Dear city council,
I’m Emailing today in regards to a Dog name Bolt that I adopted on January 4th from Apple valley shelter.
I drove up in the morning to meet him and asked about him when I entered the shelter. I was told that he was sick, but I could meet him.
Not thinking of anything, I agreed. It took probably 1,5 hours of back and forth, waiting and asking until I finally was placed into a glass room in the back, on the side where Bolt was brought to me. He was carried by shelter staff, who said he was too scared to walk. I questioned how sick he was and tried to get more details to prepare myself mentally for the cost. (I’m not having a lot of money, like most people these days).
I was told he has upper respiratory infection and that he was given medication for it, and that he had gotten his Dosis this morning, but she was not knowing what he got, I assumed it would be in his documents, because how else would I or shelter staff now what medication he was given and how often?
Anyways, he was not moving a lot and seemed lethargic and hai fur was extremely “dusty” and crusty from what I learned later: mucus.
I asked shelter staff if I am allowed to have him stay here until his treatment is complete so that he can then get neutered by shelter vet, since it’s so expensive. Mind you, I live 3 hours away, so this was something I really wanted to have taken care of. I was told they would not do that, and that I either take him home that day, or he wouldn’t be available for adoption anymore. I now know this meant they would have euthanized him that day.
“Funny” side note: the person who brought Bolt to me for the meet and greet asked if he was the correct dog, as his Brother would look the same as him, I was confused as I never saw his brother on the petfinder app, and even double checked before I left, so that poor dog has never even had a chance to be adopted, and was probably just as sick as Bolt. Both dogs were not in the outside kennels either, so they must have had them quarantined somewhere .
So I adopted Bolt, unknowingly of what I just got myself into and headed straight back home and called a couple vets on my way back. Just about an hour into the drive I realized that Bolt suddenly had inches of thick and yellow mucus coming out of his nose and eyes, he started coughing heavily too, so I got really concerned at this point.
I rushed him to a vet who introduced me to a disease I never even heard of: distemper.
I signed paper of the possibility of parvo but nobody ever mentioned the word distemper. The shelter made me believe that Bolt has seen a vet (since he was on medication per them) and that he was officially diagnosed with upper respiratory. I had no idea I would later have to deal with such an awful disease.
The vet explained to me what distemper does to a dog, and how extreme contagious it is (I can’t have a dog in my car for weeks now! Thank you for that!)
We did bloodwork and a quick test (took 10 minutes, why do they not have those tests there????) that confirmed he has distemper and that he has had it for a while already.
That means he has suffered for days at the shelter, possibly even more during the holiday closure, where as I learned now dogs have died in their kennels and were later found dead by staff. How that is not animal abuse, I don’t understand.
Back to Bolt: the vet told me he didn’t walk, he was barely able to stay and fell down, was because his distemper was so far along that it affected his neurological signs, and that he has a minimal chance of surviving, and if he would, he may never be able to walk again. After lots of crying and talking to the vet about his options I decided to not have Bolt suffer any longer and had him put to sleep.
This was the most traumatic event in my life, where I was hoping for a new family member and was introduced to a sog so sick, he had basically no chance. The vet assured me, that there is no way the shelter wasn’t aware of his disease either, that his signs were so clear and anybody who’s constantly working with animals knows when they see distemper.
I later learned that staff makes it usually tough for people to adopt unfixed dogs, but they didn’t care for him and just said I can do it when he’s ok again, I think they were aware that he wouldn’t even live that long which makes me extremely mad.
How is it okay, to adopt out sick animals like that, that have apparently not been treated for their disease, so sick that some of them die in the shelters care, and suffer to death? How can you not make people aware of a disease like that, which I have brought other dogs (I stopped at petco) in danger and have now this virus that lives for months in my car?
This is absolutely awful and I can’t believe that this has happened to me, after reading some of the reviews I have seen that other people have adopted and fostered dogs that have shortly after died. I learned also that returned animals that are sick get euthanized instead of treated? Something needs to change.
Please contact me with any questions you may have.
Thank you,
Samantha