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.
Fanconi cheek swab
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News from the Specality..
One of the EBC club members from the National posted to the club to let us know that the cheek swab DNA kit is now being accepted for the Fanconi test. Here is the procedure she relayed to me: Go to the Canine Phenome website to register your dog(s) Click on "order Fanconi Test" Go to OFA
website to pay for the test ($60) and the kit ($5) and pay by credit
card. Test kit will be mailed to you. Follow instructions
carefully. Kit can be mailed back, no special handling. Can be used
as young as nursing puppies. However blood samples will still be
needed for future research projects, especially affected dogs and
their first degree siblings. -
The lab told my mom over the phone that the swabs can not be used on puppies 2 weeks of age or younger.
The OFA website for ordering is here: https://secure.offa.org/cart.html
Dogs still need to registered with the Canine Phenome Project: http://www.caninephenome.org
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I have to tell you that I am just reporting what I heard.
Seems you have updated info.
What ages can they test? -
Looks like over 2wks of age…
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Still, that is wonderful for you breeder folks yes?
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Of course… not sure why you would need to do at 2wks of age... either the parents were done... or... if breeding a litter that could produce carriers... then still you can get it done before placement of pups... since most responsible breeders do not place pups till 10wks...
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Absolutely, it should be no problem waiting until after 2 weeks old but when my mom was talking to the lab, they stressed that though the test could be used on puppies they needed to be older than 2 weeks.
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What GREAT news. hopefully this will help all those that balk at the idea of sending blood samples to go ahead and get testing done. My hat off to the AMAZING folks at UofM.
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How would you sign up 2 week old pups? Hardly any breeders register their pups that young?
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The CPP doesn't care if you have names or numbers. That is why we have dogs like Unnamed Puppy 1 in the OFA database. I also think some breeders were told that they could update the information once they had it so the pups results could be received prior to the pups leaving for their new homes.
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Thank you for this information!!! This helps me out a lot as far as getting mine tested!
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I am doing the happy dance - not that I breed a lot or anything but hauling to the vet and making sure they have the right tubes and then getting it shipped out is a pain - heck I could do the cheek swab in a flash - well first I have to catch them - then in a flash.
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I am hopeful this will be a test every basenji owner does.
It gives you information so, if needed, you can be prepared.
Knowledge is power and keeping our dogs with us as long as we can is the thing we should all strive for.
I am so happy to live in this time.
Who knows, maybe in the next 10 yrs, fanconis will be like rickets…we just don't see them.
