Our wonderful 10 year old black lab, Leroy has been diagnosed with Valley Fever. It's quite serious and probably fatal. There is also a strong possibility that he has liver cancer. I guess he finally had one too many beers! Seriously though, he is had a rough couple of weeks and we are praying for him every day. A few weeks ago, he stopped wanting to eat his food and would only pick at it after a lot of coaxing from John or me. We didn't think it was anything too serious because he would still eat anything else that we gave him: doggy treats, peanut butter, chicken, etc. Over this last weekend, he quit even picking at his food and would only eat some other stuff that we would give him. On Tuesday, John took him to the vet where they drew blood and sent it out to test for Valley Fever and also Tick disease. On Wednesday, the tick test came back negative, but the vet said that Leroy's white blood cell count was out of whack and his liver enzymes were elevated which could be a symptom of the Valley Fever or possibly liver cancer. We didn't hear anything on Thursday and poor Leroy just kept getting worse. He was refusing pretty much all food and mostly just laid around. I was worried that when I got home from work that he wouldn't still be alive and prayed that he would make it until John got home. When John got home, we told him that we loved him very much, but that we didn't want him to suffer and that if he wanted to go, it was ok. It has just been heartbreaking to watch him deteriorate in front of our eyes. We came to the difficult decision that if the vet called and said that it wasn't Valley Fever and that he most likely had cancer, we were going to put him to sleep. There is little that you can do for cancer in a dog and we didn't want our buddy to suffer through chemo and/or surgeries. When I left for work this morning, I was sobbing because I was afraid that he would be gone by the time that I got home. While at work, John talked to the vet and he said that it was in fact Valley Fever, but because of the liver enzymes it could still be cancer. However, Valley Fever can be treatable. I rushed home and prayed that he would still be living, so that I could get him to the vet. They gave him two injections and will be giving him a prescription. I'm not really sure how I am going to get him to take a pill, when he is refusing all food, but we have to at least try. If he doesn't make any progress by Monday, we are probably going to to have to put him down. Leroy has always been our billy goat and has eaten everything he has ever wanted and to let him just starve to death would be cruel. He has had a great life with us and brought us a lot of joy (and some heartache with his antics over the years) and we will miss him terribily if this becomes his time to go. However, I am praying that we are able to get him through this. It's hard to remain optimistic without getting my hopes up to high. Please keep our Leroy in your thoughts.
