Hello everyone,

I have a blind 5 year old Basenji who has had significant behavior changes since she has lost her sight. After we first got her at 1 years old, she was perfectly normal. About a year later, we noticed her left eye developing a cataract with her right eye shortly following. We took her to a doggie ophthalmologist and the vet informed us that she had undersized eyes and detached retinas on top of the bilateral cataracts. Up until 2 months ago, she was able to see lights and shadows (we think) and maneuver around the house and backyard well without any behavioral issues. Recently, she has developed crate anxiety and now constantly pees in her crate. We have her started for about 3 weeks on 10mg of doggie Prozac which seems to help with the anxiety, but she still pees. We think it is because she cannot tell between night and day when she wakes in the middle of the night. We potty her before bed, but she still pees in her crate every night. She sleeps with her co-dependent basenji companion as she always has. My parents are considering re-homing her because she keeps peeing. I am going to try a white noise machine tonight to help drown out excessive noise and hope it will help her distinguish night from day. Otherwise, any advice would be greatly appreciated. She is just too young to have all of these issues.

Healthy young basenjis are hard to find homes for. I am not certain how your parents imagine they can find a "home" for a blind dog that is incontinent. If she is not a mix, it is possible a rescue might take her, but honestly, she is not very placeable at this point.

Has the vet checked her for other issues that could be causing the incontinence? Sometimes spayed dogs do have issues. Have you tried removing water at least 3 hrs before bedtime? Has she been tested for Fanconi or diabetes or any other health issue?

Where did you get her from? If you know who bred her, they may be of some help or we can at least check for any health clearances.

@DebraDownSouth Hi Debra, thank you so much for responding and for your sympathies. We have taken her to a vet and aside from the blindness, she is otherwise completely healthy. I will try to remove her water before bedtime, that may help. The breeders we got her from have told us that she is the first case of a blind dog that they have bred. All of their other litters have been 100% A+ basenjis.

Maybe not crate her anymore at night. Maybe she is afraid. We never crate our two sisters and they are allowed to sleep where they want, even in the bed under the covers. No issues, no problems, no destroying, no peeing. All our best thoughts to you all.

@courtneybdx
Do you mind sharing who the breeder is? Yes, flukes happen... but it would be good to know if the sire/dam and lines were actually tested or if there are other issues. At the very least, every penny you paid should have been refunded and if I were the breeder, I'd be paying for dna testing and helping out.

@kjdonkers Yes, or at least a confined area with a potty pad set up or potty station. Then if she HAS to go, no disaster.