What's Wrong With This Dog?

The answer - thankfully, not as much as I thought there might be.

The last few weeks have been up and down - a few nice stories, a few nice adoptions, a few sad tales, a few disasters - you know, the usual. :o)

This fellow is Ernie. I just met him this morning. When he arrived from the pound he was so badly matted that we couldn't see his eyes (they were "glued" shut with infection). He weighs 5.1 kilos (about 11 pounds) and should be about double that. Since he is so emaciated, you would think that he should be ravenously hungry right? Wrong.

He will eat liver treats.
Only liver treats.
He won't take wet or dry food, even with liver powder sprinkled on top, with liver treat bits mixed in (he can eat around every single morsel of "other" food), or with liver treats carefully hidden at the bottom of the pile.
Nope.

We shall see - I am now armed with a veritable smorgasbord of smelly, hopefully tempting foods and I am sure that he will want to eat at least one of them. So what is wrong with him?
Give his extreme thinness and lack of appetite I suspected cancer, or maybe Cushing's - but no - the blood work all looks good. We haven't done a fecal test yet because he didn't pass anything at the vet.
Of course on our way home he managed to squirt bloody diarrhea all over the front seat carpet of my car, so I will take that back later this afternoon for testing. Good boy.

He does have a skin infection, including his eyes. The diarrhea could be stress, parasites or any number of other more benign issues.

If I can get him to eat that will be a good first step.

Wish me luck!
Shelly and crew