I record here the results of nine months of life of our Chocolate Merle male Toshi who was born with Parrot mouth, (lower jaw shorter than upper jaw, Toshi had a gap of 1cm at nine months, his jaw was not apparent at birth or until 12 weeks old.) and complete renal failure resulting in Toshi's death at nine months.Possibly there maybe others with simarlar events, hopefuly not, but it is here for future reference.
Renal Failure: Inherited? Genetic? Or Congenital.
Toshi’s life begins.
January 2004, Tjukurpa Kool Dot delivers her second litter, five beautiful healthy strong colour puppies.
They received their six week shots, were pronounced fit and healthy, and had great appetites and attitudes to match.
At twelve weeks of age we noticed a slight under shot jaw in Toshi, and immediately checked with the other owners, but their pups were fine.
Toshi just had bad luck, by the time he was six months he had a full parrot mouth, but it never interfered with his feeding nor impacted on his health in any way.
Both parents must carry the gene before a pup is affected, for this reason we shall not join Rocky and Dot again, both have been used with other partners and the results have been marvellous.
Parrot mouth is Genetic, and possible future testing of Adults prior to joining may be necessary, to avoid further contamination of the breed.
The onset of Renal failure at six months.
One morning as I took Toshi out, I noticed that he seemed to be having what looked like a heart attack, his front left leg went stiff, his head shot straight upwards, and his lips were quivering, he sat down and the episode quickly passed, but by the time we returned inside he had several of these minor seizures and appeared be trying to vomit, like he had something stuck in his throat, I had fed him a raw chicken wing before going to bed and a chicken neck upon rising, so off to vets we went.
x-rays were inconclusive, yes there was a blur at the throat section but it could have been the film, so Tony took blood samples, those bloods were the alarm bell that something terrible was happening, instead of being in the eighties Toshi’s blood count was twenty six
At this point Toshi threw up big time and dislodge a chicken bone, relaxed, looked very pleased with himself and we all heaved a sigh of relief.
Further X-rays were taken and sure enough the blur had gone, job done we could all go home, upon placing Toshi on the floor he was engulfed in the worst seizure I had witnessed
Toshi was admitted for further tests and observations, further bloods were taken only to show that his urea count was in the 70s when it should have been fewer than 8.
The spiralling uncontrolled illness
Being hospitalised only increased the problems, we visited each day for a week only to watch him spiral out of control, the shakes were constant, he could neither drink nor eat and was placed on IV fluids, and when he was at his worst he didn’t even recognise us and still there were no answers.
It was decided to treat the symptoms, try to get his vomiting under control, relaxants were prescribed, mixtures put down his throat to coat it and combat the ulcers that had formed in his mouth, slowly Toshi turned the corner and began to recover.
The road of recovery?
There was a university in Melbourne that specialised in the Kidney region and it was felt the an ultra scan would provide helpful information, so with Toshi comfortably settled in the car, IV attached to the roof of the car we drove three hours to Melbourne.
The results of the scans were little help, they showed that his Kidneys were smaller than normal and they had an infection, this could have been what had sent Toshi’s system over the edge.
Ten days after his first attack Toshi was well enough to come home, a follow on treatment of antibiotics for the infection, mixtures for the ulcers and throat and plenty of water to flush the urea from his body was prescribed.
If it wasn’t for all the medicines you couldn’t tell Toshi had been ill, except for the shaving around his Kidney region he was fine.
We made weekly visits to Tony who checked his urea which stabilizes at thirty and blood count which continued to fall, we learned a blood cell lives for 120 days then dies as new cells replace the dying, Toshi’s Kidneys were not making any new blood cells, he was virtually running on empty, because of this Toshi was happy to sleep most days out in the sun, on the couch and at the bottom of our bed each night, he still ate and drank, came for cuddles and was content to have attention heaped upon him.
My thinking was that if the infection had pushed Toshi’s system over the edge, then removal of that should allow Toshi’s body to return to what had been normal for him.
A call from Tony informed us she had found a hormonal treatment which could create new blood cells, the treatment wasn’t indefinite but it was a chance.
Our options were these, Begin the treatment and get possibly a good recovery where he could be maintained on a special diet, or euthanasia.
We had already checked the other pups from the litter and Dots previous litter, only to find nothing but healthy working Koolie’s, her first litter are two years old and have never had a sick day, Dot is six and has never been sick and neither have the fathers.
This I believe indicates that Toshi didn’t inherit the problem.
The final effort
Before going on the hormone treatment Toshi’s blood count had fallen to 18, but the infection final cleared and his Kidneys began to make new blood, when he began treatment, he was at 20, two weeks later he was at 26, but his urea had climbed again to the 70s and fallen back to fifty, I like to believe that if there had been only these two factors to consider Toshi may still be with us, unfortunately high Phosphorous and Creatinine levels can be lethal, and it was these two out of control that finally brought Toshi down.
Results of the autopsy
It was discovered that Toshi’s Kidneys were more than half the size of a normal kidney, there was much scaring and waste, the photos showed to what extent Toshi’s life really was a miracle.
In hind site we could have done a biopsy, when they first scanned, which is inserting a needle into the Kidney to remove a sample for investigation, but I was told it is very painful and could have caused more problems that it solved.
I feel that I would recommend that a biopsy be taken, to avoid the long goodbye.
I would like to close by expressing our deepest respect and appreciation for our Vets who through this whole ordeal gave understanding, support and at the end compassion and dignity to my family and most of all Toshi, for this we will always be grateful
His fate was always mapped, his time precious and bitter sweet, Toshi will be missed. :littlehearts: