Help! My puppy is showing all the signs of Juvenile Renal Disease

[SumoMom]

Apologies in advance if I am a bit emotionally unhinged at the moment -- that happens when you rely on the internet for advice before you can get in at the vet's (tomorrow morning). My 4 month old male has been unusually hard to potty train so a couple weeks ago I had his urine checked and there were signs of a possible UTI so my vet put him on the standard 10 day antibiotic. It seemed to help a bit but now the accidents are worse than ever. He threw up (after horseplay) twice in the last couple days and has alternating bouts of diarrhea which seemed to resolve with a spoonful of pumpkin in his kibble. The most noticeable change for me was when he became more lethargic than usual. I have his mom also and he constantly harasses her and the past couple days he just wasn't himself. During waking hours they pretty much live with me in our sunroom which has linoleum while he is being housetrained. I noticed yesterday that when I mop up his puddles there was no color and no odor whatsoever but it didn't sound any alarms until this afternoon when he was pretty much drinking and then peeing 2 minutes later. His mom is getting spayed tomorrow so my vet said to bring him along and they will run more tests. Of course in my panic I Googled "kidney problems in puppies" and that's where I learned about JRD (juvenile renal disease). Symptoms include:
Drinking excessive water.
Difficulty in housebreaking – pup pees frequently and urine is light-colored
with little odor.
Poor appetite, though this may be intermittent.
Depression or lethargy.
Vomiting.
So you can see my concern. I am writing to see if anyone else has experienced this with their Frenchies and also to alert others in case you notice similar symptoms. Either way I will update this site because I wouldn't wish this angst on anyone!

 

[lkclark]

I am not familiar with this, but I wish you the best.

 

[Tgirl]

I wouldn't panic. There are a lot of things that can cause those problems. What does he eat? He may just need a different antibiotic. It could be a lot of different things. Anything is possible, but I really wouldn't worry about renal disease at this point.

 

[pbois]

A quick blood panel will tell you all you need to know regarding the renal concern. So try not to worry until you get those results. This could be a bad UTI that isn't or didn't get cleared up by the antibiotics. Could the antibiotic have upset his stomach and caused some loose stool and nausea? Lots of questions, but hopefully you will get some answers soon. Good luck!

 

[Tgirl]

I agree about the antibiotic giving him diarrhea. Antibiotics can mess with their stomach, if he has some diarrhea he could be drinking more because of that.

 

[2bullymama]

I wouldn't panic. There are a lot of things that can cause those problems. What does he eat? He may just need a different antibiotic. It could be a lot of different things. Anything is possible, but I really wouldn't worry about renal disease at this point.

totally agree.... it could be a number of things that cause those issues. please keep us posted after talking with your vet. [MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION]

 

[SumoMom]

Thanks for the comforting replies. I left him at the vet's this morning and they will run the necessary tests. The most optimistic sign this morning was that when I caught his first morning urine sample it was bright yellow instead of clear and odorless like the past couple of days. Also, he was back to being "Hell on wheels" which was no longer a nuisance but the best thing in the world!It is distressing to find that bulldogs have been added to list of breeds that are susceptible to JRD (Juvenile Renal Disease). If you care to check out this link you will see why I was frantic last night --:"www.vetprof.com/clientinfo/juvenilerenal.html" I will be sure to let you know once I have the test results -- cross your fingers.

totally agree.... it could be a number of things that cause those issues. please keep us posted after talking with your vet. [MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION]

 

[davidh]

Hoping for the best and you get good news that your baby doesn't have TRD. Now the next question I have is, what heartworm preventative do you have him on? [MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION]

 

[bullmama]

Thanks for the comforting replies. I left him at the vet's this morning and they will run the necessary tests. The most optimistic sign this morning was that when I caught his first morning urine sample it was bright yellow instead of clear and odorless like the past couple of days. Also, he was back to being "Hell on wheels" which was no longer a nuisance but the best thing in the world!It is distressing to find that bulldogs have been added to list of breeds that are susceptible to JRD (Juvenile Renal Disease). If you care to check out this link you will see why I was frantic last night --:"www.vetprof.com/clientinfo/juvenilerenal.html" I will be sure to let you know once I have the test results -- cross your fingers.

Any news from the vet yet?

 

[SumoMom]

Thanks again to all who posted your concerns or suggestions. Sumo's blood and urine test results came in today and all is pretty much normal except there are trace amounts of protein in his blood and urine. Not time to panic yet but the protein should NOT be there so he will need to be rechecked in a few weeks. My vet said to take him off of his puppy food which was 28% protein and I will feed him what his mom is eating which is TOTW at 25% protein. There is still a chance he may have kidney issues but we'll just have to monitor it and see what develops. This is something that could just be congenital and he may be the only one in the litter to have this (if he does.) If anyone knows of a good low protein dog food with ingredients best for Frenchies I would love to know. I checked Petflow and other sites and it is next to impossible most of the time to find the percentage of protein listed.

 

[Alice Kable]

Canidae is a low protein food.

 

[MaplesMommy]

All Senior formulas are usually low protein. But keep in mind that low protein= higher carbs amount

 

[SumoMom]

All Senior formulas are usually low protein.

Thank you to Alice and MaplesMommy for the suggestions for a low protein food for Sumo. Yesterday he again could not control his bladder much at all and when I got him up at 6:00 this morning his crate pad was soaked. I am SO worried this may indeed be a kidney disorder -- besides switching food I may want to get an MRI to see if his kidneys are not fully developed as in juvenile renal disease. At least he is no longer lethargic (sometimes I wish!) and no vomiting or diarrhea.

 

[EnzosDad]

My frenchie is having similar symptoms. He's 11 weeks old and he wets his crate all night and urinates about once a hour to five or six times a hour. He sometimes drinks a lot I have noticed. My vet did a urinalysis and saw a little protien/white blood cells in his urine and put him on a antibiotic. He has been doing better the fist few days and now on his last day he is urinating frequently now and his urine is mostly clear. I am in the same boat as you and worried. He is very happy and healthy and is full of energy and he already gained 3 lbs in three weeks with us so he is not losing weight or lethargic.

 

[eeturk]

My Frenchie was like this as a puppy. We couldn't believe how often he peed. He grew out of it and now at 9 months is fully potty trained and pees a normal amount. Could be nothing

 

[winginit66]

[MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION] - Is this puppy by any chance the runt of the litter? We have a runt (along with his sister) and he had tremendous issues when we first brought him home. Not what you are describing, but passive regurgitation and had to go on a host of medications including Nexium. I fully believe all of his issues were due to the fact that he was the runt and everything just hadn't fallen into place yet. Keep us posted and stay positive!

 

[SumoMom]

[MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION] - Is this puppy by any chance the runt of the litter? We have a runt (along with his sister) and he had tremendous issues when we first brought him home. Not what you are describing, but passive regurgitation and had to go on a host of medications including Nexium. I fully believe all of his issues were due to the fact that he was the runt and everything just hadn't fallen into place yet. Keep us posted and stay positive!

I am not sure if by "runt" you mean the smallest or the last born. I don't know where he falls in the timeline but I believe he was the heaviest of the 3. The female was smallest and then Sumo outweighed his brother by at least a pound (looked like more than that to me). And he has tremendous energy -- right now he is bouncing off the walls but still drinks and pees every 5-10 minutes. I just bought some Nature's Variety Instinct raw food today and also the kibble with the raw food coating (by mistake) because the first store didn't have the raw. My vet wanted me to put him on a lower protein food in case he does have kidney issues which it sure seems to be. After some online research I'm finding the current thinking is that higher protein levels in food are not that big a factor where kidney disease is concerned. There were tests done on a group of older dogs over a 4 year period and it turned out the mortality rates were actually higher in the dogs eating the low protein diets. And I believe high protein percentages in freeze dried raw foods doesn't mean the same as traditional dry kibble -- maybe something to do with the processing. The frozen raw food has 15% protein so I am anxious to start that and then when he gets retested (blood/urine) in 3-4 weeks we'll see if the protein is still showing up. I'm crossing my fingers it is not juvenile renal disease because the prognosis is not good. He is not throwing up anymore and no diarrhea or depression and lethargy -- those were the signs that sent me to the vet in the first place. But the constant drinking and peeing continues.

 

[SumoMom]

Hoping for the best and you get good news that your baby doesn't have TRD. Now the next question I have is, what heartworm preventative do you have him on? [MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION]

David, my apologies for not answering your question re heartworm meds. He is not currently on anything -- I didn't know if my vet didn't mention it because of his age but he got his required shots and lyme disease preventive and that was it. As I keeping reading about kidney issues "they" say if he is diagnosed with KD he should never get any shots (including rabies) ever again and no flea/tick remedies. Apparently my vet can write an exemption for the rabies based on a diagnosis of kidney disease. This is ALL so complicated! I was SO hoping it was an isolated incident of perhaps ingesting some toxic vegetation because he appears VERY healthy in every way but the copious drinking and peeing continues.

 

[davidh]

[MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION], the only reason I was asking is there is one on the market that is killing some bullies, and I just wanted to make sure you had not given this to him. Sorry about your baby.

 

[EnzosDad]

[MENTION=706]Kathy Stoffel[/MENTION], the only reason I was asking is there is one on the market that is killing some bullies, and I just wanted to make sure you had not given this to him. Sorry about your baby.

This is interesting.. What brand?