits and it would fit in well with her other medications.

The other thing we’d read was about giving Sub Q fluids. This helps with hydration and the more we read the more wanted to give it a go. Once again Luc was brilliant and said he would do a session with us on the Saturday morning and we could then take the fluids and kit so we could do it at home. Myself and my daughter Emma went for the ‘training’ and we were to give Cookie a litre of fluid daily at home which started the next day.

Fluid sessions became a team effort with Emma giving the needle, me dealing with the fluid bag and line and Dawn giving Cookie cuddles. The thing that made it possible was the fantastic calm trusting temperament and stoicism of the Newfy, of which Cookie has in abundance. Though she grew to know exactly what was coming she came and sat down, but more usually lay, for the 30-40 minutes it took to get the fluid under her skin.

The other thing we decided to do was to filter her water and we bought two water filter containers that we topped up during the day. Anybody who has big drooly dogs will know just how much water they get through and how much of themselves they leave behind in the bowl. But we were committed to fresh water and clean bowls all day and so began a regime of almost military precision.

I think it’s fair to say that both Monty and Cookie soon sussed what was happening and realised that even after three bowl washes and refills after food they only needed to take a sip and somebody would come running. I swear even when they didn’t need a drink they would look across at me while they sauntered over to the bowl and just waggle their tongue around…

It all seemed to be helping though because her appetite was back and she was drinking less. Her urine also got a hint of colour in it which is the holy grail of positive kidney signs and this gave us some real hope that we could keep her kidneys stable. After four weeks she was back for another blood and urine test and we prayed that the damage was no worse. We knew that if she had deteriated with all of the things we were doing the outlook was bleak.

It seemed like an age before we got the call but when it came we were struggling to believe what we were hearing. The results showed that her kidney function had normalised and it looked like what was initially diagnosed as kidney failure was now a chronic reaction to the anti-inflamatories. We didn’t want to get carried away and Luc was at pains to point out we must keep the treatment going albeit it to reduce the fluids.

We went down to five times a week with the fluids then to every other day and finally just a few times a week. The diet remained and we kept on with the water regime, much to the amusement of our tongue dipping duo. The binder stopped once it ran out as did the kidney gold. Cookie continued to get better and better despite the reduction of treatment and yesterday she was back at the vets for her ‘last’ blood test.

The results came back this morning and they were ‘perfect’. No more treatment and no further intervention unless we notice anything. A wonderful result for a very very special girl who has had her fair share of problems over the years. We hope now for many more years with her and we feel truly blessed today.

Our vet Luc Van Dijck and all of the staff at the surgery here in Wigan, have been amazing and it was down to their support that we managed to explore the best ways to help Cookie the best we could.

I should also mention our insurance company as they have been superb throughout. I know it’s not a popular pastime to praise Pet Insurance companies but I like to say as I find and all of the time that we have been with The Insurance Emporium we have found them to be excellent.