@jengosmonkey
LOL this is a really important convo to be having! I'm honored that it takes place on my thread 😆 and yes, I absolutely agree with the points y'all are making.
People do need to know where their pups are coming from and whether they were responsibly bred. To think of it coldly, I wouldn't buy a house without looking into its history and possible problems, or I might face ridiculous stress, expense, and emotional trauma from subsequent issues that come up later. As a consumer, one should do their homework not only on the breed but on the breeder.
A breeder who produces puppies carelessly is basically a horrible human being in my book. It was a huge, thoroughly thought out moral decision for me not to adopt but to buy a purebred puppy, as I've worked with rescues before. I took this step with the possible goal of being a custodian. If a breeder is irresponsible in all the aforementioned ways, not only are they producing dogs with a higher possibility of suffering, muddying this ancient breed, and swindling people, they are needlessly taking potential homes away from dogs that need one AND frequently causing dogs to be abandoned! If there weren't any PMs or BYBs, imagine how many people would get schooled by rescue folk and responsible breeders into taking dog-parenting seriously before they ever took one home!
Sorry for the rant; I COMPLETELY understand the internal screaming that happens within some of you when you find out a pup is from a mill or crap breeder. If people like you and I keep yelling about it, we will change a few minds, which make all the difference to a few dogs which is better than no dogs 🙂
Hello and Help
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Hello Basenji World. We're new to BRAT but have been owned by two basenjis for eight years. We raised Cairo, tri-female-drama queen, from a puppy; and we adopted Snickers, red-male-laid-back-handsome-silent-guy. Both of course are as wonderful as every other basenji.
If anyone has information about thyroid levels in basenjis, I would appreciate your help. Last week the kids had their annual check up and the TT4 thyroid test results on Snickers shows his level at .5, which indicates hypothyroidism. The vet says the normal range is 8-40. I've heard that b's thyroid levels run lower than other breeds. He is asymptomatic of the disease.
Does anyone have experience in this area?
Thank you.
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Hello Basenji World. We're new to BRAT but have been owned by two basenjis for eight years. We raised Cairo, tri-female-drama queen, from a puppy; and we adopted Snickers, red-male-laid-back-handsome-silent-guy. Both of course are as wonderful as every other basenji.
If anyone has information about thyroid levels in basenjis, I would appreciate your help. Last week the kids had their annual check up and the TT4 thyroid test results on Snickers shows his level at .5, which indicates hypothyroidism. The vet says the normal range is 8-40. I've heard that b's thyroid levels run lower than other breeds. He is asymptomatic of the disease.
Does anyone have experience in this area?
Thank you.
Low Thyroid is not uncommon in Basenjis… I would bet that over 50% of them have hypothyrodidism but it is very easily treated with Soloxine... and requires one or two pills twice daily.. cost is very reasonable also... if you get them by the bottle of 1000 it is under 60.00. And if you vet gives you the prescription you can order yourself... Please also, do not use anything but the real thing.... genetric has shown a big differnce to Soloxine. Also, really the thyroid should be checked by doing a full thyroid panel that is totally separate from the T4 that is usually run by a regular blood test. If I were you, I would ask your Vet on both your Basenjis to pull the blood and send out for the full panel.
Basenjis when even at the low end of "normal" is too low and needs meds. Also we find that almost all that have been spayed/neutered become low thyroid.
Did your Vet give you the meds?
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Thank you Tanza for your reply. A full work up was done on Snickers at the vet's urging and the meds came from his office. The label identifies the the medication as "Thyroid" but doesn't identify the name. The dosage is one pill twice a day for the first month. Snicks will be re-tested at that time.
I appreciate your help. -
Thank you Tanza for your reply. A full work up was done on Snickers at the vet's urging and the meds came from his office. The label identifies the the medication as "Thyroid" but doesn't identify the name. The dosage is one pill twice a day for the first month. Snicks will be re-tested at that time.
I appreciate your help.Please find out the name of the Meds… It really does make a difference... I was using the generic stuff for a while...but once I insisted on the "real" stuff, Soloxine... what a difference.... and that is about the normal dose... 1 pill 2x's daily.......
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Welcome to the site. This group is full of information and support.
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Welcome!!!
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If you do need to have your Bs go on thyroid, get it from Omaha Vaccine. It's very cheap at about .02/tab compared to the vet at $1/tablet. That's where I got mine. They will need your vets OK for the prescription. www.omahavaccine.com
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If you do need to have your Bs go on thyroid, get it from Omaha Vaccine. It's very cheap at about .02/tab compared to the vet at $1/tablet. That's where I got mine. They will need your vets OK for the prescription. www.omahavaccine.com
Both my german shepherd mix (spayed) and B (neutered) were on soloxine for many years. I got it very reasonably priced from my vet–it wasn't $1/tablet--are you sure it was that expensive? Tyler and Zoey had their thyroids tested, and both are in normal range at this time. My other two were probably middle aged when they had to start thyroid pills. I never used a generic--only soloxine--and it seemed to work fine--I'd get their thyroids tested periodically--but the dose never needed to be adjusted for them.
