Biography
I've come to the extremely hard decision that I need to rehome my Basset Hound. She's 7 years old and a sweetheart. However, she does have Addison's disease and requires daily medication. I've come to the decision after a lot of agonizing. My husband died last year and left me with four dogs and two kids. I've held it together for a year, but it's darn near impossible and I'm overwhelmed. She deserves better than I can give her.
Personality wise - she's docile and does extremely well with children and other dogs. She tends to be the beta of the pack and won't engage in aggression. Around people she can get excited and jumps on them. She's been also known to grab clothing out of excitement - rarely. It's not a bite but can be confused as a bite to people who don't know her.
At this time, I can't allow her in the house unsupervised. She is ravenous due to the medicine she's on (low dose prednisone) and goes from one spot to another trying to eat things. Even with the house proofed, that doesn't stop her from shoving her head in the lidded trash can or trying to eat off the counters - her jump range is amazing. She's also a hound and when she decides she wants something she's very vocal. And she can outlast the most stubborn of us. If you know bassets and you know hounds, you know what I mean. And it's those personality traits that endear her to me, but also make it necessary for me to find another home. Because she's become a danger to herself trying to eat everything in sight. I've talked with the vet about this and her only solution was to put a soft muzzle on her. But when she is in the house she needs constant monitoring.
She is crate trained. Has been since day one. But like all hounds, she'd prefer to sleep in my bed. She sleeps in her crate now. She will come with her crate to make her transition as smooth as possible.
Now the medical part. About six months ago she was diagnosed with Addison's disease. Meaning her adrenal glands don't work and her body doesn't produce epinephrine. She crashed and I nearly lost her. She lost a lot of weight and had diarrhea for months. She's well controlled now on daily medication but any amount of stress is hard for her body to handle. I have to increase her prednisone dosage and monitor whether she has diarrhea. The diarrhea is always the first sign of stress, so it's easy to catch her before she gets super sick. She also has another pill she takes twice a day to maintain the other mineral levels that the adrenal glands monitor. She was at the vet last week and we've found the medicine level she needs and she's stable. However, she is prone to illness now. Veterinarian wise she probably needs blood levels checked every six months now. The pills aren't horribly expensive - about $40 month.
She is spayed and is current on rabies. She is microchipped. She is not current on the other vaccinations. My husband was sick for several years prior to his passing and everything fell by the way. It was all we could do to afford his medication. So I'm not sure if she's heartworm positive or not. The vet wanted to wait to give any vaccinations until we had her more stable.
I feel horrible about this and have struggled with the best solution. But the best solution is to find her a loving home that has less chaos and stress, is stable enough to be able to provide her the care she needs - some days I can barely get her medication much less the time to keep current on her vet visits. And she deserves better than living her life in the backyard and only coming inside to sleep.
She'd do well as a single dog or in a multiple dog household. But she needs a place that will be stable and can make her a priority.
I have all her medical records that I can pass along. She is full blooded and had papers but I can't seem to find them now. Her having papers was never a concern for me because I didn't plan on breeding her.