dog kidney disease

Question
My springer spanial was 13years old.About 2ys ago she started
to
become very depressed refusing to go for walks, always hungry
and losing muscle in her back legs and was diagnosed with mild
cushins but she didnt stay on any medication as the vet nor
myself felt it was doing any good although she has seemed old
and slow she has seemed comfortable .Then about several
months ago she started to increase her drinking and urinating.I
have been tacking her to theraputic swimming for about a year
to help her back legs.Three weeks ago we left her with relatives
to go on holiday when we got back i noticed she wasnt herself
she wouldnt eat her dinner which was very unusual for kim she
was drinking but all she wanted to do was lye in the garden then
on the third day she started vomiting and had diarea i thought
maybe she had eaten something she shouldnt which wouldnt
have been the first time but it was taking a long time to pass so
on the fifth day i took her to the vet she was very weak and
shivery he said she was dehydrated he checked her mouth which
was coverd in a brown liquid he told me was toxins also her
mouth had ulcers he kept her in to do a blood test and phoned
me an hour later to say it was bad news her kidneys had failed
the blood test result for her kidneys was 56 when it should have
been 9 point something and her body was full of toxins he said
that we could try fluid treatment which would take 2 or3 days of
staying at the vets which might help her feel better initialy but
might
not  and evenif it did when i got her home he felt she would
become poorly again icouldnt bear the thought of her suffering
any longer and agreed to have her put down.The reason i am
telling you all this is that it all happend so quickly and i didnt
fully understand what fluid treatment was until i read a report on
kidney disease i think if i understood it a bit more i could have
suggested flushing the toxins from her body rather than giving
up on her so quickly but i paniced because she was so poorly i
think i am after some reassurance from an independant third
person that i did do the right thing .Also in the report i read  
that stress can bring on kidney failure could us leaving her have
brought it on so suddenly.I have spoken to the vet since he said
i did make the right decision as she was very ill but i cant help
feeling guilt as she was a fighter or had her kidneys in your
opinion given up.Please give me your honest opinion.Thankyou.

Answer
HI Sarah,

kidney disease is normally a gradual disease unless your pet ingested a poison that caused acute kidney failure.

what your vet wanted to do was called 'diuresis'. this forces fluids via a vein into the body to force the kidneys to clean out. this is an important step in trying to get the kindey levels down.  the next step after this is usually a kidney specific diet and doing fluids under the skin at home as maintanence care.

kidney disease is something you don't want to keep waiting on.

good luck