Basenji Health Issues & Questions

I live in the east suburbs of Pittsburgh. I take my B to Norwin Veterinary Associates. Ask for Dr. Harvey Bendix, if he is available. He diagnosed Senji with his liver disease and basically saved his life. He's open to alternative as well as traditional medicine.

Oh yet another reason to not own males, lol. Sorry guys, I am a horse person. I have to say having cleaned sheaths routinely, ick.

Such a nice photo. I know you definitely get some advise from him.

My Basenjis do eat acorns with no effect at all. I do find that mine seem to know what they can and can't eat. I suppose each generation has learned from the last. Puppies of course have to be watched (like human babies) because they'll chew anything. Incidentally when I was a child (a very,very long time ago) i too used to eat acorns, - again with no ill effects!

@Schouiffy: So this will need to be a daily imput of pumpkin or sweet potato ? I just use about one teaspoon of canned pumpkin every morning.

Also - does anyone else's Basenji drink in threes? When Cody drinks he goes "lap, lap, lap, pause, Lap, lap, lap". For some reason this just cracks me up. Maybe because he's so consistent. Or maybe I need to get our more! LOL!

You may want to join the yahoo group Basenji Breeder Roundtable and ask your question there. There may be more collective experience there with this sort of question.

In the 15 years that we had Maxx, we never used any kind of flea product…and he never had fleas. We haven't used anything on Gracie or Blaze, either, and neither of them have fleas. If we ever do see fleas, our first line of defense would be a natural product of some kind. Only if the natural products didn't work would I resort to chemicals. Of course, YMMV. Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats has information on natural flea products. I'm sure there are other books and/or websites that do, too…just do a Google search.

and I love the picture of your babies. I love the independent nature of a shiba inu too as much as I do a Basenji. I think there will always be a concern about fanconi, but this was a good day.

Read all the quotes and statements on Fanconi and work out how contradictory it is for yourself. I don't think many UK Basenji owners do a Fanconi 'strip monthly' and certainly some breeders do advocate no test. Are such breeders irresponsible not necessarily. A 'probable' diagnosis on any medical condition is hardly a scientic diagnosis to say the least but testing is better than not and is certainly better than doing nothing.

Thanks so much for the feedback. We haven't changed his diet but he eats just about anything he finds in the yard. I'll call the vet and see what they say.

Hers or his? Chance had a full panel done just now.

@Kipawa: Good results! :) And kudos to you for starting strip testing next year. Kipawa will either be clear or carrier. I'm going to send away for the test soon. You hope. Please remember the test is linkage, not clear genetic. While your chances are VERY good for clear or carrier, keep in mind that isn't 100 percent sure.

Thanks for the replies. Dexter is on Orijen, the same food he was on with Kyle.

Interesting. If anyone else tries this, I would love to get some feedback. As I understand it, food sensitivities are hard to diagnose accurately. There's skin allergy testing, where a panel of fur is shaved off and different allergens are tested directly on the dog, which I was told often registers false positives. And there's something like VARL Liquid Gold Serum allergy testing, which still requires a blood draw. I guess they can test for food allergies as well, but again, I don't know how accurate that is. So I've been told that the best way to test for food allergies is still to try an elimination diet. It would be wonderful if there was a rigorous set of tests that could just tell you definitively what food your dog is allergic to! So if this test does it… cool. I'll definitely keep this in mind. Thanks for sharing, Pat.

Kipawa had this happen with one of his shots. It took about 2 months to go away, and started to really reduce in size with massage. The area is perfectly fine now - you'd never know anything odd had been there.

Please let us know what he/she says…

Thanks Linda, I got your message at home as well. Therese