Longtime member, not active. Had a basenji with the same diagnosis back in 2004. He took a tremendous amount of bicarb each day, his Fanconi was being well managed, but he started having seizures at night. Our vet gave us something to stop the seizure that we'd administer rectally. We kept track of the number of seizures and they started becoming more frequent, to about twice a week, if I recall. The final seizure he had he went temporarily blind and howled and howled and we knew that was it was time. I just sat on the floor with him and cried. A couple months later we looked at photos we had taken of him right before and he looked very, very tired. Very much the hardest thing we had ever done was to let him go across the Bridge, but after looking at those photos, we had done the right thing. Our vet had told us that it was possible he would have a seizure and not come out of it, and we certainly didn't want that.
Submitting blood for fanconi test??
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Ok sounds good.. I will take all the papers I printed to the vet and send in a check with it.. thanks! just double checking to make sur ei'm on the right track!
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Let me know. I got all the info but I was concerned how to ship the blood. Don't you have to ship it as a biohazard?
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It depends, I didn't have to say anything to the USPS guys. The vet told me what to tell the FedEX guys, but they were closed when I went out. It does have to be overnighted.
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When I went to fedex they denied me at first because as it turned out they have special packaging requirements when shipping blood and the package my vet gave me did not satisfy the requirements.
They almost allowed me to ship my package until some fedex rep on a power trip showed up and started telling me that they do not ship blood at all. After calling their customer service in front of him it turned out that in order to be shipped, it has to be in a double container, where if the blood vile inside breaks the blood will still be contained in an outer container.
Luckly the vets office was not too far and he new what that meant. The vet put the blood viles in a second sealed plastic container, and taped packages with dried ice around that. Fedex seems to be very strict about these requirements and I had to argue with them quite a bit that day.
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I paid my vet to ship it, I figured that was easier. They have my credit card on file for emergencies, so I just told him to bill it and let me know how much it was.
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I think I will have my vet ship it also, since they ship blood for other tests I would assume its not a big deal in this case either..
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I think I will have my vet ship it also, since they ship blood for other tests I would assume its not a big deal in this case either..
Exactly.. but you might find that it is way cheaper to do yourself
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Just a heads up, most vets don't ship blood for other tests. Most vets contract with a single lab that comes daily or the vet uses a courier to drop off samples to. That lab may then contract out for some tests but the vet office itself doesn't usually ship samples.
Since the Fanconi test is only available through the University of Missouri don't be surprised if the vet tells you that you will have to arrange for shipping on your own.
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Thanks lvoss-
So if I have to do my own shipping, I need to have it overnighted, anyone know the easiest service to use when shipping blood? USPS, UPS, Fedex? Do you think the vet will be able to package it up for me so that I can ship it properly, or will I have to do the packaging too??
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Thanks lvoss-
So if I have to do my own shipping, I need to have it overnighted, anyone know the easiest service to use when shipping blood? USPS, UPS, Fedex? Do you think the vet will be able to package it up for me so that I can ship it properly, or will I have to do the packaging too??
I would use UPS (just a personal choice).. and remember as per the instructions, do not send on a Friday… You would have to ask your Vet about packages... and you might want to check that out before you go so you know what you need to do.... If they can't package for you, at least they should be able to tell you what you need... And the form for submittion has instructions also.
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Thanks pat- I will do it early this week.. I'm kinda nervous about getting the results.. fingers crossed for good news!
