Valley Fever and the Adventure of Recovery - Part 1

Quartzsite, Arizona, from January 17, 2016, until February 2, 2016, was where Bailey, Chloe, and I dry camped in our trusty motor home.

  We had a wonderful time and did much hiking the local area.  Both dogs loved running in the dry riverbed with so many quail, rabbits, and ground squirrels to chase they were in dog's heaven.  But lying in the dirt was a small hidden hell quietly in wait to be activated by digging dogs or blowing wind: the spores that cause Valley Fever.

My wife and I joined the dogs last week for a 5-day RV trip through northeastern California.  Bailey was not feeling well even before we left but I didn't think much of it.  He had a cough and wasn't his normal happy self, but he had thrown up a big wad of spring grass a few days before and I thought he had just irritated his system.

During the trip he got weaker and more lethargic.  His breathing became labored and his cough became more persistent.  We let him rest a lot and upon our return I called our local veterinarian hospital we always go to and scheduled an appointment later that day.  They asked if I could come in at the end of the day because of the cough Bailey had.  They didn't want to contaminate the area if it was something like kennel cough.

Our local vet, who has known Bailey since a pup, found Bailey had a temperature of 104 degrees F
but he wasn't coughing.  I told the vet that Bailey hadn't been eating.  I told him how weak Bailey was and lethargic and about the grass he had thrown up.  He listened to his heart and lungs and found all ok.  He gave Bailey a couple shots of antibiotics thinking he had a sore throat from the grass maybe and sent us home with a bottle of antibiotic pills to take twice a day.

Bailey was down to 51 pounds, 8 pounds lighter than last fall (as shown in the above picture that he's thin).

Wednesday, on a short 3-mile hike, Bailey was having a hard time just walking.  His left rear leg was giving him trouble and he was coughing.  When we got home I called our vet.  He wasn't there but one of the technicians suggested we go to Sage Emergency Vet Hospital in Concord where they had x-ray machines.  So I loaded Bailey into the car and we went to go see what was up with the boy, not knowing what we were dealing with.