Your Purebred Puppy, Honest Advice About Dogs and Dog Breeds

Sensible advice for raising your Basset Hound puppy so he lives a long healthy life and seldom needs to visit the vet. Learn about the most common health problems and issues in Basset Hounds, the best dog food diet for feeding Basset Hound puppies and adult dogs, the truth about vaccinations, spaying and neutering, and natural health care.

How To Raise a Healthy Dog

The Best Dog Food For Feeding Your Basset Hound

The Second-Best Dog Food

Vaccinations and Booster Shots: Are They Needed?

The Type of Veterinarian I Recommend

Spaying and Neutering: Pros and Cons


11 Things You Must Do Right To Keep Your Dog Healthy and Happy, my best-selling dog health book

Basset Hound dog breed

Basset Hound Health Problems and Raising a Basset Hound Puppy to be Healthy

By Michele Welton. Copyright © 2000-2011

How To Raise a Healthy Dog
Feeding the Best Dog Foods
Vaccinations: Needed or Not?
Spaying and Neutering: Pros and Cons

The most common health problems in Basset Hounds:

Blood-clotting diseases are high on the list of major health problems in Basset Hounds. Up to 50% of the breed is affected or borderline-affected with von Willebrand's blood-clotting disease. Up to 30% is affected with thrombocytopathia. Hemophilia and factor VII deficiency also occur in Bassets.

Basset Hounds are a deformed chondrodysplastic breed, so expect lots of orthopedic problems. Hip dysplasia, for example, is rampant: the Orthopedic Foundation of America evaluated the hip X-rays of 179 Basset Hounds and found 36% dysplastic – the 13th worst rate of 142 breeds. And the true rate is even higher because most of the obviously bad X-rays were not sent in for official evaluation. Ignore anyone who tells you that a Basset's deformed hips are "normal for the breed". Unhealthy hips are unhealthy hips. Dysplastic hips in any breed lead to arthritis later in life.

Other common orthopedic diseases in Basset Hounds include elbow dysplasia, luxating patella, intervertebral disk disease, osteochondritis, Wobbler's syndrome, and panosteitis.

The major eye diseases in Basset Hounds are glaucoma, cherry eye, and eyelid abnormalities (ectropion and entropion). Also reported is lens luxation, and occasionally progressive retinal atrophy (PRA).

With their deep chest, Basset Hounds are at higher-than-normal risk for the emergency gastrointestinal syndrome called bloat.

Ears and skin are notoriously problematic in Bassets.

  • The long, folded-over ears with their narrow ear canals are extremely prone to chronic ear infections and hematoma.
  • Bassets are prone to allergies that cause itchy skin, and the wrinkled folds of skin trap dirt and moisture and provide a home for yeast and bacteria, so bacterial skin infections (pyoderma) are common.
  • The skin disease seborrhea occurs in Bassets, and non-tumorous growths are common.
  • Follicular dysplasia is another skin disease occasionally reported in Bassets.

Health issues of increasing concern in Basset Hounds include epilepsy (seizures), an endocrine system disease called Addison's disease, a red blood cell disease called autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and a cancer called lymphosarcoma.

A rare immune system disease in Basset Hounds is combined immunodeficiency.

There is an inherited tendency for hernias in some lines of Basset Hounds.


Can you prevent health problems from happening to YOUR Basset Hound?

Yes, often you can.

  1. Some health problems are genetic, which means inherited from parents. Genetic health issues are common in Basset Hounds today because of unwise breeding practices. My book, Dog Quest: Find The Dog Of Your Dreams, shows you how to find a Basset Hound puppy who is genetically healthy.
  2. Other health problems are environmental – caused by the way you raise your dog. My best-selling dog health book, 11 Things You Must Do Right To Keep Your Dog Healthy and Happy shows you how to prevent environmental health problems by raising your Basset Hound puppy (or adult dog) in all the right ways.

Here are my dog health tips for raising a healthy Basset Hound puppy or adult dog:

Obedience instructor and author Michele Welton How To Raise a Healthy Dog – My Philosophies
Read my advice on sensible feeding and health care so that your Basset Hound lives a long, healthy life and seldom needs to see the vet. An excellent goal, yes?


Real homemade dog food The Best Dog Food For Feeding Your Basset Hound
The best diet for feeding your Basset Hound is real food. Real chicken, turkey, beef, bison, venison, fish....This is not "people food" and I'll tell you why.


Natural dog foods for your Basset Hound. The Second-Best Dog Food For Your Basset Hound
If you can't (or won't) feed what your Basset Hound really needs, the best I can do is to point out what to look for – and look out for – when choosing a brand of kibble or canned dog food.


Information on booster shots for your Basset Hound. Vaccinations and Booster Shots: Needed or Not?
How many vaccinations does your Basset Hound puppy really need? Does your adult Basset Hound need yearly booster shots? The vaccination guidelines have changed. Find out what many vets aren't telling you.


Information on choosing the best vet for your Basset Hound. The Type of Veterinarian I Recommend
Does your veterinarian belong to the AVMA or the AHVMA? They're not the same at all, and which one you choose can make a world of difference to the future health of your Basset Hound.


Information on spaying or neutering your Basset Hound. Spaying and Neutering: Pros and Cons
Advantages and disadvantages of spaying your female Basset Hound or neutering your male.