MartyMcFly3
Lifer
We rescued Harley on December 19th 2011. He was a Golden Retriever/Labrador Retriever mix. He was skinny when we got him but my wife and I determined we could put weight on him. He was energetic, a bit clumsy with his long legs, but an incredibly well behaved puppy. We loved having him in our home.
One night in early January (shortly after first round of booster shots) he threw up twice. We decided to take him to the vet, where he was prescribed pills for gastritis. This seemed to help for about a week, and then he began drooling and walking against the walls in circles. It seemed like Harley couldn't get comfortable.
This continued and the vet deduced it was a negative reaction to the gastritis medication. So we stopped giving it to him and the vet flushed him out by injecting some fluid into his system. Harley got his last dose of shots a week ago Thursday. On Sunday of this week, he began drooling again. I chalked it up to him teething as he was getting to be the age that puppies teethe. He was off and on fine Monday, but Tuesday night he again began walking against the walls in circles, and drooling much more heavily. Being that it was 1030 that night, I took Harley to the emergency vet.
The emergency vet took him right away and later advised that they suspected he had Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE). This link shows an example of the symptoms Harley had. HE in a nutshell is something (typically a shunt) that is blocking the blood going into the liver, and is often a genetic defect. Harley needed an ultrasound, but could not get one until 11am the next morning. I took Harley home and stayed up all night with him, monitoring him. He mostly slept, but when he was awake he was showing the same symptoms.
I then took him back to the Emergency Vet (as I called our vet about it, and they said they could not perform the ultrasound he needed). After waiting about a half hour while they performed the ultrasound, the doctor came out and said that not only did Harley have a shunt blocking the blood, but one of the arteries that carries the deoxygenated blood through the liver back to the heart stopped well before it hit the liver. They said it was a genetic defect and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it. They had never seen a case like Harley's and would not perform an operation on him due to the next to 0 success/survival rate such a procedure would entail. No doctor, unless we went to a university states away, would even consider attempting such a procedure. So we were left with two options. Change his diet and give him medication every day which would make him at about 60% for a while but would only let him live at most a year or two, or put him down. The wife and I decided that we didn't want to see him suffer by us wanting to spend more time with him, so we put him down.
He was an awesome dog, and we are heartbroken that we had to part with him so soon. No words can express how much we miss him.
Here's a few pictures of our little guy:
This was his last photo: :'(
One night in early January (shortly after first round of booster shots) he threw up twice. We decided to take him to the vet, where he was prescribed pills for gastritis. This seemed to help for about a week, and then he began drooling and walking against the walls in circles. It seemed like Harley couldn't get comfortable.
This continued and the vet deduced it was a negative reaction to the gastritis medication. So we stopped giving it to him and the vet flushed him out by injecting some fluid into his system. Harley got his last dose of shots a week ago Thursday. On Sunday of this week, he began drooling again. I chalked it up to him teething as he was getting to be the age that puppies teethe. He was off and on fine Monday, but Tuesday night he again began walking against the walls in circles, and drooling much more heavily. Being that it was 1030 that night, I took Harley to the emergency vet.
The emergency vet took him right away and later advised that they suspected he had Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE). This link shows an example of the symptoms Harley had. HE in a nutshell is something (typically a shunt) that is blocking the blood going into the liver, and is often a genetic defect. Harley needed an ultrasound, but could not get one until 11am the next morning. I took Harley home and stayed up all night with him, monitoring him. He mostly slept, but when he was awake he was showing the same symptoms.
I then took him back to the Emergency Vet (as I called our vet about it, and they said they could not perform the ultrasound he needed). After waiting about a half hour while they performed the ultrasound, the doctor came out and said that not only did Harley have a shunt blocking the blood, but one of the arteries that carries the deoxygenated blood through the liver back to the heart stopped well before it hit the liver. They said it was a genetic defect and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it. They had never seen a case like Harley's and would not perform an operation on him due to the next to 0 success/survival rate such a procedure would entail. No doctor, unless we went to a university states away, would even consider attempting such a procedure. So we were left with two options. Change his diet and give him medication every day which would make him at about 60% for a while but would only let him live at most a year or two, or put him down. The wife and I decided that we didn't want to see him suffer by us wanting to spend more time with him, so we put him down.
He was an awesome dog, and we are heartbroken that we had to part with him so soon. No words can express how much we miss him.
Here's a few pictures of our little guy:
This was his last photo: :'(
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