Harley and Me

Warning: This may be a little graphic!

This has been a chaotic last few days in our house. Harley was boarded the last week because we went out of town and thought it would be less hectic with him hear on Thanksgiving. We picked him up on Friday and he was his usual tired self. He also got day care while he was there. We noticed a change in him that night when he was getting up to go to the bathroom numerous times. The next day, Saturday, when we were out for a few hours we came home and found a nice surprise for us. Harley had went potty on the floor, and it was diarrhea! Well we thought it was something that we had fed him and it would go away. It continued for the next two days and it was bad. He was soo sore and very lethargic. On Monday morning I called the vet first thing and got him in.

I felt horrible for him. Alyssa and I were sitting in the room while he got hit temperature taken and a stool sample. I could here him barking and it broke my heart I wanted to cry! I held it together and when the vet came back in informed me that he had a 103 temp, dehydrated, very high white cells in his feces, and was very sore, if you know what I mean! They gave him a shot of some liquids and it gave him a big bump on his back that went away later that night and put him on two medications.

We came home and I finished doing all the laundry from Harley "leaking" on it. I gave him his meds wrapped in cheese and he devoured them. I have never had to care for a sick pet before and one that I care so much for. It's like another child, I want to take his pain from him. I wonder if he understands what's going on because he can't talk. We didn't have any doggie diapers so we put some bottoms on that Alyssa had grown out of hoping that would help. Every time he would flagellate he would leak. Now these were only on for about 5 minutes or so because they were falling off. He is slowly on the mend.

Dealing with that I picked up a cold as well. So Harley and I have been sick together. Right now I am reading the book "Marley and Me" and although breads and certain things are different I can relate to the story big time. Besides a child and spouse, there is no greater love than the one you have for your pet!