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Proteinuria in dogs can easily be corrected or it can become very serious and cause a chronic infection in your dog, high blood pressure, inflammation of the kidneys, scar tissue on the kidneys, as well as blood or pus in their urine. It can also cause Lipemia, which as excess amount of fat in the blood.

Normally, high amounts of protein in a dog's urine can easy be corrected by diet, but if it develops into Proteinuria, it has now become very serious.

Proteinuria in dogs is a situation where there is a very high amount of protein in your pet's urine. Normally a dogs urine only contains very small amounts of protein and they pass very easily though the glomerulus, which is the filtering unit of the kidneys. Once they have passed through this filtering unit, the protein is very easily reabsorbed back into the cells of the kidney tubes.

Albumin, which is an important blood protein, in normal situations, makes up a very small amount of protein that is found in a dog's urine at any given time. But when something goes wrong with your dogs system and too much protein enters into the urine, this critical blood protein is lost by the filtering unit of the kidney.

The kidneys of dogs are designed to maintain the fluid and the mineral balances in their body, and when everything is functioning properly, water and essential minerals are reabsorbed. Once they are reabsorbed from the tubes of the kidneys, the remaining waste particles are very easily excreted in the urine.

The glomerulus, which is the filtering unit of the kidney's, are made up of what is referred to as glomeruli, which are small capillary blood vessels that act as a sieve in your dog. This sieve meshes or perforates very fine minerals of various sizes and separates them so they can easy pass this filter. In this process it also keeps both protein as well as the blood cells in your dog in their bloodstream.

When this filter becomes damaged, it starts to leak and the red as well as the white blood cells in your dog are lost through the kidney and the result of this is referred to as glomerular proteinuria.

Symptoms:

The symptoms of this potentially very damaging condition will be very slight at first until the protein loss in your dog becomes significant enough to cause damage. The only symptoms that your dog may show you will be small amounts of blood in the urine.

However, once the loss intensifies, they will start to show signs of anorexia, depression, and than the weight loss and weakness that is associated with not eating. This condition does not severely affect dogs until they are older, attacking them at seven to eight years of age.

Potential causes:

There are several underlying potential causes of why this is happening to your dog with the most common causes being immune mediated diseases, infectious disease, or Cushing's disease.

Immune mediated diseases are the result of a very abnormal activity in which your dog's immune system over-reacts to a situation and actually starts to attack itself. Systemic lupus is the most common disease that causes Proteinuria but it can also affect many other organs as well. Breeds that are especially at risk with this condition are Collies, German Shepherds, and Shelties.

Lyme disease may also be the underlying cause and it is transmitted by ticks in dogs. However, another tick transmitted disease is most often the underlying cause of Proteinuria. Ehrlichia, which occurs in three stages, directly affects the protein levels in the blood of your dog as well as seriously depleting the albumin levels.

This is a vicious disease that attacks the number of platelets that helps your dog's blood to clot and directly affects the protein levels.

Treatment:

The first form of treatment will be properly diagnosing the true underlying cause and treat it accordingly. Once that has been done, most all dogs will be placed on a mild or moderate protein restricted diet until it can be corrected.

If it is any type of kidney failure problem itself, low protein as well as low phosphorus diets will be administered. If the cause has anything to do with high blood pressure, a low salt diet will be recommended. However, in most all cases, dogs will be put on a low protein and low sodium diet that is reinforced with Omega 3 fatty acids supplements.

Most dogs will also be given a low dose aspirin, usually a baby aspirin, to help prevent blood clots from forming.

Summary:

As your dog ages, this is a condition that can very easily sneak up on them. The only initial symptom you will notice is small amounts of blood in the urine. If you do see any trace of blood, get them checked as quickly as possible before the protein loss becomes severe and causes Proteinuria.

I am an avid lover of pets and my wife and I have had several pets throughout our years. We are especially fond of dogs, and we have a 12 year old Dalmatian (our 3rd) and a "mutt" that we rescued when someone threw him away to die in a vacant field.

He found us, nearly starved to death, and weighed about 2 pounds.

After severe bouts of mange and severe dehydration, and over 1,000.00 in veterinarian bills, we saved the little guys life, and he is one of the best, if not the best, dogs we have ever had and today is a muscular, fit, and firm 70 pound best friend.

After finishing my MBA, which at middle age was not easy, I decided to keep the research work ethics that I acquired, and devote about two hours each night in understanding the health benefits of supplementation for both humans and pets and how they might strengthen our, as well as our pets, immune system in a pre-emptive approach to health rather than a reactionary approach.

Both of my daughters are avid cat lovers, and asked me to help them with health concerns and challenges with their cats.

I am not a veterinarian nor claim to be, just a lover of pets that loves to research and pass on some knowledge that might be helpful, or at least stimulating to the thought process.

Several of the articles that I have written can be found on my website;

Liquid Vitamins & Minerals for Humans & Pets
http://www.liquid-vitamins-minerals-humans-pets.com/

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