It is no secret among many Dalmatian owners and their breeders that their beautiful breed is prone to developing bladder stones (uroliths) made of urates as they have historically been the poster puppies for the inherited condition, known as hyperuricosuria. However, many don’t realize that the same genetic mutation responsible for these stones has been reported in over a dozen breeds of dog, although at a much lower frequency.
Urates are formed from uric acid, a product of the breakdown of natural compounds of the body and from our food, known as purines. Affected dogs are predisposed to the formation of these bladder stones due to a mutation in the SLC2A9 gene1; a gene that serves as the blueprint for a protein responsible for transporting uric acid in the body. In dogs free of this mutation, this transporter plays an important role in transporting uric acid from the blood into the liver for degradation and from urine produced in the kidney, back into the blood. Affected dogs cannot perform these tasks adequately, thus resulting in a high level of uric acid in both the blood (hyperuricemia) and urine (hyperuricosuria). The disorder is inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion meaning ...