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Senior dog has kidney failure, groaning. Is he in pain? How to help?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Male | neutered | 10 years and 6 months old | 44 lbs

My 12 year old dog is suffering from renal failure. He is not eating much and sits in one place the whole day. He finds it difficult to get up and go outside. He is groaning a lot since this afternoon. How can I keep him comfortable.? What is happening to him? Is he in pain? The veterinary situation is not very good here (a small town in India). He is on Ketosteril tablets (2 tabs x twice a day). And he was on intravenous saline for five days (five days ago). A vet from the city adviced.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Linda G, MS, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on July 30th, 2019

Hello. I am so sorry about Chhotu. It is possible that he is uncomfortable, but it is difficult to say without an exam to see what else may be happening to him. Renal failure is a terribly progressive disease & we really do not have many good methods to treat it. One thing that can help is daily subcutaneous ( or several times weekly ) fluids to help lower the nitrogenous waste products that will buildup in the blood stream with kidney failure. This alone may make him feel better. We have to be very careful with pain medicines because many of them are metabolized through the kidneys, which are already compromised. The Ketosteril is just amino acids, so it has no real medicinal value, but probably cannot hurt. I would visit with the veterinarian who did the intravenous fluids about take home subcutaneous fluids & ask about potential pain medications. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

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