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

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.