Jaffa had a dental nearly 2 years ago (then age 8 ) and while everything went ok, the vet did say that his values for creatinine and urea were a bit on the high side and that he should be re-tested to see if they were still high. She said that dehydration (he obviously had to fast before the dental and he's never been a great drinker) could have been a factor. He had the blood tests repeated about a month later and the values had come down a bit (he still had to fast overnight but I made sure he got some fluid in him by giving him a small amt tuna water). The vet (different one) said everything was fine, but his values were still very near the upper limit of normal. He's had one blood test since then (which was about the same) but I'm obviously concerned that they don't go any higher into full blown CRF. The vets don't seem concerned about them at all, but I'm well aware (from reading others' stories on here) that it can make a big difference to the progression of the disease if you can catch it early. I'm determined to keep an eye on Jaffa's blood values so that I can see if they rise. So far they are ok, but he is due for another blood test. It's mainly me pushing for blood tests but the vets don't argue with me! Jaffa had his vaccinations and health check about 3 months ago and the vet said he was in good shape but agreed with me that repeating the blood tests would be a good idea.
He's seen a vet about the vomiting separately when it was a real problem (a different vet) but tbh I didnt' rate that vet and he didn't have much idea of why - he said it could take a long time to work out why and suggested I started by feeding him dry food. Well I wasn't going to do that and I knew the vomiting wasn't down to what he was eating, as he's never sick after eating. it's always on an empty stomach. Over the past year or so he's been much better and the vomiting has been fairly rare. The only thing I changed was to increase the amount of wet food in his diet (he went from mostly dry with some wet to half and half to predominanty wet then to all wet!) and altered the timing of his last meal of the day. He now gets a pouch of wet food right before bedtime and that almost eliminated the early morning vomiting. When it seemed to increase the other week I immediately panicked about it being related to his kidneys or something like that, but it soon became obvious he was just a bit off colour and for the past week he's been fine. We never really got to the bottom of why he was vomiting, but it definitely got better when I adjusted his meal times and made sure he didn't go too long without food. I really don't know what is causing the vomiting. It might just be down to him getting older (he'll be 11 in June) and not being able to go too long without eating. it's not that often these days, but he is only sick when he's been about 8 hrs + without a meal.
