Ku-Ring-Gai Vet Hospital, with the assistance of a number of medical companies including Fresenius Medical Care, has installed a fully functioning haemodialysis unit in our state of the art, purpose built, award winning veterinary hospital.
Haemodialysis is used successfully in humans for the management of acute and chronic kidney diseases as well as management of some induced toxins such as chemical overdoses. In animals, haemodialysis has been pioneered in America and has been successfully used since the 1970’s. Haemodialysis is a life saving technology that has never been commercially available for pets in Australia.
Haemodialysis involves the usage of an artificial kidney in an extra-corporeal (out of body) circuit that allows the removal of excessive body wastes, excessive body fluids and a large number of chemical toxins.
In pets dialysis can be used to assist in the management of, or in some cases, treat:
- Acute kidney failure
- Chronic kidney failure
- Severe congestive heart failure
- Toxic overdoses including anti-freeze toxicity, illicit drugs and some common household poisons
Haemodialysis is an extremely complicated process involving the establishment of a dedicated vascular access dialysis catheter into the jugular vein to enable blood to be drawn from the patient, passed through the artificial kidney (dialyser) and returned to the patient. Dialysis treatments last from between 2 and 5 hours depending on the requirements and can be done as single treatments (for toxicities and poisonings) right through to 3 times weekly treatment for the management of kidney failure.