Diagnosis and Therapeutic Management of Renal Failure in Dogs

Dogs are perhaps closest to human beings. Their pleasing nature, cooperativebehaviour and natural instinct for affinity to human beings are some reasons for choosingthem for companionship. Numerous tales relate to their obedience, loyalty and affinity totheir masters. They are considered most intelligent and loyal pet animal to the mankind.Now a days the dogs are being utilised in different areas like forensic medicine, tracking, mining, sports, defence, space science, medical science and many more. With an increasedimportance of dogs, it becomes imperative to care for them and to provide best possibletreatment against diseases, they suffer from. The dogs suffer from large number of diseaseswhich may be of infectious or non-infectious origin. With the increased closeness tohuman beings and changed feeding habits by the owners over the years, renal diseases area common finding.The kidneys are bean shaped organs that serve several essential regulatory roles invertebrates. Each kidney consists of an outer cortex and inner medulla which projects intothe renal pelvis. The nephron is the functional unit for urine production (Chew et al. 2011).Kidneys serve as the principal organ in maintenance of homeostasis, elimination ofmetabolic waste products of the body (such as urea, creatinine, uric acid and ammonia), regulation of extra-cellular fluid volume, blood pressure (by the rennin-angiotensinsystem) and systemic pH (via regulation of H+ and HCO3- concentration). In addition, kidneys play integral role in the excretion of phosphorus, reabsorption of calcium, renalmetabolism of vitamin D as well as regulation of erythrocyte mass under influence of renalerythropoietic factor (Cortan and Kumar 1999 and Sebastian et al. 2007). The kidneys alsoproduce hormones including calcitriol, erythropoietin and