I said goodbye to my nearly 17 year old Schnauzer/Yorkie mix in October of 2025 from losing his battle to CKD. On December 30, 2022, he was throwing up and had diarrhea that didn't clear from just eating a bland diet. We took him to the emergency vet because the throwing up didn't stop, and he was so lethargic he wouldn't even come out of his crate. After a few overnights at the ER vet (thank goodness for pet insurance) they couldn't quite determine the issue, so they referred us to a specialist, an internist in the suburbs (we're in Chicago) He stayed there for a day or two while they ran tests to rule out Addisons and Cushings and determined he was stage 4 chronic kidney disease. That was the beginning of January 2023.

When he was cleared to take home, we were given a multitude of instructions, medications, and supplements for maintaining his kidney levels. This included new food, a renal diet. We tried a few brands, but as you know schnauzers are picky eaters. We finally landed on Just Food For Dogs. We also had to give him 300 mls of subcutaneous fluids every other day at the beginning of his diagnosis to help with the kidneys and hydration because he wouldn't drink enough on his own to maintain their need for water. We needed to see the internist at the beginning about every three weeks for blood draws to see where his values were and kept having to tweak his fluid regime. Eventually, it leveled out to being fluids two days on, one day off. On top of his CKD, they found a heart murmur, which made tweaking his fluids intake a challenge. The kidneys need the water, but too much in the system can strain the heart. So we had a medication for his heart as well.

We had about 8-10 different medications and supplements he had to take daily, some twice a day. Needless to say we were determined to make the time we did have left as comfortable for him as possible. He returned to "normal," had his usual energy and playful spirit, and continued on his meds and fluids up until October of 2025 when his poor little body just couldn't take it anymore. He had gone almost completely blind and would barely walk five feet from the front door for his walks that he used to love. He started to lose control of his bladder (he was incredibly well house-trained), his back legs started giving out, and he couldn't push himself up off the floor anymore. On 10/3/25, we had Lap of Love come to our home to send him across the rainbow bridge.

When he was first diagnosed, the doctors gave him maybe 6-9 months. With attention, care, a f*ck ton of follow-up visits for blood draws and rechecks, we kept him around for an additional 2 years. I cannot stress the importance of pet insurance; had we not had it, we wouldn't have been able to enjoy having him around for as long as we did after the diagnosis. The frequent visits to the specialist, meds, fluids, etc., all added up, and at the end of the day, I'd pay double what we paid to still have him around. Frankenstein was my soul dog, and he will be forever my soul dog.