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Treatment

Discontinue any drug that may cause acquired Fanconi syndrome, or treat for a specific intoxication. There is no treatment to reverse the transport defects in dogs with inherited or idiopathic disease. Because the number and severity of transport defects vary markedly between animals, treatments for potassium deficiency, too much acid in the kidney, renal failure, or rickets must be individualized. Young, growing dogs may require vitamin D and/or calcium and phosphorus supplementation.

Living and Management

Your veterinarian will want to monitor your dog's serum biochemistry at 10 to 14-day intervals to assess the effect of treatment and any change in parameters. Because bicarbonate therapy may aggravate renal potassium loss, your doctor will want to monitor serum potassium concentration regularly; once stable, serum chemistry can be checked at two to four month intervals. The course of the disease varies. Some dogs will remain stable for years, while others will develop rapidly progressive renal failure over a few months. When this disease is fatal, the cause of death is usually acute renal failure, often associated with severe metabolic acidosis. Some dogs (18 percent in one study) develop seizures or other neurologic dysfunction (clumsiness, dementia, or central blindness) several years after diagnosis. The cause of these symptoms is unknown.