PERITONEAL DIALYSIS IN SMALL ANIMALS

The increasing number of cases for renal diseases in cats and dogs, but also the conditions generating this pathology as secondary impairment (leptospirosis, babesiosis, various poisonings) represent the fundamental need for establishing a veterinary hemodialysis center and for publishing the current editorial work.

Peritoneal dialysis has become a widely used technique in removing toxins (endogenous and exogenous) that can be dialyzed, both in chronic and acute renal patients. With possibilities of use in the veterinary field nowadays and considering the future development of veterinary medicine, peritoneal dialysis occupies an important place in renal disease therapy in dogs and cats, especially in the case of elder animals and patients weighing up to 10 kg, that cannot withstand hemodialysis because of insufficient body mass or because of the underlying cardiopulmonary pathology.

The current book is the result of team work involving several veterinary specialists who have generously laid their knowledge in the service of healing patients. For this we are indebted to each and every one of them and, in particular, we thank all patients who made us all aware every time that, in their absence, nothing we have learned is possible.