She was one of three puppies in a litter of eleven to die of Juvenile Renal Disease. All three of the puppies with the disease appeared healthy and grew normally until clinical signs appeared at ten months in one, and twenty months in the other two. She died two weeks after being diagnosed. The disease is devastating. The prognosis is dismal.
Nobody expects to lose a puppy of that age.
I have been collecting information since her death on the disease that killed her. Despite the fact that several articles on Juvenile Renal Disease and Familial Renal Disease were published in veterinary journals in the 1970s, and many others have been published since that time on JRD in Dobermans Pinchers, Alaskan Malamutes, Norwegian Elkhounds and Samoyeds as well as in Standard Poodles, most individual cases of JRD are treated by owners and veterinarians as isolated occurrences rather than as the manifestation of a genetic disease. The disease is also well known in Rottweilers, Shiz Tsus and Lhasa Apsos, and is seen in Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers, Portuguese Water Dogs, Shar Peis, Miniature Schnauzers, and Cocker Spaniels, among others. It is now being seen in Golden Retrievers, a breed in which it had not before been recognized. Early symptoms of Juvenile Renal Disease include drinking copious amounts of water, something that might not be readily apparent in a house with more than one dog, frequent urination, and dilute urine which has little color or odor.