@tanza thanks, that's what we figured, just making sure he is comfortable and not bothered too much. Do you have any thoughts on bringing in female vs male puppy? From what we heard temperament does not really matter until 1-2 years, and just need to make sure they eat separately to avoid food aggression.
Posts made by Alex
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RE: Introducing a doberman puppy to senior basenji
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RE: Introducing a doberman puppy to senior basenji
@tanza curious about your experiences and thoughts on this.
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Introducing a doberman puppy to senior basenji
Hi, as some of you know Kiya crossed the rainbow bridge a few months ago, succeeded by Chance, who is still relatively healthy and is now 16. Chance is very chill, friendly with everyone including other dogs in the neighborhood, and sleeps most of the time nowadays except for 3 daily walks.
We are thinking about bringing home a doberman puppy into our house in a few months. I am curious about your experiences with bringing a puppy in with a senior male basenji in the house.
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RE: RIP Kiya, our sweet girl
@tanza thank you for the kind words, we are really sad to lose her, she had some much life in her even with the disease, but we know that she is not suffering anymore.
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RIP Kiya, our sweet girl
Kiya was such a spunky, happy, stubborn, and sweet tri, we had her for almost 16 years. Although she was diagnosed with a rare incurable disease (lymphangiectasia / PLE) in the last 6 months, she fought till the end and acted like nothing was happening. Despite losing half of her weight and mobility in her hind legs, she still managed to get up and tried to steal our toddlers food, she was always so food driven and nothing would deter her from stealing the food scraps, even after a full meal of her own. Not to mention chasing stray cats in the backyard, she could run so fast even at her old age.
I know that she knew how much we loved her and how hard we tried to help her. Not surprising she went on her own terms, while we were out and did not want us to see her suffer anymore. Her brother Chance is still around and misses her a lot.
This forum was created in part because of Kiya and will remain her legacy for as long as possible.
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RE: Help - Kiya is having a diarrhea bout for months
@jengosmonkey thanks for the advice. Both Chance and Kiya (almost the same age) were on high protein kibble (Acana Grasslands), until they started having severe GI issues, at that time our vet recommended getting them off a high protein diet. So we've been on Dr. Harvey's premix + protein for over a year, until recently, when we think the formula changed or Kiya developed PLE.
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RE: Help - Kiya is having a diarrhea bout for months
Quick update on Kiya, hope this is helpful to others dealing with similar issues:
We had a full blood panel done for parasites, kidneys, thyroid, liver function, etc.. also a TLI test for EPI and a urine test. Still waiting for the gut test results from (animalbiome.com).
While waiting for test results, and since all the signals were pointing at EPI, we started her on an enzyme supplement (BioCase Plus), which is enzymes + probiotic + b12 supplement. Something a lot of people successfully use for treating EPI dogs according to the EPI FB group. To our surprise after 2 days of supplement, liquid poop firmed up a bit and for the first time in months, she had solid poops (not consistently solid, but also not as liquid as before and not needing to go out every 30 min).
Fortunately and unfortunately, the EPI test came negative, her TLI was fine, and her liver functions were fine, no thyroid issues, but her proteins+b12+calcium level was very low, which supports the weight loss of 5lbs in two months. The vet diagnosed and decided to treat her for PLE protein-losing enteropathy and said we should continue BioCase Plus as it's probably helping her pancreas, which in turn helps other body functions.
She had an injection of a steroid (dexamethasone) and is on prednisone to ease her GI inflammation, also she is eating Hills Diet Biome prescription food right now + taking b12 + calcium supplement. It seems like she is doing better (no major diarrhea) and is less anxious, but time will tell and we will see if she starts gaining weight over the next few weeks on this new prescription diet.
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RE: Seizures-Older Basenji
Thanks for posting this update @Derek-Groves , our Chance is 16 and he has had seizures most of his life. It just started out of nowhere when he was a few years old and for a number of years, we tried all kinds of natural and non-natural medications. We tried Chinese herbs, CBD, diet changes then the typical meds like phenobarbitol, all somewhat helped, but he would still have recurring seizures several times a month, or sometimes a week. All in all, he probably had 100 seizures in his lifetime, but luckily no major damage other than he is a bit wobbly and has head tremors once in a while. It does not seem to bother him though and he is otherwise healthy and active for a 16 yr old. Once I found Keppra through trial and error we stuck with it and that seemed to have been the best way to curb the seizures. We went from monthly to maybe once in a few years, during major events like a house move. Today he is on 250mg of Keppra + Zonisomide every 12 hours and that does the trick, if he does have a sezure (we also have concentrated CBD tincture, which we keep bedside, injecting it into his mouth gets him out of it pretty quickly and speeds up recover. We ended up sticking a particular manufacturer for Keppra (Lupin labs), just to make sure no formula variation is introduced.
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RE: Help - Kiya is having a diarrhea bout for months
Quick update, we called 10 vets on Monday, most are not accepting new patients, there is a shortage of vets in the industry due to covid I guess. We got 1 hit, which is all we needed, and had a mobile vet come to our house yesterday. The vet agreed that it does not look like a parasite infection, since we tried the usual anti-biotics without any success and took a bunch of blood tests (including TLI test for EPI). EPI tests is also something that was suggested by a bunch of Basenji people in the Basenji Companions FB group and also folks in the EPI Facebook group. I really hope that is it and a diet plan + enzyme supplement will get Kiya to digest the food again.
I also ordered an animal biome test, so we will see what that comes back with.
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RE: Help - Kiya is having a diarrhea bout for months
@elbrant thank you, Kiya is on rice and groundbeed for now, until all the tests are done.
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RE: Help - Kiya is having a diarrhea bout for months
@tanza contacted Donna just now.
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RE: Help - Kiya is having a diarrhea bout for months
@eeeefarm i don’t think so, I’m making an appt with vet internalist to rule out IPSID per recommendation from another community member.
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Basenjis veterinarian in Phoenix, AZ
Looking for a vet in Phoenix, AZ area familiar with the breed. Any leads appreciated.
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Help - Kiya is having a diarrhea bout for months
It’s been several months, multiple anti-parasite medications (metronidazole, tolysin powder) anti-diarrhea medication (pectin), supplements, pro-biotic (probios) and nothing is helping. Kiya is eating well and drinking, but not absorbing food and lost a lot weight at this point. Last time she had a bout like that, the vet just diagnosed with stomach inflammation from eating our daughters French toast. The latest poop panel did not find anything abnormal.
It all started with both Chance and Kiya refusing to eat the home cooked meals we were making from Dr. Harvey’s dehydrated
meal and ground turkey several months ago. Both ate the meals without an issue for over a year, with no GI issues. We tried feeding them chicken and rice for a bit and then ended up changing the dehydrated meal from oat based to just veggie based from the same Dr. Harvey manufacturer and moving to ground beef. Both started eating it, and Chance who is a picky eater loves the new combo without any GI issues, but Kiya never recovered.There is a slight improvement from a month ago, where she would have explosive diarrhea in the house multiple times a day, now she can hold through the day and night, but every morning it’s a runny mess. I’m getting a new vet, but wondering if a particular bland protocol exists other than chicken and rice (a couple of days of that don’t seem to firm things up) to get her back to absorbing the food she is eating and gain back some weight. At this rate, while she is active and does not show any signs of illness other than significant weight loss, she is not going to be able to go on without absorbing food for too long.
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RE: Supporting Forum Hosting Costs
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