Jessie

Jessie was born on September 21, 1989. My ex-husband and I bought her from a backyard breeder in November, 1989. We had Bailey, a 6 month old male beagle, who was very hyper. We thought Jessie would divert his attention away from our shoes and socks and make a nice companion for him. Jessie is a full-breed beagle even though we don't have papers for her. She was a sure deal for $50 bucks!

As can be expected, Bailey was a horror at puppy class! He started off as the most miss-behaved and ended up in the middle of his class by the end. That was great progress for him. On the other hand, Jessie was the star of her class. She was very well behaved. I was told by the instructor that she didn't need obedience classes. She was born very smart and responsive. I remember when we had to put the puppies in a down position for a long time. She fell asleep! Another class experience we had was agility classes. There is no doubt that Jessie is well behaved but her down fall is objects. She has a phobia of slipping, falling......you name it. I thought agility would be good for her. She wasn't climbing the ramps but made some progress by stepping over ladders laid on the floor. Her brother Wesley, the basset hound, came into the picture when Jessie was 3 years old. He had opposite phobias. He was not afraid of obstacles but he was afraid of strangers. Jessie is very friendly with strangers. She thinks everyone is nice. She approaches them with her tail wagging and head down. She did some volunteer work at a rest home for a while. Getting cookies was her favorite part!

Jessie no longer lives with Bailey and Wesley, the result from a divorce. She has a new sister named Bianca, a samoyed. Bianca is a lot more active than Jessie and has no fears. Jessie keeps her under control by barking and snapping at her when Bianca clumsily prances around her. We call Jessie, 'the boss lady' among other several nicknames like, 'Goose', 'Mama', 'Cushy', 'Cushiniod', 'Chubs', 'Fatso', 'Jessapeake', 'Jess'.....she responds to them all!

As for Jessie's disposition, she is a laid back, very friendly dog but not playful. Her favorite past-time is sleeping while getting her belly rubbed and that is usually done on the couch. She also loves to walk especially in the woods where she can smell whatever she smells and chase the squirrels. To this day, I don't know what she would do if she ever caught one. Not that I need to worry about it because she could never run that fast. So she's a couch potato by day and a night owl by night. She loves to go out late at night and get tangled in the bushes. Her mom and dad don't like that though. She also tap dances! Yes, that's right. Whenever she smells chicken, her favorite, she tap dances hoping to get some or at least some chix juice mixed in her food. She also loves dog biscuits, 'cookies', and gets one after her daily medication. She knows it's coming so she gets happy when she sees the medicine bottles knowing there's a treat on the way. Even though Jessie is a very well-behaved dog, she tends to go deaf when it's convenient. Like when she's roaming in the yard and ends up going too far. Nothing makes her come back except when her selective hearing hears the word 'cookie'. It's amazing how that cures her hearing!

As for Jessie's medical history, I don't remember all the details because I did not get her medical records. Jessie has been a big girl for a long time. She would embarrass me when she would get on the scale at the vet's. I think her top weight has been 67lbs! It never seemed like we over fed her. Her brothers ate the same as she and they were not overweight. I struggled with that problem for many years. She went for walks in which she loved. She also loved to eat a lot but we kept that under control. I would hear many lectures from vets about her weight. I am proud to say she's now 54 lbs. and dropping!

Another medical problem was when she had inflammatory bowel disease. Because we had 3 dogs, it was hard to tell which dog had bloody stool and diarrhea. We finally figured it was Jessie. She went into the hospital for a scope test and was put on prednisone. Needless to say, she would hide behind me whenever she saw the vet that gave her that test. She drank a great deal and urinated a great deal while being on prednisone. I slept in the basement with her many nights in the cold month of January in case she had an 'accident'. She would need to relieve herself every hour with many 'accidents'. We kept decreasing her dosage and she seemed to be better. The vet warned us that it could come back but it never did so far.

Another medical problem was her chronic eye infections. She had many strips and neon green drops in her eyes! We finally came to the conclusion that she had dry eye syndrome. We were referred to a Veterinary Ophthalmologist. Sometimes people are so surprised to hear that there are eye specialists for dogs. He prescribed Cyclosporine drops. This medication is not approved by the FDA for use in the eyes and is sort of expensive. She needs regular check-ups as well. If her drops are given faithfully, her infections are under control. Her eyes are doing much better so the dosage has been decreased to 3 times a week rather than the initial 14 times a week! Her check-ups have also been decreased to every 6 months.

There was a short time when Jessie appeared very lazy. I was always conscious of her lying around because I felt she always needed to lose weight. She would love to walk in the past but at this time, it was very difficult for her. I would make her go for walks as she slowly walked behind me. She was always pulling out front before. Stupid me thought that she was being lazy so I would push her to go for walks. Then I got smart and took her to the vet. They did some blood work and determined that it was her thyroid that was the problem. She was prescribed Soloxine. She takes that every day and her energy is a lot better. She loves those walks once again. I believe that ever since she was put on that medication and has been solely in my custody, she's been losing weight as well.

So now I come to her Cushing's Disease story. There was a time when Jessie was drinking a lot. I believe that was before she was diagnosed with her thyroid problem. The vet wanted me to keep track exactly how much she drank. Another problem with having 3 dogs. I managed to get that done. Her excessive drinking seemed to go away when she was put on Soloxine. Cushing's was suspected but then we forgot about it for a while. She had urine tests done and every time the vet would say that one of her liver enzymes was elevated which would make them suspect Cushing's. They would go through the symptoms and nothing would fit Jessie except for that forever present pot belly. I saw the tremendous improvement she was making so I decided not to do any further testing. She had a blood test for heartworms in 3/98. This test made a vet suspect Cushing's as well. I think I was in denial so I just let it go. Finally in 7/98, another test was done that suspected Cushing's. I finally went ahead with the other tests. The results came in, yup she's got Cushing's. Like I said earlier, she does not have most of the symptoms. I got a tremendous amount of information and support from this forum. I am getting educated about Cushing's which I feel will help me make the right decisions for her. She has pituitary-based Cushing's and will start the Anipryl medication in September, 1998.