One Mistake Veterinarians Make When Treating Kidney Disease

Karol Mathews, DVM, DVSc, DACVECC, professor emeritus of clinical studies at Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, warns that one big mistake veterinarians make when treating kidney disease is that they keep giving their patients fluids. What they want is increased urine production, but what they get is an edematous patient.

In that setting, Dr. Mathews says, furosemide could be a medication that veterinarians could try. Although furosemide does not treat kidney injury, it does remove excessive fluid—if you can get the patient to urinate—and it may remove dead cells that have sloughed into the tubules.