The Endy Dilema

I love this dog. So very much. His vet visit Saturday did not sit well. There were some things that have cropped up with him the last few months and we addressed them directly:

1. He has started obsessively licking, not just himself but the carpet, sofa, us, anything within reach.
2. His skin is red and irritated - I even clipped all the hair from his waist down to try to help
3. He can only go 5 hourse without a potty break. This means that around 3 am, myself or hubby get up to let him out - we are fighting sleep deprivation since we can't get back to sleep.
4. He has a "thing" on his side that in the last couple of weeks has suddenly is irritating him and has started to bleed.
5. I have noticed that he doesn't always finish his food.
6. He has lost 12 pounds, I think most of it in the last 3 months, and we have not been trying to get him to lose weight

We decided to tackle the obvious things first. Blood work to hopefully identify a bladder infection and schedule surgery on Tuesday to remove the thing. The thing will be biopsied to see what it is and why it changed so suddenly. He will be on antibiotics from the surgery which will actually help his skin - turns out what I thought was allergies is a skin infection.

The nurse called me today and the first part of the blood work is back: no bladder infection. Crap. That would have been the easiest thing to deal with and would have potentially explained 3, 5 and 6. Several years ago he had an issue with his kidneys and crystals - I am afraid that might be rearing it's ugly head again. More extensive blood work will happen during the surgery so I am trying to take one thing at a time.

I just have this feeling in my gut that he is not comfortable. We will see what happens after tomorrow, he will let me know. I just love the big, dumb dog!