Last fall, I learned of two Spinoni related to Percy who had kidney disease. They were both females, littermates whose grandmother was Percy’s great grandmother, making them something like second cousins to Percy. One had seemingly been fine and showed no symptoms or abnormalities, but died during spaying at around two years old; the autopsy showed she had almost no kidneys. The second female showed symptoms by 12 months but she made it to an amazing 5 years old. She died in December 2011, and her owner submitted samples to the Broad Institute for analysis. Percy’s case, where he showed symptoms before he was four months old and died at 10 1/2 months, is more dramatic. But for all, the discovery of the disease was a shock and the early loss of the dogs heartbreaking. Although these dogs all lived within a few years of each other, were clearly related, and died young from kidney disease, no mention was made of possible heritable disease within their lines and no breeding of the likely carriers was curbed.
Three related dogs suffered from kidney disease within a few years of each other, but still no dots were connected. Understandably, breeders don’t want to think a beloved, valuable animal carries a heritable disease. But without responsible realism these diseases will perpetuate and destroy segments of the population, not to mention causing the heartache of unsuspecting owners.
I’ve also learned that idiopathic epilepsy is not at all uncommon in Spinoni, with known cases throughout lines, though in some instances dogs have suffered only a few seizures in their lifetime. In Percy’s case, his seizures were likely related to his kidney failure; we will never know for sure.
If you have a dog with kidney disease and are reading this, please write to us at info@percyspage.com and share your story.