RE: Juvenile renal disease

Andrew Kent — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 17:17:58 GMT

Hi Janine,

I agree with much of what Aine has said - the prognosis for juvenile renal disease can be very variable ranging and can be years in some cases.

The important thing at this stage would be to look again for correctable causes (pyelonephritis being the most important) and look for structural disease of the urinary tract (i.e. the kidneys may look very dysplastic on ultrasound).

But ultimately this is likely to have a significant impact on life expectancy.

Andy

RE: Juvenile renal disease

Aine Seavers — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 02:07:09 GMT

Do a UPC on the urine- there is a chart somewhere that accords value with outcomes. I will try and find it when next at clinic. I have no experience with it in your breed, in Shih-tzu they can live from months to years, whereas the Bull terriers seemed to die young(not just because of co-existing mitral valve issues).

An email from a specialist here to me on a case for a Bull Terrier is copied below in case of any help to you as well.

Comment from specialist.
We recommended a UPC of 0.3 or below for breeding animals to be
tested annually. If the UPC is above this value and there is no abnormal
urinary sediment the test is repeated in one month. If still elevated and no
other health causes (eg pregnancy or diseases that may cause proteinuria)
and there is a family history of HN, a renal biopsy with the glomeruli
examined using transmission electron microscopy is used to confirm or
exclude HN. Sometimes histo can suggest presence of the disease. If no
tissue available - a family history in a primary relative and a consistently
elevated UPC with no abnormal urinary sediment and no other diseases
strongly suggests HN. We have seen many cases of older dogs with HN that
are proteinuric but no other signs of renal failure but having offspring
that have severe renal dysfunction at a much younger age (eg even a few
months old).

Bullies with polycystic kidney disease may also have an elevated UPC so a
renal ultrasonogram may be useful.

---------

Zebras

DI was a curve ball diagnosis in one dog.

And as an added bonus- watch out for ectopic ureter as retriever breed one I have seen it in and that can induce some of the clinical signs of difficult to train and inappropriate urination etc-it would be a zebra in this case but worth keeping in back ground.