Harley

Harley is my almost 12 year old Rottweiler. I pretty much grew up with her. She's been part of my family since she was 8 weeks old. That picture was taken about 3 or 4 years ago.

I don't know how far I'll get in this post. I'm at work, and don't want to make myself cry. Harley's not doing well. She's been getting lumpier over the past year - we've had biopsies done, and they appear to be fatty tumors. So, relatively harmless. At least it's not cancer. 

We took her to the vet about 2 months ago because her "brother" Kris, a 3 year old Bernese Mountain Dog, was going in to be tested for worms. Although he'd been treated repeatedly, he was still consistently getting very sick every 6-8 weeks. So, we wanted to try treating for tape worm specifically - it requires different measure to get rid of them than most other species - before ruling out food allergies. We took Harley in just for a check up, basically. Might as well bring both of them in at the same time. 

She had nothing major wrong with her. She'd dropped some weight from her previous visit, and was down to about 65 lbs from about 70. Not good, but she's a picky eater, always has been. And, she is old. We sort of discounted it.

We brought her back about two weeks ago, by herself. She had a huge lump under her right side -- between her jaw and her shoulder. Huge. It didn't feel attached to anything, move freely. Scary. We figured this was the one that would hold the cancer. The vet took a sample from it, and went to look at it in the lab. When she came back, she said she was fairly certain it was not cancerous. It appeared to be a swollen gland, probably due to an infection. Harley also had developed (within days of the lump on her neck) a lump beneath her right eye, above her canine tooth or first molar, more or less. We thought it might be a tooth abscess. We thought perhaps the two lumps were related...if it was a bad enough abscess, perhaps it had caused the gland to swell, etc. I'm sure you can see the logic...and the hope here.

Vet didn't seem convinced it was an abscess, but wouldn't know for sure without looking at her teeth. Really looking. Like, putting a 12 year old dog under sedation to look at her teeth. Not going to happen. When she got fixed, she walked around looking drunk for three days. No joke. The anesthesia had that much of an affect on her. She hasn't been put under since then. It's just not worth losing her on the table. She's too sensitive to it. The vet gave us a prescription for a tooth-focused antibiotic. Oh, and she'd dropped another 5 lbs in about 5 weeks. Something is definitely wrong.

A week later. No change for the positive.

Her breathing got a lot worse. She sounds terrible. I can't even describe it. It is somewhere between wheezing and snorting, gasping. It's bad. She's miserable. She wants to eat, but won't - can't. We took her off kibble and put her on packets and cans...soft stuff. She'll eat it if you sit or stand beside her the entire time. If you walk away, so does she. It's like a kid with a bad cold. Needy. 

Mom called the vet again this week. She prescribed a new antibiotic to try to target the nasal stuff going on. Two weeks worth - and a refill. Said if there was no improvement after the two week course, to bring her back in. It could be a lot of things. It could be one really bad thing...nasal cancer. Very rare, but it does exist. Harley's never been normal...she likes to do things the hard way. This would be no exception.

There's no cure for nasal cancer. Radiation and chemo, which we won't do, buys you three months, max. There might be a steroid, temporary solution. But, not sure. We won't let her suffer. If she says its time, it's time for us to let go.