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Dogsitting a terminal ill dog

664 views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  GeorgiaOnMyMind 
#1 ·
I have committed to watching the pack of a coworker and friend while he took his family on a well deserved trip to the house of mouse (Disney) after a very stressful period at work.
He just found out that his wife's dog (13 year old German Sheppard) has cancer that has spread. Liver, Kidney, urinary tract and adrenal system. The vet would not guesstimate how long. Anything between a few days and a few months.
I am not going to pull back from my committment but they are discussing changing their plans, because naturally they want as much time with her as possible.
What would you do?
 
#2 ·
I would tell them if they end up going to board their dog with a vet, not you. I recently went through something similar when someone asked me to take care of their cat with big problems. I flat out said no way, sorry. The cat was boarded with a vet and since they got back has had to have fluids administered daily. Glad I said no, bet I would have had to deal with a dead cat.
 
#4 ·
We took care of our neighbors' very elderly dog in their home last year when they went on vacation. While she was not terminal, she was very old and had several health issues. They made this decision because they knew boarding her or taking her with them would have been much more traumatic than leaving her in the comfort of her home. She had a doggy door so she could go in and out as needed (though she rarely ventured outside) and we went over twice a day to hang out and give her love, give her meds, check on food and water, etc. There was only one morning that she did not want to get up to take her pill that I had a bit of a scare, but it was all good.

If they do decide to leave the dog with you, I would suggest having a plan with your friends in the event that the dog does pass or has a medical emergency in their absence.

If they decide to change their plans, I do know that Disney is pretty flexible about letting you change dates, etc. if they are staying on the Disney property.
 
#5 ·
If they decide to go on their trip (and I hope they don't), I would suggest that they board the other members of the pack somewhere else and you keep the sick German Shepherd. It would break my heart if I found out that their dog died alone at the vet's. The dog deserves to be comfortable and secure in a home with a caring person if these are his final days. He would be lucky to be with you if his family leaves him.
 
#6 ·
This is a tough one.

I had cancelled a vacation because of my elderly Great Pyrenees was having issues all summer. I knew boarding him would be too hard. My mother in law finally talked me into taking the family up to the NH Mountains for four days, and I had my brother in law checking on him too.

I called twice a day, and he was fine, on the third day, I get a call that he was out on our deck and could no longer get up and stopped eating - he had been there all night. We were four hours away, so we rushed home, and made the decision right then to send him to the bridge, and had to hurry to take him to the vets before they closed.

I do think that us being gone for those few days was a catalyst of him deteriorating so fast, I was concerned about leaving him, but I really thought he was going to be okay.

Just make sure that they have an emergency plan. Also, make sure that you or somebody else will have the ability to pick him up if he cannot get up. Goliath was too heavy ( he was probably down to 80 - 90 lbs ) at his death for my mother-in-law to pick him up.
 
#7 ·
We cancelled a trip to OR when we realized our last dog, Annie was suffering end-stage renal failure. She rallied past the time we would have been gone and stayed with us not the couple months forecasted but almost 8 more months! We feel very strongly we made the right decision for her and us.
 
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