What should be expected of an ethical breeder? - Page 3

The curtness of her reply would me me, personally, feel as if this is something she doesnt wish to discuss. Kennel blindness is not uncommon. That is one of the reasons I started the German Shepherd Breed Betterment Registry- a health registry for German Shephrds.Anyone with a pedigreed GSD can make an entry, and alert diligent breeders, breeders who do care, about potential problems in a line. With knowledge, they can avoid doubling up on a health problem. I encourage you to please enter this onto the GSDBBR. My motivation for starting this was the unbearable loss of Jack Flash, the other half of my soul, to Degenerative Myelopathy :( Missie T, one of my present GSDS, has also developed DM :( IMHO, owners, as well as breeders, have a responsibility to the breed, to do their best to try to improve health.

Michael, Whatever you do please see if it is possible to determine causation of the renal failure. there is nothing worse than skewed information. By that I mean if we catergorize the act of renal failure to a dog and the cause was something ingested like Anti-freeze, but donot list the cause, people will just look at the fact of renal failure with this dog and incorrectly assume it is in the bloodline. Trust me I have seen zealots make this kind of leap of faith with insufficient data many times. So good luck on your endeavor and hopefully your next dog will live a long prosperous life.

There are MANY MANY MANY causes of chronic kidney failure, or renal failure - most of which are NOT genetic.  Even nutrition (too high protein) can be a cause.  Tick bites.  Allergies.  Medications.  Toxins.  Etc ETC.  Many.

molly

Michael,

I just want to express my most heartfelt sympathies for your loss. :(

She was so young, what a tragedy... I hope you find some form of closure about the cause of her death, and if it is genetic, I CERTAINLY hope this breeder lets littermate owners know and does not continue to breed your dog's sire & dam.

Genetics do play a role in kidney disease... especially in the GSD and some other breeds.  It's hard to say (REALLY hard to say) if your case was genetic or not. 

GSD's can be affected by Familial Renal disease - carcinomas of the kidney, which is inherited, and generally appears after 5 years of age.

Chronic Renal Failure generally happens in a normal aging process (generally over 7 years), but can also occur from kidney infection, kidney stones, chronic urinary infections and even Lymphoma.

I think an ethical breeder would have sent his/her condolensces, and at minimum, let you know he/she would check into the health of the other dogs.  As there is the potential that it was genetic.  If I were the breeder, and ANY of the additional littermates had the same issues... there would be some serious changes in my kennel.

Thank you so much for your heartfelt support.  I do appreciate it.

The answer to a few of you is that I spent thousands ruling out the alternatives -- Lyme (she was up to date and I still had her re-tested), antifreeze, etc.  The pattern of the decline -- and the numerous blood tests -- suggest the kidney was failing chonically, not acutely.  I have a doctorate in a research field myself (and I also have cancer myself) so I am intensely involved in medical testing and research issues right now.  I cannot be sure the vets (3!) are all right that it was chronic kidney failure, and genetic (they all agree -- from two different practices) but I can be reasonably confident at a level of confidence such that were I the breeder I would want to know.

I do not recall going over the lupus possibility, but my vets are better than the typical vet (and I was willing to pay whatever it took to save her) and I imagine they would have hit upon it if relevant.  I can go back and check on that.  We did go through a long list of possibilities knowing that if we ruled everything out, we'd be stuck with chronic renal failure and the prognosis bleak.

And it was all email.  I have been embarrassingly uncontrolled talking about her death on the phone, so I chose that route.  I was discharging what seemed an ethical duty, after all.  Perhaps that is what set this off on an ugly path.

My dog was from a one-time breeding (dam crossed the pond in whelp, sire stayed in Germany) so her subsequent breedings should not be of major concern.  I merely wanted to let the littermates know that at the first signs they should switch their beloved pets to a low protein, and otherwise healthier, sensitive kidney diet.

All that is just in case some of you were asking in earnest.  I do, once again, appreciate enormously your outpouring of support!

Happy New Year.

Michael