Canine Concern

Life has its ups and downs, and while I don’t talk about my family other than Lee anymore, I could use some good thoughts for our dog, Harvey. Note: I’m not asking for armchair veterinary advice, just sharing concerns.

Harvey is our oldest dog now, and he’s about 9. I’m bad with dates, but he was a puppy on our first Thanksgiving in this house, which Facebook tells me was 2015. He had a very hard time when young, culminating with being dumped and shot at the house where our friend Mandi now lives. His name was Starvey Harvey because he was skin and bones with cuts and the hole in him. His ribs are still funny.

He’s a strange but lovable guy with short wiry hair and stocky build. He looks like a Doberman or Rottweiler mix, but not a fancy one. He’s grumpy, too, and uses his growl to express displeasure at anything, often for no good reason. It’s just how he talks.

He’s been our good buddy through thick and thin, though, and really loves his people. In return, we pay his vet bills from getting into scrapes, especially the one time he made Goldie mad. He no longer tries to boss her around, though if he snarks too much at another dog, she’ll stop him. She has a large jaw.

Anyway, recently something has gone wrong with him. I noticed he was having trouble going down the stairs and was acting uncoordinated. I noticed his ear m, eye, and jowl were drooping on the right side. I thought maybe he had a stroke.

Lee took him to the vet (he did not enjoy the car ride to Mexia, where the vet was that day. She gave him medicine to see if it was an inner ear issue or he’d hurt his back.

When he didn’t improve (causing Lee to sleep downstairs when I was away, to prevent him from coming upstairs), she did bloodwork. The idea was maybe it was his thyroid. The results came back yesterday to reveal liver issues instead.

In the meantime, Harvey has lost a couple of big patches of hair. He didn’t rub it off; it just fell out. And yesterday we saw a big bump on his leg that made it hard to walk. Geez, poor guy.

So, back to the vet he goes tomorrow. Lee will have her look at the new symptoms, but she will probably refer him to a specialist in College Station (that’s the name of the town where Texas A&M University is, for non-local readers).

We hope he has something treatable! He’s still a happy dude with his characteristic immense appetite. He is doing better with stairs the past day or two, but we still just let him up at night, then block the stairs off once he gets down. That will minimize the strain.

All other dogs are fine. It’s Alfred’s shedding season, so I’m doing a lot of plucking. Penney and Carlton are playing a lot, and Goldie is guarding me from those pesky cows and calves.

I’ll update on Harvey tomorrow! No matter what, he knows he is loved.