Young

Once Frankie's illness was confirmed to be distemper,  I knew exactly where it had come from...Young. 
The other issue was all the dogs that Young had been in contact with:  Addy - my other foster pup, Napoli- who had ridden in the car and spent the first night with us,  Snyder-long story here but bottom line is I took in another foster pup not knowing that Young and now Frankie were walking germ bombs...some dogs that Addy & Young had a play date with when they both seemed healthy.... the list goes on, but it's like a Kevin Bacon nightmare...how many degrees of separation are there??
Any one of these dogs that Young had been in contact with was at risk.   I immediately sent an email to a few key folks in the Lab Rescue organization and those whose dogs had been exposed,  letting them know about Frankie's diagnosis.

I was pretty upset and honestly angry as well.   I did get one response that sounded a little sanctimonious  "that's why we recommend that fosters be kept separated from other dogs in the household"  really - how easy is that to accomplish when you have multiple energetic balls of fur in the house??.      I was also very disappointed that I did not get any replies from a few  - I felt like now I was carrying the black plague as well.


Young had the green eye & nose goop long before the official Aug 14 diagnosis. He also had "hard pads" - literally looked like a dime thick, hard as a rock, callus on the bottom of his paws. Even though he was only 7 pounds, you could hear him clomping down the hall on the wood floors.

 

No point in keeping Frankie and Young separated...the damage had been done.

 

 

I had been rubbing a mix of Castor oil, lavender and rosemary essential oils into Young's paw pads....was that helping to soften them up??  OMG,  the calluses were coming off.   Was this a sign that he was out of the woods, that he was on the road to recovery??

 Young started to "jaw chew"   - not very often, maybe once a day or so,  but he'd move his mouth like he was chewing a wad of gum.   This is a classic distemper sign of neurological damage.
In the middle of the night on Saturday, August 25,  I woke up because Young was making noise in his kennel.   I wrapped him in a towel and brought him to bed with me.   In the early hours of the morning, he woke me up with a horrible howling that was agonizing to hear.   He was having a huge seizure.   He had a few more seizures Sunday morning that left him completely limp, like a wet noodle.   I contacted my vet liaison and they made arrangements to have me bring him in to one of their vets that was open on Sundays.
The drive to Ft. Worth was a quiet one...I did not have a good feeling about this.  After an exam by the vet and a discussion with the rescue org, they made the decision to put him down.

This is a picture of Young when he first came to my house on July 18...what a beautiful boy.  He's in a better place now - yes, Wendy,  I believe all dogs go to Heaven.