I am posting this to my Tok blog just in case someone else in Tok has seen these symptoms in their dog.

Our Black Lab Ebb is dying. Suddenly. Rapidly.

In the 10 days that I was traveling, he went from normal weight to skeletal. Now he is practically dragging his hind quarters and seems to be starting to experience incontinence.

My husband took him to the vet in Fairbanks. They discovered two things:

1. Astronomically high liver enzyme counts;

2. A white area (necrotic area) in his liver visible via sonogram. The vet said this could be a tumor or something else non-cancerous.

3. Sludge in his gallbladder.

Clearly, his liver is messed up which could mean:

Poison – he could have eaten something that was laced with poison;

Liver disease – although the rapid onset and deterioration is puzzling;

Liver cancer – not sure if this comes on so quickly but it is a possibility.

Ebb in better days

He has been eating and drinking fairly regularly although no longer touches his dog food. My husband has been cooking for him – macaroni, rice, caribou meat.

He was eating on his own until last night when my husband had to feed him out of his hand.

He has been eating a lot of snow.

The loss of control of his hind quarters is progressing – when the vet saw him, it wasn’t very pronounced so they didn’t look into it. Now his backside is wobbly and collapsing although he still stoically walks down the snowy driveway to look out on the neighborhood, his usual habit. He can’t walk up or down steps now.

Based on what I’ve seen, I’m afraid he will be dead before the week is out. I’m planning to take him back to the vet in Fairbanks this week to see if there is anything else we can do.

Do any of these symptoms sound familiar? Anyone in Tok have a dog experiencing this? Any ideas how to reverse this deterioration or at least make him more comfortable?