Wishful thinking won't make it so. There was a strange feeling that I had overstepped the bounds of caution in writing yesterday that all was well with Riley, that the visit to the emergency veterinarian hospital on Saturday had solved the problem our little fellow was experiencing with the symptoms of diarrhoea.

When next we attempted to administer that noxious-smelling anti-biotic pill to him nothing we wrapped it in, from cheese to chicken would convince him to take it. I had made a small beef roast and my husband, taking a very thin piece of the beef wrapped the oft-rejected pill in it and Riley succumbed.

Problem is, though he had seemed to rally completely the day before, yesterday he was not too enthusiastic about anything. We had taken him out for a short walk and he ambled along very slowly, more slowly than he is accustomed to doing. So that wasn't a huge success. He slept soundly afterward, regaining his strength, we thought.

When dinnertime came around he was uninterested in his food, not at all typical behaviour for him. And he was drinking copious amounts of water. Earlier we'd observed that he was looking for blades of grass in the backyard, under the layers of snow and ice. And then we realized that he was using water as an alternative; it made him retch; he was looking for some relief from how he felt.

That evening he was wretched feeling, absolutely no life to him, quite dejected, though he slept for hours on my husband's lap until we went up to bed. At three in the morning he was restless and was taken outside where he peed. Normal enough, given the amount of water he'd consumed. Soon afterward he brought up most of the food we'd succeeded in tempting him with.

After breakfast this morning we made an emergency appointment with the local veterinarian hospital we've used for the past 22 years, and were able to see one of the vets. They did bloodwork on Riley after a physical examination, and took X-rays, then the veterinarian explained the results of all of that. Bit of an enlarged heart, but a really enlarged liver, and it was his liver that was responsible for the alarming bloodwork results. She recommended we immediately take him to the Alta Vista Clinic with their more sophisticated clinical medical devices and vets accustomed to dealing with more serious health problems.

And there Riley is now, an overnight patient in the hospital that stays open 24 hours a day, always a veterinarian and technicians on duty. He is to be monitored while on IVs to stabilize his condition. After which an ultrasound will be taken of his liver to attempt a more definitive explanation for the alarming symptoms not only in his extreme lethargy, disinterest in food, diarrhoea alternating with vomiting, but more critically the white blood cell counts and other unusual results of that blood test.

If we're fortunate he will be diagnosed with Cushing's Disease, a treatable condition that will allow him more years of quality life.