Reactive Family Dog Started Attacking My Dog, Turned Out, Older Dog Had Cancer.
TW: pet loss, euthanasia
So, not a super happy post, or a recent one, as we found out about the cancer because the older dog, Dart, was dying when we found the cancer in his spleen that metastasized to his lungs. Around a year prior, Finn, the reactive dog, started attacking Dart, after a haircut. I moved out with Dart because it had gotten unbearable. Finn couldn't go on walks, and we couldn't have them in the same room together unless one was in the crate. It was awful. Things MUCH improved when I moved out. Finn wasn't great with other dogs, but his reactivity was lessened. Dart crossed the rainbow bridge in October, got sick one night, wouldn't eat, wouldn't use the bathroom, wouldn't sleep, I had to carry all 55lbs of him out of my 5th floor apartment in grad school to an Uber Pet, drive an hour, and take him to his vet, where they found the cancer and we made the decision to preempt the freebleeding in his belly from a burst mass.
Ever since, Finn has made remarkable strides; he can go around the block on a walk, isn't as reactive at windows, and even has a dog walker come ot the house that my mom hired to play with him, a man at that. I have adopted a new dog, a beautiful little girl named Daisy, and Finn is fine with her in the house when I visited and even came up to me holding her once without going for her.
Losing Dart was the worst thing to happen to me, but honestly, it might've been the best thing to happen to Finn. Something about that cancer, some smell or chemical imbalance or something, must have exacerbated Finn's reactivity. He hadn't been great with dogs before, but Dart had been the exception until after that haircut, when I think it's very possible that a tumor could have been there and that haircut somehow revealed that scent to him.