Sunny's Story

This is Sunny our 10 year old Redbone Coonhound. Besides Daddy and treats, lying in the sun is her favorite thing in the world! How she came to be ours is a long story, but she was a rescue because she wouldn’t hunt. She’s very good, never makes messes in the house, never chews anything, and leaves the garbage alone. She’s petrified of thunderstorms. She loves to take walks. She doesn’t play much, most likely because of her early up bring as a hunting dog. But she loves to be with us and is really a sweetheart. And we love her to pieces!



Almost a year ago, we noticed she seemed to be slowing down a little. But given her age, we didn’t think much of it. She had some senior blood work done and they found protein in her urine. It progressed a bit and in the past 4 or 5 months, so we were actively looking for the cause of her kidney failure. Because of the renal failure, she now has high blood pressure and is on two different blood pressure medications. She is also on a low protein special diet. The veterinarians thought it may be an autoimmune disease, but weren’t really sure.

I subscribe to the online news letter DogAge. They send small informational emails occasionally. The last one I received was called, “Grapes of Intestinal Wrath.” This article stated that grapes and raisins were toxic to dogs. Feeding your dog grapes increases levels of nitrogen, creatinine, and phosphorous in their blood, which impairs kidney function and can cause kidney failure.

Now Miss Sunny loves grapes. She begs for grapes. We always share our grapes with her. During the fall we make grape jelly and grape juice. The entire family sits on the back porch and cleans grapes off the stems. Sunny is right there with us, begging for grapes. And a lot of the times just helps herself.

She went in to the vet today for her biweekly blood pressure check and I spoke with him about this. Although we’ll never know for sure, he feels that Sunny’s kidney problems are most likely caused by eating grapes. And given the amount that she eats and has eaten over the years he’s surprised that she’s alive and doing a well as she is.

I have quit feeding her grapes since reading the article and our vet thinks now we probably know the cause, there is a good chance she won’t get worse. She will never get better.

I just want to warn all the mom’s of furbabies, Please don’t feed them grapes!!!!! It seems like a nice healthy choice, but its toxic and can cause death in dogs. Some dogs rather quickly. So please give your pup a cuddle from us and stick with doggie treats.