In chronic kidney disease (CKD), the first problem to be solved by the organism is to maintain water and sodium homeostasis and, with the worsening of the renal injuries, other severe problems related to the calcium and phosphorus homeostasis emerge. The present study has the purpose to evaluate the renal excretion and serum profile of calcium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium in healthy dogs and in dogs with naturally acquired CKD. Three groups of adult male and female dogs of varied breeds were evaluated. Normal dogs were in the control group (G1) and the CKD dogs were distributed into two groups in accordance with the stage of renal function impairment (G2 e G3, respectively, stages 1-2 and stages 3-4, proposed by IRIS 2006 staging CKD). The G3 dogs showed increased serum levels of ionized calcium and phosphorus, in addition to the reduction of sodium levels. Regarding the renal excretion of the analyzed electrolytes, the G1 and G2 groups showed a decrease of filtered load and increase of fractional excretion, yet there were no significant variations on the urinary excretions. The results suggest that the kidneys of the CKD dogs can maintain similar values of electrolytes urinary excretion as the kidneys of normal dogs. The mechanism involves an increase of fractional excretion while glomerular filtration decreases. This compensation process, however, can lose its efficiency in the later stages of the disease, in relation to the maintenance of phosphorus and sodium serum levels.
Renal disease; electrolytes; diseases of dogs; fractional excretion
