Hyperparathyroidism

[thunderbird8588]

Hi Mike and Jenny,
i am so sorry to hear about your Basenjis seizures. Ours had seizures too but due to a liver problem. They are horrible to watch and it must of been terryfying when he stopped breathing. I do hope your vet can sort things out.
Benji went on treatment for his liver and we controlled the fits with Epilease. We were given rectal valium to give as soon as he came out of the fit. We noticed he was a bit off before each fit and quite off for several days after, this we were told is normal.
It was difficult when he was ill but i would say he did have quality of life between seizures.

[nobarkus]

@mramsay:

Thankfully our vet also specialises in herbal & homeopathic treatments which I guess is quite rare so I remain hopeful. The little chap is now settled comfortably in my wife's lap and looking around at everything with his usual inquisitiveness.

Thank you all for your good wishes - we're both touched.

Mike & Jenny

Through all this trouble/problem we forgot to welcome you Mike, Jenny and your 2 Basenjis to the forum! What are their names? If you have some pictures please post them as we would love to see them.

[Basenjimamma]

Yes, where are our manners?

Welcome to the forum, nice to have y'all onboard.

I hope to see pictures of your pack one day, but understand you have lots on your mind right now.

Let us know how he is doing once you've been to the vet.

[Vicki]

Yes, welcome.
This must be very frightening for you. I'm sorry. Please keep us posted on your little buddy's condition.

[mramsay]

Thank you all for your warm welcome & support. I will get round to putting up one or two pics but not right now. He had another seizure around 1am this morning - his shriek woke me so I went to check him & resettle him. The look of confusion & uncertainty in his eyes was quite pitiful but he recovered quickly, resisting my putting him back to bed when he wanted to walk about!

Maybe today's visit to the vet will produce the desired outcome….

[mramsay]

Well, it's relatively good news in that the result of this morning's blood test indicates that the problem is an excessively low level of calcium. This is despite my having given him a higher than usual dose of calcium/vitD tablets after his seizure yesterday. The answer for now is to supplement the normal number of tablets with extra vitD - we are getting hold of those soon. Meanwhile he seems happier today has started eating again.

I will update when we've seen how he progresses. By the way, his name is Bing (after Chandler!) and our bitch is Rosie, aged 7, because of her colour - red(ish!). We also have Poppy a 9 year-old Great Dane bitch, Pepsi, a blue Burmese cat (neutered queen), Zach, a 25 year-old Westphalian gelding (German warmblood) and Sassy, a 13 year-old Morgan mare and Buzzy (they both are - as named!), her 5 year-old gelded son!

Thank you all again. How do I upload pics on this forum please?

[nomrbddgs]

I would, I think, definitely contact Dr. Dodds. She is absolutely great at thyroid issues.

[Basenjimamma]

I googled hyperparathyroidism when your post came up and that is one of the things they talked about on the different site's I saw..good to know that you have an answer..what now? They were talking about, of course potential diet change, adding bicarbs and other meds to the dogs regimen.

[Patty]

I'm so relieved that your vet has found an answer for the fits and I hope your boy continues to improve. You have quite a big animal family there - sounds great. Welcome to this great forum from the UK. I look forward to seeing your pictures.

[mramsay]

There's one big red face here. Bing has hypoparathyroidism, the result of an auto-immune problem. This results in under-absoption of calcium, hence the need for the calcium/vitD supplement. I understand that it is incurable so we can only hope to stabilise it. At least we should be able to stop the dreadful seizures.

I was truly amazed to have had an almost instant response from Jean Dodds, despite her currently travelling internationally. Even more impressive was her immediate response to my subsequent reply! A truly dedicated lady….

[Basenjimamma]

Wonderful to hear that you got in contact with her. She seems like the greatest person to have on your side if thyroid issues are in the mix.
I hope you will find the correct treatment and that Bing will be back to his old self before you know it.

[nobarkus]

@mramsay:

There's one big red face here. Bing has hyp_o_parathyroidism, the result of an auto-immune problem. This results in under-absoption of calcium, hence the need for the calcium/vitD supplement. I understand that it is incurable so we can only hope to stabilise it. At least we should be able to stop the dreadful seizures.

I was truly amazed to have had an almost instant response from Jean Dodds, despite her currently travelling internationally. Even more impressive was her immediate response to my subsequent reply! A truly dedicated lady….

We're glad to hear you know what's going on and hopefully can manage it successfully the rest of Bing's life. Yes, Jean is really great about helping with problems. Please keep us updated on how he's doing.

[thunderbird8588]

Glad you ,have got Bings problem identified. Hopefully once you have got him on the correct treatment things will settle down.
Welcome to you and your family both human and animal to the forum. Re putting pics on when you have time look in the help section there is info about how to get pics on.

[mramsay]

I've just uploaded 1 pic - of Bing (in happier days) & our wonderful Great Dane dog (Logan) who we lost just 4 years ago.

[Rita Jean]

Very good news to hear that you know what Bing's problem's are able to help him I am so very happy for you. I liked reading abour your large family that sound very nice.
My uncle was called Bing all his life hie real name was Gliva so I might have wanted to use Bing. We have a tree in our front yard that my Uncle grew from a nut off his tree and we call our tree Uncle Bing.
Take great care and there will be happy days once again for Bing.

Rita Jean

Rita Jean

[thunderbird8588]

Lovely pic of Bing and Logan

[mramsay]

Thankfully, little Bing had a quieter day - no more seizures or twitches. He even began hunting round the kitchen floor for any morsels dropped by Pepsi the cat!

The next challenge is to get him to eat more but at least he's doing better than yesterday in that respect.

[nobarkus]

@mramsay:

Thankfully, little Bing had a quieter day - no more seizures or twitches. He even began hunting round the kitchen floor for any morsels dropped by Pepsi the cat!

The next challenge is to get him to eat more but at least he's doing better than yesterday in that respect.

That's great news! :)Thanks for the update as we are always concerned when there's a sick or lost pet.

[Basenjimamma]

I agree, that is great news..every little step in the right direction..

[thunderbird8588]

Thanks for the update Mike, glad Bing is doing better