Obedience: Southern Border Collie

Jesse is back! Our first show this season and he came 5th in Beginners and did a nice Novice round. In the Beginners round he thought for a little while of shutting down again, but he didn't and caught himself well. Good boy.


SHOW REPORT by Sue Starr
5th. No.310. Vera & Jesse. D. American Cocker Spaniel. Losing 5. I really enjoyed this team Jesse really tried hard but the drifting in heelwork which then caused a tight lead costly today, which was reflected in the heelwork marks losing 3½ on lead compared to 1¼ of lead, so spend some time getting that heelwork position sound and another team that will be moving through this class. Good Luck & Well Done

This is the first time ever I had been marked for a tight lead... and I actually can't remember it ever being tight, but hey... I couldn't see myself working and the judge could. I'll be more careful next time. I know Jesse was lagging a little though and when walking past the table, he drifted off towards that - twice... LOL At least he was thinking about the treats and not shutting down! :-)

Portrait

Here's Jesse's Portrait



I like it a lot, love the colours...

Skin infection

Jesse went to the vet last week for an antibiotics injection as he has a skin infection again! I bet Cornel is spraying stuff again... But luckily it is slowly clearing up again.

Painted portrait of Jesse

I have taken part in a competition that a member on Salukis & Co held. Laura was looking for pictures to paint portraits for her portfolio. I sent a few pictures and Jesse's was chose as one of out out of 60. I am so pleased. The prize is a free portrait from her!

Here's the link to her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Garabedians-Artwork/212014834464?ref=nf

Snow, snow and more snow

We have had a lot of snow here in January, though now all is gone. However, on 10th January I took some pictures on our walk:

JESSE - 3 years old on Boxing Day

I forgot to put an entry, but better late than never! JESSE WAS THREE YEARS OLD ON BOXING DAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, beautiful boy!!!

Skin and air freshners

I had been battling with Cornel for weeks to stop him from using air freshners, to no avail! He started using the febreze air freshners, and Jesse started to itch even more. Last Wednesday I checked him over and found the most massive sore patch under his arm (in addition to other smaller sores all over his belly and legs). It was red, weeping and bleeding from scratching. I cried, I felt so sorry for Jesse!

I booked Jesse into the vets, and told Cornel to stop all the air freshners and showed him Jesse's skin. He finally agreed to stop using them!

By Thursday evening, Jesse's skin stopped itching, was dry and scabbed up. So it was definitely those chemicals. Just to help Jesse a bit more, he also got an antibiotic shot on Friday morning.

I hope that this is the last piece of the Jesse's allergy puzzle!

Free T4 fine too

Jesse's results finally came back too this week and the Free T4 is upper normal range, which is fine! So glad that everything is normal now.

Yearly blood test

It's already a year since Jesse was diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis and he has been on soloxine ever since. The changes in him are quite remarkable and he isn't the same dog at all. His behaviour has much improved and it is very peaceful at home now without any further Jesse attacks on our other dogs, and his coat looks a lot better too. He still needs antibiotics every few months to help his skin, but it is 10 times better than it was!

Well, today was the day when he was due for his comprehensive thyroid blood test. As it is always such a fight with him to get some blood out of him, which is very stressful most of all for Jesse, but also for me, the vet and the two nurses that have to hold him, I decided to have him sedated this time round.

It all went well, blood was taken without problem of course. He took a long while to wake up, but other than that, it was no hassle at all and everyone is happy.


I can't wait to get the results in a week's time or so. I theory the antibodies should be down/disappeared and T4 should be back down within normal range. We'll see.

No more antibiotics

I took Jesse to see Mark yesterday, he couldn't feel any lesions anymore at all. So he didn't want to give Jesse further antibiotics.

Cornel bought a refill to the airfreshner again a few days ago, which I didn't realise. What I DID realise however is that Jesse started scratching badly again... I suddenly thought of checking the air freshner and I sorted it out once again!