I took my four and a half year old dog, Pippin, to the vet yesterday and they confirmed that he has the genetic disease fanconi. This disease is pretty bad. It is a noncurable kidney disease that basically takes all the nutrients out of the dogs body. The breed JUST finally came up with a genetic test (thanks to the University of Missouri and the canine health endowment) and we knew that his mother was a carreir and his father was a carrier. His litter should have 25% clear, 25% affected, and 50% carriers. He unfortunately is affected. So he had his first round of bloodwork and although he DOES have the disease, the news was better than I expected. His kidneys are not failing at this point, which means we can put him on the treatment protocol and buy some time, maybe several years.

So, if anyone wants to know, his BUN and creatine are at the high end of normal. He is anemic and has developped a very small heart murmur. He is spilling protein in his urine but his blood protein is still maintaining and has not been depleted yet. He has a UTI. And of course, he has fanconi. All of the results are consistent with the very earliest stage of the disease, so we are in fact "lucky". He has time.

I posted a bunch of pix of him on my basenji blog if anyone wants to peek at him:
http://darkskiesbasenjis.blogspot.com/