10/10/2026
My dog Rylee was diagnosed Friday with Stage 3 kidney failure. He also has low red blood cell count (anemia). I've noticed a decline in his physiology and behavior over the course of the last 10 months or so, but he's 11 years old and I thought it was just aging. He's gone from 16.5 lb to 13.8 lb. His energy level is clearly lower, and there are other signs. Turns out it was anemia, possibly/likely caused by the kidney failure. If you're not familiar there's 4 stages so 3 is not good, but he is in early stage 3, so he's just outside of stage 2.
The vet is confident they can stabilize his condition with diet and medication. I have a follow-up in a week, and another follow-up in a month. It's important to understand the change more than the single point condition. So we'll know more in the next week and month based on changes, based on how he responds to the diet and if necessary, the medication.
Based on what the vet has educated me on and the research I've done, high phosphorus levels is the main thing to look at with kidney disease. His diet is now low phosphorus.
Injured kidneys also are stressed with processing protein. Healthy kidneys don't generally have an issue with this but injured kidneys need low protein to remove the stress on the kidneys. So his new diet is low phosphorus and low protein.
I adopted Rylee in 2017 and the vets told me he was 2 years old. So I've had him for 9 years. I've fed him a diet that is very diverse. I almost never buy the same brand and protein. His diet is consisted of roughly three equal parts. Kibble, can / wet, and raw / freeze-dried / Frozen. I've also fed him raw frozen sliced chicken hearts that I buy from Blue Max meats in Buckley. Mostly as a topper and as occasional treats. He loves them.
The vet sent me home with a starter kit from Hills Science Diet that consists of one type of kibble, two types of Stew style canned food, and two types of canned pâté. So far he's not interested in the stew. I haven't tried the pâté yet. This morning(Saturday) I got him to eat a significant amount of the kibble. I was a little surprised as he normally prefers can/wet over kibble.
So that's a good sign that he ate since he didn't eat anything yesterday (I gave him trazodone before the vet appointment so he's been medicated since Thursday night). I dropped him off at the vet at 7:00am Friday. I was encouraged that Saturday morning he's got an appetite, and found the food favorable.
I was also able to administer his medication this morning that's intended to protect his stomach from the new diet. Administering the medication is quite complicated, crushing and dissolving pills into a syringe and then administering it into the side of his mouth down his throat. Riley's not great with this kind of thing but it went better than I expected and he received probably 3/4 of the medication intended. We'll see how it goes in 12 hours when I need to do it again.
I'm providing all this information because I feel like it might be useful for other people. Feel free to ask any questions you have. I'm still learning myself, and I've got a whole new journey with Rylee now.
My priorities is his quality of life and that he does not suffer. I know now that his time is limited. My desire to keep him around is not a factor. When it's time to make the decision, I want to make sure I err on the side of too early than too late.
He's starting to get his energy back today, and he seems in good spirits. We're probably going to spend the day relaxing and snuggling. I'll keep offering him food and water so that he gets as much as he will take. He really just wants blanket and recliner time, so that's what he's going to get.
