Jesse Bear Brown

A fun afternoon with wonderful Jesse at the Purgatory Creek wetlands.

Off to a New Vet

It's hard to believe, but since I posted last, Jesse's health has been at the bottom of a totem pole of egos, mainly that of his now ex-primary vet. She was not the one who referred us to Dr. Churchill at the U; that was done by Jesse's holistic vet, the wonderful Dr. Heather Evans. So his regular vet, who seemed upset at Jesse for becoming unregulated and at me for looking outside the box to find him help, disdained making an effort to return Dr. Churchill's calls. Dr. Churchill, on the other hand, sees hundreds of patients, and has a huge work load. Needless to say, when I figured out what was going on, I decided to transfer Jesse out of that clinic and to a new one close to home. However, even doing that has been fraught with challenges. His old vet disdained to fax his record, and after repeated requests, I finally found someone who did fax them to the new vet. Now he has all the information from the U and the old vet, and we will be meeting with him tomorrow. Meanwhile, Jesse's diabetes has been unregulated during this time. He is, however, thoroughly enjoying his people-food diet, curtesy of Dr. C and the U, so I am hopeful that it is helping him to metabolize his food and insulin more effectively. We'll see.

Churchill and Polly

Jesse at the U of M Vets

Our beatiful Border Collie-Black Lab mix, Jesse, was diagnosed with diabetes three years ago. Maintaining his health and energy is a constant challenge. Fortunately, he loves to be outside, and he loves the cold. However, summer and heat present challenges.

This spring he developed something of an appetite. His fructosamine checks showed him to be just out of the 'good' range for his diabetes maintenance. So it seemed a good time to follow up on a suggestion made by his holistic vet, Dr. Heather Evans, which was to check in with a nutritionist at the U of M Hospitals, named, ironically, Dr. Julie Churchill.l

So last week Jesse and Polly spent an afternoon at their beautiful campus, adjascent to the State Fairgrounds. A team of student vets, plus Dr. C and a tech, took down detailed information on Jesse and his eating habits, while Jesse cowered in a corner, overwhelmed, it would seem, by the number of coats in the room.

Nonetheless, he accorded himself very well when asked to do a blood test -- even though he was exhausted from the exam and long discussion process, he hopped up and jogged out of the room. He seemed to realize that all this was being done for his benefit.

Now there are more questions to be answered, and a day-long glucose curve test to be given by his regular vet, Dr. Bruehl, at North St. Paul Animal Hospital. Subsequent to that, Dr. Churchill and her team will give an analysis of what they believe the best diet would be for Jesse and how to best administer it.

For Dear Murphy

My sister's dog, Murphy, who was an amazing Golden Retriever with a great sense of humour, was diagnosed with cancer last month and had to be put down. It was a terrible shock to her and to all of us, as he seemed to be full of life and have many healthy years ahead of him.

We must cherish our companion pets each day, as we have no knowledge of how much time we have left with them.