Another animal question for the experts-Sad and Long!

[Disney01]

I will be talking to my vet tomorrow, but it's bugging me now, so I thought I'd ask. We had an elderly border collie and have a cockapoo. Over the weekend, we went away for two nights. Our pet sitter was checking on our animals. Because of the age and the heat, I asked her to check on them twice a day to make sure they had water. Plus, the border collie has some mobility problems and I wanted to make sure he stayed close to his water. We left on Thursday and came home early Saturday evening around 5:00. When we came home, the dogs were out of water and the Border Collie was in distress and hyperventilating, couldn't move, and wouldn't drink or eat. He died a short time later. Our cockapoo was fine. I called our pet sitter, and first she said she had last been by Friday evening and he drank a bowl and a half of water, she filled up their water bowl, but he seemed okay. I didn't ask why she hadn't been by that morning-I should have. Later, she did say she had been by Saturday morning, but I noticed our newspaper had not been picked up. Fridays newspaper and mail were in the house, so I know she came by then. Anyways, I'm wondering if the span of time between Friday evening and Saturday evening would be enough to make the Border Collie die of dehydration. I hope not. I can't wait to ask my vet. Again, the little dog was fine. It doesn't seem like long enough for them to have been out of water, but maybe because of the heat it was. They were in the garage where it's cooler and not in the sun. Any ideas? Any vets out there?

 

[KatelynnsAuntie]

I have no answers, just wanted to offer a . Sorry for the loss of your poor fur-baby.

 

[phillybeth]

24 hours is not enough time for a healthy well-hydrated dog to die of dehydration. I would be more concerned by the fact that he drank a bowl and a half of water on Friday evening- unless you have very small bowls that is a LOT of water for a medium sized dog to drink.
What did your vet have to say about cause of death?

 

[EsmeraldaX]

I'm sorry.

Dogs can dehydrate very quickly in the heat. Was it very hot? It's hard to tell though, because of his age he may have had other problems you didn't know about. Was he in otherwise good health when you left?

She sounds like a terrible pet sitter

 

[Disney01]

Esmeralda, it's funny you say that, because when we went to DisneyWorld for two weeks in November, she watched all of our animals-2 dogs, 3 cats, and a hamster, frogs and fish. The Border Collie was sick at that time, and she went to the vet to pick him up and brought him home and slept with him and everything. (We didn't cancel our trip...He had a virus, and just had to stay in for a few days.) But, she fed and fed and fed the hamster, not knowing that they are hoarding animals. When we came home, the hamster was dead in the cage...It looked like he had just died earlier. I asked about it and someone said that they can die from over feeding. I felt bad because I hadn't really instructed her on feeding, I just said "Feed it". Well, when the food kept disappearing, she kept feeding it.

Anyways, the only part of her I question is, I'm pretty sure I didn't misunderstand her, and I don't know why she changed her story. It was very hot, but the animals do have the option of going in the garage which is where both dogs were.

I'll talk to my vet tomorrow-He doesn't work today.

 

[Margie J]

Find out what the Vet says about the dehydration issue.

As for the future, hire another pet sitter or bring the pets to a kennel. Plenty of people say they like animals but are actually terrible with their care.

 

[mrsstats]

Just a suggestion, but I have my dog sitter phone me when she gets to my house. She must use my home phone # to call me so I can see it on my cell phone caller ID. This way if she does not call and I can't reach her, I can phone a family member to help out. My sitter is great. She knows how paranoid I am about my dogs.