Posts made by kingmonty

At Wal-mart it is in the Baking Goods aisle, where the flour & sugar is!

Echo is behind my knees under the covers, Blue is a Daddy's boy and sleeps next to him under the covers but with his head out on the pillow. Merlin sleeps at the foot of the bed on his own bed, but at the first alarm ring in the morning hops up and goes straight under the covers for 10 minutes of snuggle time. Echo has been known to actually crawl into the duvet and get trapped. It's fun pulling him out a 3:00 in the morning. He always pops out with his tail wagging like he's wondering "how did that happen?"

Is there a simplified type of lure course that we can tryout with our boys? They seem to really love chasing low fast things. We have a lot of property to work with. I just did not know if there is a course that can be set up without motors, etc.

About 7 years ago I lived next door to her in Carbondale, just outside of Desoto. I grew to really like her dogs and would put them back over the fence if they got out. She had two brindle/white females & one red/white male. She had two litters of pups at once and I fell in love with the breed. I wanted to buy one but they were $300 and I could not afford it. After several weeks she had one puppy left. She came to my house and offered me the dog or she was going to have it put to sleep. She gave him to us because he was sick. This is when I learned that free dogs are expensive dogs. Monty was in and out of the vet for months, he was diagnosed early with an unknown auto-immune disease. He suffered from a massive bone infection in his shoulder and lost most of the mobility in his right leg & shoulder. He had calcium deposits throughout his body, his tendons teared easily, his toes were always coming out of joint. He was always still happy & very active, just very prone to hurting himself. After Monty died we answered an ad for Basenji Puppies and it turned out to be the same person. We bought Blue, who is as healthy as a dog can be. We had pick of the litter and we chose well. Neither time that I received a dog from her did I get papers, but I never asked.

I got Blue from a breeder in DeSoto, I also got Monty from her as well. I have noticed that she does put in her ads "rare barkless odorless breed" We all know are not necessarily barkless and definatley not odorless! I haven't gotten this weeks paper, I'll it post again if she is still running the ad.

You guys are great, it's so nice to have people care about Echo's problems! His IBD is not a topic to many people care to talk to me about. When we lost Monty to Blastomycosis last year in March, Echo showed up seemingly out of no where 2 months later. Call me silly, but it seemed like a sign and we just had to have him no matter the rectal incontinence! Also, in order to check him for IPSID, wouldn't I have to have a biopsy done? The best news is that he had solid poop about an hour ago. He is beginning to feel much better. I got some soft ZD and mixed it with some of the dry ZD so he has some yummy meals.

Adoption is so great! Good for you. She has TONS of adventures in store you. This is just the beginning of life with a Basenji, your world will never be the same again!

I just read in the classified pets section of The Southern Illinoisan Newspaper this ad:

FREE BASENJI, 2 yr old male, housebroken, rare, odorless, barkless dog. Good with kids. Call 618-922-4921

This paper is obviously in southern Illinois, but the area code is for the Carbondale, Marion, Murphysboro, area. About 2 hours east of St. Louis, Missouri or 6 hours south of Chicago. The paper is dated Wednesday May 30, 2007

Echo, at 3 months old, was found abandoned in a field inside of a box with a dead littermate. He did not start off well. When I adopted him from my vet, which was the day she received him, he was infested with coccydia parasites and round worms. He had absolutely no sphincter control. It was after I took him to a new vet and she diagnosed him with Inflammatory Bowel Disease & put him on pred and sulfasalazine that he began to get better and eventually had completely solid and regular bowel movements. He has gained back about 95% of his sphincter control (has the occasional slip in the middle of the night), but it is obvious that he must have a small "holding area" in his bowel as he poops often in small amounts. I have no way of knowing who the breeder was. He is just over a year old now. He weighs in at a healthy 29 pounds and has had no issues with losing weight. Great skin & coat, very energetic (he has a personality just like Tigger from Winny the Pooh), runs so fast! We were amazed to watch him grow so healthy. This is his "before & after" photo.

He has Inflammatory Bowel Disease and this is his first flare up since being diagnosed a year ago. He had 7 months of excellent health with a prescription dog food diet, 5mg maintenance of Pred and another drug called sulfasalazine. I wish I knew what caused the flare up! He has an appointment for blood work and a fecal sample tomorrow, the suggestion came from the emergency phone call made on memorial day. Say some prayers that he feels better soon. Thank you for all of your help, this community is a blessing!

Echo is having an IBD attack and the vet suggested we up his Pred from 5mg to 20mg twice a day. He is just so miserable on this medication! Does anyone have any ideas on alternatives to steroid treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

I feed my Echo, Hill's Science Diet Ultra ZD. It is a prescription dog food and is the only kind of food he can eat. He suffers from irritable Bowel disease and is also on 2 types of medication daily. I hope Molly's poop problem isn't that serious. Blue had the poops once when he was about 3 months old and I fed him smaller meals of ground chicken breast and rice and he firmed up nicely.

Occasionally this basenji shows up on the livingroom couch.

How very sweet! By special needs what are the problem areas? I have a lot of experience in special needs b's! Maybe I can help. I had one that had dominance aggression problems and immune deficiency problems. I have another with Inflammatory Bowel disease and fear aggression.

We posed for pictures in the garden this weekend!

Monty was obsessed with cleaning eyes and Blue is obsessed with cleaning ears. The other two just have to take it or else! Monty used to sit for 10 minutes nibbling away at the shoulder seam of my t-shirt. Once he held Merle down to cleanse a specific wound on his nose, it was amazing!

Our Monty was the same way. When he was a pup he was the runt of the litter and sickly to top it off. His aggression to other dogs started showing up after he was nuetered. It became progressively worse as he got older. He became very aggressive to other dogs and would never have been able to go to a dog park. He was the most aggresive to intact males and extremely aggressive to any dog if he was on a leash. We believe that it had everything to do with his pack order as a puppy, being sick he was picked on and isolated. His immune system was always weak, he was sick often throughout his adult life. He died at 6 from a fungal disease. Does Jack get sick often?

One afternoon, I received a call from our vet. She said that a Basenji puppy had been found in tupperware box left in a field. He was put in the box with a littermate who had died. I left right away to go meet the little guy. When I arrived at the vet's he was getting a bath, so he was not to happy with the situation. I got to work picking off ticks. He was a mess. So skinny, terrible coat, nicks, bumps, scratches…. and of course the runny behind. The vet thought the diarreah would slow down with a normal diet. So at the time I wasn't overly concerned. Turned out he was LOADED with Coccydia parasites. His growth was stunted and we started a year long journey to stabilize his Inflammatory Bowel Disease brought on by the early trauma of his life.
For 3 months he slept swaddled in sheets, three loads of laundry were done a day to keep up with the leaking behind. I followed him with my bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner, Lysol Disinfecting Wipes, and aerosol sprays. My husband and I both lost over 15 pounds each, you just couldn't eat with the odor. We had faith that he would get better and HE DID!
We switched vets, and got Echo on a regime of Prednisone, Sulfasalizine, and Ultra-Allergy Free Science Diet dog food. It was a Miracle. As weeks passed he went from having zero anal control and a tail that hung down to fewer & fewer accidents and a slowly curling tail. As months went by, the meds were lowered, the tail got higher & curlier and potty time became normal.
I am writing this now, because 3 days ago Echo got into the dog food cabinet and had a little to much fun. By that evening he was bloated, stinky, & poopy. We increased his meds, swaddled him in sheets again, and got back out the Resolve & Lysol. He was back to normal in two days. It was a reminder of the earlier days!
How anyone can do what they did to Echo, I will never understand. But we have been given, we have been blessed, with this wonderful, quirky little guy who makes us laugh everyday. We call him "His Royal Highness Stinky Poopiness", a sense of humor will get you through most anything!
The photo attached is his before & after.

What a relief to find others who lead Basenji-centered lives! We live to adore our three - Blue, a one year old red & white perfect boy, Echo a one year old tiger-stripe red brindle rescued from a tupperware box in a field, and Merlin our 5 year old Basenji-Chihuahua mix (and what a mix he is!). We live happily on the Big Muddy River in Southern Illinois and would love to make lots of Basenji friends! What a great place for info, stories, & pictures about our very Best Friends. Kingmonty, refers to Monty, our beloved Basenji who passed away one year ago from Blastomycosis. It was he that came into our lives as a "free dog" on his way to the pound. He changed our hearts forever and made us true Basenji addicts.
Thank you for this community, we hope to be able to add our love, stories, and knowledge about the breed we are all here to read about.