Zendaya

Earlier last month, we received word from Zendaya's foster that she wasn't feeling well. A trip to the vet revealed news no one expected or was prepared for. Zendaya was fighting for her life with acute kidney failure.

Our sweet, practically perfect, and previously rambunctious, lively puppy was now nearly incapacitated. Her bloodwork showed her creatinine level was 13.1 (it's supposed to be under 1).  This, coupled with some of her other results, led the vet to believe her kidneys had suffered irrefutable damage. If we wanted to try to save her, the vet said, we could send her to a specialty hospital to be admitted for aggressive treatment. She told us that it would be expensive, but it was the only way she could survive this.

Though the cause of her illness was still unknown and her prognosis was poor at best, we knew we had to at least try to save her and give her a chance to beat this. And what better place to do that than UPenn?  Zen was admitted through the emergency department at Penn just hours after we received the diagnosis.

Through additional testing, we learned that Zen's acute kidney injury was caused by a leptospirosis infection, so we immediately got her on antibiotics and lots of IV fluids to combat the infection. Routine bloodwork was done, and her urine output was monitored closely to check her kidney rebounding measurement. Since being admitted, her creatinine level has gone down to just above 7. A step in the right direction. 

Less than a week later, Zen’s creatinine level was at 3.5, and her phosphorus was also coming down. She was still producing too much urine, so they gave her potassium and electrolytes. She started to become eager to eat! We were so beyond happy. Vets said they’d let her free in a couple of days if she continued in this direction. Then it happened! Her Creatinine went down to 1.7. She was eating well and starting a new round of oral meds. The only bad thing was that she was producing too much urine, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel! 

After another week of leveling everything out and checking her urine, bloodwork, and creatine levels, Zendaya was free to go!!! We were SO happy to see her back in her loving foster home. Then, not even a minute after she returned, we got more good news.

Zendaya was going to be adopted! This sweet girl is home with her forever family and doing well!  We couldn't be happier!  Zendaya will require further check-ups to make sure there was no damage to any of her organs, but we believe she will make a full recovery and go on to live her absolute best life! Thank you so much to our amazing, animal-loving community, our awesome donors, and our CUDDLY fam for making this all possible.