Day 13: Wed - unforgiving illness

This morning was pretty rough. At about 5:30 I went to Brook's room and she greeted me with a happily wagging tail. I must say that dogs are amazing at hiding their true feelings and problems. I know that she feels like crap, but through it all she manages to greet me with a tail wag. She was laying on the floor and the humidifier had stopped producing steam. I believe it ran low on water, but she wasn't laying by it anyway, so I don't think it would have made a big difference.

I refilled the humidifier tank and put Brook back on the futon. Her nose was blocked up again, but after maybe 10 minutes of sitting with her and making her lay by the steam it started to soften. We took a quick trip out front to go potty. She finally pooped (it has been probably 2-3 days), and it was mostly solid (only a little diarrhea). She is very wobbly on her feet; she can walk, but sways from side to side. I haven't figured out if it her body is weak from lack of food or if she has another illness.

I mentioned all these symptoms to the vet yesterday and they believe she could have valley fever. If it gets worse, or she hasn't shown improvement by Saturday morning, she will be going to the vet again. I have an appointment for our oldest, Snoopy, for routine vaccinations, and they said it wouldn't be a problem if Brook came along too. They would start by testing her blood, and possibly do a culture of the mucous. I sure hope it doesn't come to that because I don't want her to suffer anymore. Also, the medications to treat valley fever are costly.

Through all of this, Brook has remained very calm and always looks at me with the clear, trusting eyes. I think this is why it hurts so much to watch her have trouble breathing and not wanting to eat. She trusts me completely to help her and right now I just don't know what else to do. It also stinks to not be able to stay home with her for the next few days (if only working wasn't required).

I tried to get her to eat this morning; I heated up one of the leftover containers from last night; she wouldn't eat. I even tried putting a piece of egg her mouth, but she spit it back out. Same with the ground beef. A few minutes before I left the house this morning, I offered her some yogurt, but she didn't want that either. I gave her the liquid antibiotics and had to leave. I hope she decides to eat again tonight, or I am not sure what we can do.