Sorry about your dog, TA.
We're in no way close but I do realize it wasn't a decision you made lightly.
Its been tough. I nursed him through a stroke in January and he made a full recovery after a month. Most people would have put him down then, but he wanted to fight and I was there for him every long step of the way. Dogs can recover 100 percent from those if you are willing to care for them and I did.
He had a sudden high temperature fever and blood in his stool and he was miserable. I could not let that persist. The thinking is that he may have had a brain tumor or cancer of some sort, that brought on the stroke (which he recovered from) and it reared its head again with fever and GI bleeding.
We opted not to X-Ray or any of that at his age, also that would have traumatized him to no end. He was not that type of dog. He never left my side more than 8 hours since I got him. Same thing with my other one. Strange not having any dogs around and I doubt Jezebelle and I can ever bring ourselves to get another one. It hurts man.