WELL, THIS SUCKS...

Over the past few days we've been noticing that Bear has been acting odd.  He is very apathetic and he hasn't eating very much.  We put it down to the heat, and we tried bringing the dogs inside during the hottest part of the day, but I felt guilty keeping them shut up in their kennels for so long and I'd let them back out when it got a little cooler. Of course, a little cooler was still really hot, but they always had plenty of water and shade, so I wasn't too worried.

At night, though, he was just acting very strange and he wasn't eating very much at all.  Normally, he eats all of his food, but for the past few days he'd only eat half, or maybe just a few bites total.  I tried giving him other things, like cheese and soft training treats, and he'd eat that, but his regular food was barely being touched.   At first we thought maybe there was something wrong with the food, but Butler had no trouble eating it and it didn't seems to cause him any problems.

Last night, he barely ate at all, no matter what we did, and when I took him outside before he went to bed, he got sick out there and then he just found a place and lay down without moving.  That's not normal for him at all.  After some debate, we took him to the emergency vet clinic to get him checked out.  I wasn't expecting anything big, but he was so pitiful that I was afraid not to have him checked out as soon as possible.

The vet did some tests and took X-Rays, and when they came back it showed that Bear had a possible mass in his abdomen.  Yuck.  Since the emergency clinic didn't have an ultrasound, they couldn't be sure what kind of mass it is, so we were going to have to take him to his regular vet and have that done.

Of course, you probably already know that both Steve and I have been basket cases since we found out. There is a slight chance that the mass is nothing serious, but the vet told us that his blood work was abnormal and that some of his internal organs seem to be pushed aside, plus he seemed to think we needed to get this ultrasound quick, so we don't believe that it is "nothing."  We took him to his regular vet this morning to be under observation and to have an ultrasound, so we won't really know anything until later today.

I'm so worried about him, because he's such a sweet dog and he has no idea what is going on.  All he knows is that he doesn't feel good and that we've left him at the place he hates worse than anything.  I feel so terrible.  If this really is serious, we will have to make a very difficult decision that I'm not sure I could handle.  I'm so soft hearted about animals, and the fact that Bear is like my own kid makes this a million times worse.

I just hope he's going to be OK.  If you don't feel weird about praying for a dog, say a quick prayer for Bear.  We just want him to be OK.