12/09/2025
This sweet little lady is Lucy, a 4-year-old Mini Aussie who is very loved by her amazing owners. We wanted to highlight her this month since it's Pet Preventative and Wellness Month here at TMVH.
We have seen Lucy since she was just a puppy. She came in in November 2023 for her annual exam and vaccines, and we ran her yearly annual wellness lab work. Her labs were completely normal, indicating normal organ function. A year later, when Lucy was about 3 years old, she was seen again for her annual visit. We sent out wellness lab work, and this time, her results came back with some concerning changes. Her kidney values (BUN, CREA, and SDMA) were high. Dr. Keuster let her owners know, and a urinalysis was sent out to determine if the kidney elevations were due to an infection or truly kidney disease. Results indicated that she did not have an infection, and there was also protein spilling into her urine from her kidneys, so the next step was to do an abdominal ultrasound, which ended up showing that Lucy has renal dysplasia, a congenital condition that causes kidney failure. We started Lucy on a kidney diet at that time and planned to recheck her kidney values in 4-6 months. We also kept an eye on her blood pressure, since high blood pressure can quicken kidney disease progression if left untreated.
Over the last couple of years, Lucy's kidney values have remained pretty steady, but we have had to add in blood pressure medication as well as PhosBind to help her phosphorus levels and Azodyl and Telismartan. Lucy is doing well, all things considered, and we have been able to keep things pretty stable for her, and her quality of life is very good.
You can see from Lucy's story how very important it is to do yearly annual lab work on our furry family members. We are so glad that Lucy's owners saw the benefits of doing the recommended lab work yearly and that we were able to catch Lucy's kidney elevations early and obtain a diagnosis, so that we could prevent worsening disease. We love you, Lucy, and we hope to see you around the clinic for many, many more years!!