The vet appointment went well! I met with Dr. N, the vet I trust, and had a long discussion about all these test results. The bottom line was, he said Tyler's numbers are all actually extremely good. He said his current "kidney numbers" (the BUN and creatinine) are not bad at all. They are slightly elevated, which indicates some reduction in function of the kidneys - but this is more due simply to aging, and not that he actually has any kind of "kidney disease."
All dogs, and people too, will slowly lose kidney function as they age. In fact, my dad's doctors told me once that no adult, even healthy ones, have kidneys functioning at 100%. It's just the normal aging degradation which occurs.
So that's what's going on with Tyler. It may seem like splitting hairs, but it's not to me ... there's a difference between normal age-related reduction in function (which can be subtle and slow in an otherwise healthy dog), and the actual status of being 'in kidney failure,' a disease condition which requires ongoing, intense treatment.
The other good news is, since the numbers hadn't changed but a fraction in a year, that means that the kidneys haven't gotten percetibly worse in an entire year - even without me taking any preventive measures. That means their decline is moving very slowly, which is another good thing.
In fact, Dr. N said that the kidneys were still working pretty well, with the BUN still in the normal range - because that's blood urea nitrogen, and that's a strong indicator that the kidneys are still doing a good job filtering waste products out of the blood.
Could they go south at some point in the future? Yes, they could. In fact, it's (allegedly) inevitable that they will worsen over time, as Tyler gets older. All body systems wear down with aging. Is it likely to be any time soon? No - and that's the best news of all. Because he's 14 1/2 - a lot of things could go wrong in the next few years, I can't prevent everything. But at least I know this particular problem isn't looming on the immediate horizon as a crisis situation.
And now Tyler's going to be a guinea pig. The vet told me that it's hard to say whether methods used in dogs with more advanced kidney problems, such as special diet and supplements, will have any impact on slowing such an early stage kidney dysfunction, because most people never catch the subtle changes this early (and he complimented my 'dog care skills' by being so observant of these test results - I was pleased). But now that I have time and it isn't an emergency, I'm going to research and add to Tyler's diet things that are believed or known to support the kidneys and slow the progression of kidney disease, and see if it helps him not get worse. I'm going to have his blood tested more often than they recommend so I can monitor it more closely. And I'm going to see how it goes.
There's no danger to Tyler in this, because I will never give him anything that isn't safe. If I want to try any supplement that has any potentially bad side effect, I won't try it. The worst that could happen is it won't really have any effect on the kidney function one way or the other. In fact, it may be hard to tell, because if it has no effect, but his kidneys weren't really getting much worse anyway, I won't know whether it was the food and supplements, or just that it wasn't going to happen anyway.
Regardless, as long as it doesn't happen, I don't care how it doesn't happen.
Dr. N also said the cholesterol wasn't really a big deal. He said dogs don't get hardening of the arteries, so higher cholesterol isn't really a big deal to them. If it got too high it might indicate a liver problem, since the liver processes cholesterol, but Tyler's liver numbers were great, so there was no concern there. He said it could have been elevated by the change in diet back in January, when I put him on the dry food for awhile - if it had a higher fat content than Tyler was used to (and it probably does, as his home-cooked diet is very low in fat), that could have raised it significantly in the 5 months he was on it. I'll see if it comes down after I put him back on the home cooked diet.
So, all in all ... great news! Tyler remains wonderfully healthy for his age, which I still credit to the home cooked diet ... and probably, to be fair, is also due in part to him just having a healthy, strong constitution. So, yay us!
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