I would really need help on this as well. Our Basenji, female, almost ten years old, has an increasing tension around kids, some adults, and other dogs - especially female. I am aware my own tension rubs off, but it is pretty hard not to feel tense after seeing her attack other dogs and growl as well as showing her teeth to our kids' friends as soon as they look at her. She used to be able to play with dogs, and she used to be ok with kids playing in her presence. If she were disturbed, she used to go into antoher room. Now it is almost as she seeks the conflict, walking up to kids and adults with her back ridge raised, waiting for a sign (or my tension) to strike.

I would really need help on this as well. Our Basenji, female, almost ten years old, has an increasing tension around kids, some adults, and other dogs - especially female. I am aware my own tension rubs off, but it is pretty hard not to feel tense after seeing her attack other dogs and growl as well as showing her teeth to our kids' friends as soon as they look at her. She used to be able to play with dogs, and she used to be ok with kids playing in her presence. If she were disturbed, she used to go into antoher room. Now it is almost as she seeks the conflict, walking up to kids and adults with her back ridge raised, waiting for a sign (or my tension) to strike.

We are going to talk to the vet again Thursday, and I will discuss all various suggestions with him. When reading on EPI, IPSID and IBD, all include symptoms as weight loss and diarrea. She does not suffer from any of these 2 symptoms. Her only symptom is vomiting on an empty stomach, and the stomach empties in no time at all which makes her vomit without the cortison. I will still go through the various conditions with the vet and take necessary tests to see if any of the mentioned diseases might apply anyway. IBD should have been tested during the Gastroschopy, only that it is called something different in Swedish. I will ask the vet.

But more and more, I believe the problems were caused by myself giving her too big a variety of proteins, and too much food, when she was little. I am hoping to be able to go around this through finding the right food for Della, and cure her with a good nutritional balance rather than with medicine. Fingers crossed for Thursday/Sofie

Once again - great thanks from Sweden for valuable input. All the best/Sofie and Della (who is lying here exhausted after 3 hours in the sunny woods…)

Dear Debra. The symptoms have not disappeared, as she is not symptom free without the medication. So the elimination diet is not possible to follow, as the step 1 (only eating hypoallergenic food) has not worked out. Otherwise, I would gladly go ahead with step 2.

The vet sticks to the story that it is the inflammation in the stomach, in combination with the allergy, who caused her problems.

At the same time, I've been reading up on dog nutrition, and I believe going over to the raw diet she had when she was little could eliminate the problem. At the same time, I am super worried I would be wrong and that it would throw her back all those steps we've been through, making her have to eat even more cortison again.

One thing that I did not mention was that Della got too much food during her early stages. I was informed to feed her 5% of her body weight, from the raw diet, but i did not know this should decrease to 2% after her turning 6 months. From what I understand, over-feeding might push a vaguely sensitive stomach into developing allergies and a very sensitive stomach. So I am worried we are treating something that really would not be a problem, if she just came back to the raw diet and ate the proper amount of this.

What are the full length names of ISPID, IBD and EPI. We do not seem to have the same short names for these problems as you do, and I do not find the full length names online.

Phew, this is hard. Sorry for all the questions.

Dear Patty. As we have not been able to take away the cortison, could you please let me know where I can find out more about natural products that can replace cortison? Now we are at a state where we can't lessen the dose from 1/4 pill per day and the vet is just happy to let her keep eating this forever and ever. Many thanks/Sofie

Thank you all for your most valuable information and links! I will go through all now tonight at home. My only worry with fish and rice is that she wont get all nutrition she needs from that? Right after the gastroscopy she had only fish and rice for 2 weeks, and after 10 days she developed dandruff which I was told could be a sign on a poor balance of nutrition.

She has been on raw food before, with raw chicken-wings combined with vom (have no idea of what you say in english), it is mixed raw parts from either cow or fish or chicken, with vitamins and minerals added to it. She was feeling very well during this period of time, and it was not until after this, when we gave her a huge variety of things, that she became ill. The vet said that we can not be sure that she can still have the raw diet based on chicken though, because she could have developed an allergy to chicken, but I can give her other raw food, like fish, if chicken would turn out to be bad for her - right?

What natural substitutes are there to cortison? Now she has eaten the smallest dose possible of cortison for a week without getting any symptoms back, yey, but if we end up with the vet saying she needs to do this forever I would for sure like to try a natural substitute. She has been so happy since she got this smaller dose, her mischief level is up to the extreme

Once again - thanks for all comments and helpful info that I can take with me from here on.

/Sofie

Bor?s, a popular city for textile students Della is from a wonderful breeder in Falk?ping. None of the other puppies or the parents have the same problem, so she could unfortunately not help. She told me soy could be troublesome though. I will try to stay away from soy, corn and wheat and hope she can manage without the cortison within a few weeks. If she doesn't I will try different foods step by step. It is lovely to see her as her old self again now on medication, but the thought of her always eating it freaks me out… Any tips are more than welcome!

I am not saying every Basenji has this problem, I am just asking for help as my Basenji has problems. It seems to be a very sensitive subject - I am not complaining on Basenjis, I just need help. Della used to eat anything before, but somewhere along the way she has been eating something that really upset her stomach.

Della is 14 months, and the problems appeared when she was 10 months old, at the same time as her "fake pregnancy" (I am Swedish and might not know all words correctly, sorry?). Also, I had spoiled her with a lot of different foods, so thanks to that mistake it is hard to see what caused the allergy.

She had a gastroscopy and that was how they discovered the chronic inflammation and the allergy. The vet said that maybe we wouldn't have noticed the inflammation unless she had also had the allergy, that the two of them together became too much. So what we are hoping for is to fight off the allergy, and that the inflammation would then be quite symptom free. ISPD and IBD was never mentioned. Basenjis are not so common in Sweden, but I will ask my vet about this. He is the only intestinal specialist we have in the whole Stockholm area.

She never vomits any food, "only" bile when the tummy is empty. So the nights have been the worst, even though I fed her her last meal very late she woke up and threw up after a few hours if I did not go up and feed her before. During the days I was able to avoid her throwing up thanks to giving her small portions every third hour. But she felt sick in between, and she did throw up as soon as I was 10 minutes late with a meal.

After starting with the cortison, she was first very tired and depressed. But the dose in the beginning was very high. Now she is eating a small dose, and she is like herself again - except for being a bit swollen and having a problem growing back hair on the area where they shaved her leg preparing for the gastroscopy, she is at least happy and playful, does not feel sick and sleep all night. Now I feed her four times a day, with the last meal given btw 10 and 11 at night.

The first thing I am hoping to do is to find out what she is allergic too. If anyone has any specific food to recommend, that has worked out for their Basenji, please let me know and I will discuss this with the vet too. The hyperallergenic food she gets now is based on soy (!) which I have heard from several of you is usually not good.

Thank you/Sofie

Does anyone know if Basenji's have a common allergy when it comes to food? Our lovely 14 month girl has developed an allergy, but the vet do not know towards what.

Also, she has a chronic inflammation in her stomach, that appeared along with the allergy. This makes her throw up when she is hungry, and that is every third hour. She is eating cortison now, which makes her a bit swollen but otherwise she is just as happy as usual. I am of course hoping for her to stop with the cortison as it isn't good in the long run, but the vet says she might have to eat it all her life. Does anyone know another way to go about this, without having to give her cortison?

Thanks!