04/21/2024
Good Sunday afternoon! We hope you have been well.
Incredibly long post, but we feel now is the time to share.
After mourning the loss, working through the utter shock, and processing the change in our home, we felt it was time to share that we lost Harley.
He was such a loving, free spirit, and athletic without trying to be athletic dog. It started on a Saturday afternoon, the doggos got in a fight over a toy. We separated them and placed him in a kennel. About an hour later we went to get them all and let them out for a potty break. Harley could barely get up and almost blew over in the wind. When he came in he laid on the floor in our breezeway. I (Holly) sat with him, combed his hair, snuggled him; if you know him, he does not stop. After about 20 minutes, I woke Jeff and said something is wrong with Harley. He came and sat with him briefly and agreed. We contacted the vet and were told the after hours doctor had been busy and she would reach out when available.
Fast forward about 4 hours later, we called and inquired again with the vet. We were told that she was finally at the clinic with another patient, but we could head that way. We loaded Harley in the car and away we went.
We told the vet about the altercation and our concern about maybe ingesting a toy. She took X-rays of him and found that his digestive tract was in good order. She did find some bridging in Harley’s back that maybe she thought was causing some pain. We also ran blood work to make sure there wasn’t anything else. While his panel came back a little off, nothing was alarming and the vet indicated she wanted to see him in a week to reevaluate the bloodwork.
Harley received an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and a bag of fluid before we departed the vet. The vet encouraged us and said she would see us next week, but if something changed she was on tomorrow as well.
We woke up the following morning to Harley in a worse condition. He had labored breathing and white tacking gums. We tried the vet, but the emergency line at the vet wasn’t activated yet. Once we were able to connect with them we waited for the vet to return the call that she could see Harley. However, once we were on the phone with her it was too late. Harley passed away on our kitchen floor.
We were able to take Harley to the vet and have him autopsied to determine cause of death. It was determined that Harley had damage to his spleen and bled out internally. She indicated that his spleen had been damaged before and healed itself, but this time we were not so fortunate. We were, are, and continue to be beside ourselves as Harley never showed signs of illness before this incident.
He will forever be missed and only remembered for his giant smile and joyful heart. Thank you for the opportunity to process and mourn his loss.
At this time, please be patient with us on future litters. We do anticipate potentially two litters this winter and do have a waiting list of approximately 20 families.
