Basenji Health Issues & Questions

@tanza: These kinds of problems are not uncommon when your Basenjis start to reach their "golden" years. You might want to try him on Dr. Dodd's liver cleansing diet. http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/Liver%20cleansing%20diet.htm Many have used it and had great results regardless of what you find out the issue might be. Good Suggestion Pat as I had an older B with liver issues in 2008 and that diet brought it down into normal range.

Mackpack I don't have any idea how wise I am being. Just desperate. i am loading him up with ery supplement that i have read about that could help. The vet said he was a very strong dog. He is all fired up this morning. Full of snark!!

I read something recently about the whole mercury in tuna thing that I found very interesting and very educational. Before you ask, no, it was not info put out by the fishing industry. It was a book I was reading a little out of that was about the health benefits of a kosher diet. It stated that there is something neat about tuna fish that I hadn't heard before. In tuna, there seems to be some chemical or property which lends itself to the purpose of removing mercury from our system. Because it has been a little while and I didn't pay close enough attention I cannot tell you what this property that the tuna has is and I am sorry for that. I'm sure it would be wise to further research information about it. But it was published information that suggested that eating tuna fish actually reduced one's likelyhood for mercury poisoning, in spite of what the mercury test results indicate the tuna to have. I guess this is sort of like how they are now telling us that the use of sun block may actually be increasing our risk of skin cancer. Personally, I think we will all eventually die from something, and over-worrying something like this is not a direction I will choose to go. But that is a decision which I have made only for myself, you will have to make your own. Perhaps some of you out there are already aware of this tuna/mercury study and can share your knowledge with us.

I understand wanting to understand what happened, I would need that for closure. Thank you for this information, I have never heard of that plant but will look it up. We have lots of oleander down here and I am watchful of it when the dogs are sniffing about.

Benedryl is heaven sent to my ichy boy… I keep plenty on hand.

I rarely have flea problems with my Basenjis -they have garlic regularly which I think may be the reason. They are around all sorts of wild animals so must be in contact with fleas at some point.

:)I feed my pets Dynamite dog food. It is of much higher quality than stuff you can get at the pet store. It costs a little more but you aren't paying for fillers. The company is out of Idaho and carries products for other animals and humans. I am a distributor since my friend hooked me up with horse feed from them about ten years ago and sold me on their products! My pets eat better than I do! Maria

Hi Shelley – Poppy did the same when she was a puppy with her own and the other dogs offerings but she has grown out of it now with the exception of rabbit droppings and as Scott says cat droppings which most dogs seem to find irresistible!. We have been feeding Royal Canin with no problems, so it may not be down to that. It may be a family trait! Steve.

Hm, never noticed the human version. Hope I can get it here….which I kinda expect since it's "harvested from the seas of Norway"....lol If it helps me as much as Gizmo I will be in shock and joy! What I don't understand is it's in tablet form....how can it help teeth if you swallow it whole? Says it works through your blood stream....eh...okay... Looks like I might have unwittingly given clean teeth for the dogs and humans here....haha!

Relieved to hear that Belle's lumps are nothing to worry about. At least that's set your mind at rest (and mine!).

Ooops - But I do think it would be fun to get the results. Thanks Nicola for doing this thread - It's quite interesting.

You know, he's always seemed kinda 'laid-back' compared to my previous B-boy, but he was 5 when I got him. I just thought, knowing a bit of his background (he was previously in a home with a special needs child), that he was just that way. Maybe he has had this thyroid issue for a longer time than it took to manifest itself, physically. BTW, the backstory I heard for him involved a neighbor teen that was, supposedly, tortuous to the dog, ultimately leading to a bite. The dog and special needs child were best of friends. all of this could be 'horse hockey'….but even the vet has said he has a great personality.

Kris L Christine - thank you for all the information and links you post about vaccination. We very rarely have a case of rabies in the UK but I do think that the majority of dog owners over-vaccinate their pets.

We used to have a dog that had seasonal allergies with hives, every year, for about 2 weeks. We never figured out what it was, but our vet had us give 25 mg benadryl every 8 hours for a week, then stop. If the hives came back, we started again. He was funny, I always took him into the kitchen to get his pills. One night he woke me up in the middle of the night, when I petted him I realized he was covered in hives, when I got up he ran to the kitchen and waited for me, he related his pills to his itching…and to it stopping too, I guess. Of course that night I was out of benadryl, so had to run to the all night drugstore at 3 am! Definitely start giving benadryl and keep it up for at least a week.

First thing to do is see a Vet and make sure it is nothing medical, like mites… which they can determine with a skin scrapping at the office.... and work from there....

Very cool….thank you for this. Makes me want to look for more information on it. Speaking of the chase, AJ almost got a groundhog yesterday... Fortunately, that groundhog was smarter than AJ and hid under a storage container. I would imagine that had AJ been off lead, I'd still be trying to get him out from under there. :D

I have found, with treats anyway, if it is made in the USA, that will be stated in HUGE BOLDFACED letters on the front of the package. If the treats are made in China that will be stated in tiny little letters in an obsure place on the back of the package.

@khanis: Hi Pedro, Check out this page that I made, it may clear things up for you: http://khanisbasenjis.com/fanconi.html I am not sure why you said IND between carrier and affected, as the IND is between a clear and a carrier. It just means that some of the genes are kind of weird and they aren't showing to be clear. It has to do with the DNA, not the test, and since this is a linkage test that is the best we can do for now. Kathy, At the 2007 Nationals Dr Johnson did say that while there have not been any dogs that tested IND between Carrier and Affected, he did say because this is not the direct test yet, it could happen, just has not. Lisa was correct in posting about that, I had totally forgotten him saying that when asked.