Nutritional and laboratory parameters affect the survival of dogs with chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease is a common disease in dogs, and factors such as serum concentrations of creatinine, albumin, and phosphorus at the moment of diagnosis may influence the survival of these patients. The present retrospective study aimed to evaluate the relationship between survival in dogs with chronic kidney disease and laboratory parameters (creatinine, phosphorus, albumin, and hematocrit) and nutritional parameters (body condition score, muscle mass score, type of food, appetite and feeding method). A total of 116 dogs with chronic kidney disease stages 2 to 4 were included, and survival was calculated considering the time between diagnosis and death. Survival curves were configurated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and a comparison between survival curves was performed by the log-rank test. Factors related to survival were disease stage (p<0.0001), serum phosphorus concentration (p = 0.0005), hematocrit (0.0001), body condition score (p = 0.0391), muscle mass score (p = 0.0002), type of food (p = 0.0009), feeding method (p<0.0001) and appetite (p = 0.0007). Based on data obtained in this study, it is possible to conclude that early diagnosis, as well as nutritional evaluation and renal diet intake, are determinant strategies to increase survival in dogs with chronic kidney disease.