Day 16: Saturday

Brook had an even more decreased appetite. We tried some herbal remedies from the rescue group Cold Wet Noses (I highly recommend adopting from them; what a great group of people!) to try and alleviate the body tremors, but it didn't work, unfortunately. We got all but the Valley Fever test result back from our vet on Saturday and everything was negative. All the tests showed was a low white-cell count, which means her body was not currently fighting off an infection.

After reading more about distemper, one of the symptoms that jumped out was "thickening of the foot pads". You may remember reading a post from only a few days of Brook coming home that I was giving her a foot massage with some non-petroleum jelly to try to soften her foot pads. At the time, nothing seemed unusual. They were just a little bit rough so I figured she must have been running around in the desert prior to arriving at PACC.

Now, it became obvious that her body was growing more skin starting on the large foot pad (like the palm of our hands) and working its way towards her toes. This is one of the severe signs that only appears from distemper (as far I had read).

Brook didn't eat very much at all, and tried to get away from us each time we would attempt to syringe feet some wet food. I decided it wasn't worth making her time more miserable, so we stuck to offering the bowls of ensure type drink. She would still go outside with me and pee, but could barely walk without stumbling.

Late on Saturday night, my husband and I talked and knew it was time to call the vet. You truly have to love dogs and always remember that they do not care what day of the week, or what time it is. It is a beautiful thing to not live by a clock and I believe it proves how much animals have on us in that department. Nevertheless, I called the emergency vet clinic on La Canada, just South of River, to ask what they charge for euthanasia. Not like that would have really mattered, but I am one of those people that needs to know information before I appear in a situation. It was no different than taking her to our vet on Monday, and we just couldn't let this go one any longer.