Life Expectancy??

[giza1]

We have had 5 Basenjis who have passed away. The first passed away 5 weeks before her 18th birthday; the second lived to 16; their son lived to be only 8 years old, but he was born with a health issue that was only definitively diagnosed upon necropsy, a good portion of his pancreas was missing; the 4th, a rescue, lived to be 15.5, and the 5th, a rescue, died suddenly of a splenic tumour at 9 years.
-Joanne

[Nancy Berry]

@giza1 WOW ~ 18 yrs.! How awesome! And you say you've had 5 that have gone to the field by the Rainbow Bridge, I'm sorry but if I had my way, we would not ever have a Basenji pass away, they'd be with us until we all passed together. But then, I guess some folks would have too big of a "pack". Do you have Basenjis now? I hope so, it's just so empty in the place with not even 1 Basenji to love :-(

[Nancy Berry]

@TxVet You are so very Blessed to still have your Basenji at 20 yrs. old! You've done something very right, besides loving her to the fullest!

[DebraDownSouth]

@giza1 That is sad about the 8 yr old, but wonderful the other two.

[giza1]

@Nancy-Berry Oh yes, I have a Basenji now, two actually, a 2 year old, and an 8 year old, but I couldn't have commented on their lifespans because I don't know it yet. Hope they are around awhile. Sure I think of the ones who are gone, and sometimes I wish they were all still here... but I'm pretty sure that some of them wouldn't have all gotten along.

[AllisonMosley]

Mya is 10 and still going strong. Diagnosed with Fanconi around age 6 and was put on the protocol pretty quickly. I'm relieved to see there have been many long lasting Basenji lives here in the comments!

[tregtyler]

HI,

My boy lived to be 16 1/2 years and one week to the day. My girl, who is still with me will be 17 on Halloween. She is in perfect health with exception of loss of peripheral sight and hearing. Even though she is physically in perfect health, she has all of the canine cognitive dysfunction symptoms. She also has severe separation anxiety issues if I am not with her. I am lucky that I am able to work from home and rarely do I leave her alone for more than 1 hr each day. It is just me, her and unconditional love in my house.

[jbgabel]

My Tri color basenji is 16 years old. She’s still happy but has health issues. Every day with her is a gift!!

[tregtyler]

My boy lived to be 16 1/2 years old with good quality of life. My little girl died this month at 18 yrs and 64 days. She never recovered from losing her brother and developed full blown Canine Cognitive Dysfunction for the last year and a half of her life. Her quality of life was good as long as I was with her, but CCD is a terrible disease.

[joan duszka]

5 basenji girls..17, 17, 14, 12.....last one 13, still with us but showing signs.

[AllisonMosley]

@allisonmosley I find myself back here searching life expectancy as my Mya ages. She had 2 seizures on 12/21/21 and 7 seizures over a 12hr period on 1/10/22. I am surprised she has lasted so long with Fanconi, but as I revisit the Gonto Protocol I see GME and seizures mentioned. Just part of getting older it seems for some basenjis.