Skipper saga

She kinda went downhill after the last post. The spot on her right shoulder developed more, though thankfully wasn’t bleeding or seeping like the others. Vet in G’dale was recommending a specialist (translation: several $100 over the course of about 2 weeks). On Monday, we took her to another vet for a 2nd opinion. He seemed optimistic on the phone then we he saw her, he paused, exhaled and said something about a train wreck. He agreed with G’dale’s assessment of an autoimmune disorder, told me to continue the prednisone daily (it was about to go to every other day), they gave her a medicated bath to get rid of the dead skin and fur – she was bald on her back after that – gave me an antifungal, and told me to stop the gel b/c he wanted to see how her skin did without it.

On Tuesday afternoon she developed a gagging cough and threw up 3 times that we know of that night. She still had it Wednesday morning and night. Wed a.m., doc told me to discontinue meds and to come by for something for the vomiting. I stopped him. Everything I’d read on autoimmune disorders in dogs involved possible flare-ups for the rest of its life, definite medication(s) including prednisone for the rest of its life, and frequent and constant vet visits for the rest of its life. And even with specialists, there’s no guarantee she’d get better so we decided to go ahead and put her down. The vet assured me we’d done a lot more than most would and that he supported our decision.

We talked to Taylor that night and Thursday morning (the Thurs a.m. talk is mentioned below). Brian & I got home about 3:30, I had her wrapped in a towel and headed to the car when the tornado sirens went off. Great. Brian went in and saw where it was – we were fine so we went on. We walked in, said who were and all the office staff went, “Awww…” Signed the forms and decided to be in the room when it the injection was given. The tech who did the injection was even upset by it (nice to know they don’t get hardened over the years). She said she’d worked at a shelter for 4 years and it never gets easier. Skipper went calmly and quickly surrounded by 4 people (2 techs and us) loving on her. They gave us a few minutes alone in which we bawled like babies then gathered ourselves and left.

As we were leaving, it started hailing – we dove under a gas station awning along with 3-4 other vehicles. We all looked at each other and grinned – no one was there for gas yet the place was full! After that, went and picked up Taylor from school. What was the first thing she said upon pulling into the driveway? “I want to go see my puppy.” We explained it to her again, she whined and whimpered a little – insisted on looking out the window to wait for her to come back. We finally convinced her that Skipper was gone and not coming back then she got distracted by toys. Thankfully, she didn’t ask to see her this morning.

We will be looking for another one, but we need to clean up the porch area and do a little research before going there again. A couple of coworkers have pointed out to me that, for what we spent at the vet’s, we could’ve gotten “a really nice dog.” One thing we do agree on is that the first places we’ll look will be vets’ offices and the pound. I still think that whatever the total cost was (yeah, I’m scared to do the math), it was well worth trying. We’re just all sorry that it didn’t work out as we’d hoped. Thanks to all for prayers and positive thoughts.