A shocking development: Jan 5-6

So, here we were in the middle of a power outage. It was after 9:00 p.m. and we were thinking of going to bed, as the house was cooling down. The dogs are taken for a short walk before bedtime to do their business. The laneway runs downhill from the house for a few hundred meters. Jim took them off but came back asking for the flashlight as he could not find the Doberman, Herman.* He came back again a few minutes later and this time he seemed to be quite alarmed (a rarity for Jim). He told me that the dog had fallen into the shallow ditch on the side of the lane. Jim pulled him out of the ditch, but now he was lying in the laneway and could not get up.

As Jim got the pick-up going, I took the other dog on the lead and ran ahead, to try to avoid frightening Herman, and to confirm that he was still where Jim had left him. The poor guy was unable to stand or even move. Fortunately, there was a wooden ramp in the pick-up and we carefully lifted Herman onto it and into the truck. Back at the house, we carried him into the usual room where the dogs sleep. We could see no evidence of a break or sprain to either leg, but he certainly was in trouble. We covered him so he wouldn't get chilled and decided to sleep nearby that night. The power came back on at about 2:00 a.m.. We looked in on Herman during the night. He was generally quiet but a couple of times he appeared to be trying to reposition himself to get comfortable.

At 7:30 in the morning we started calling the number the homeowners had given us for the vet. They eventually answered an hour or so later, but could not see us as they still had no power. They referred us to a nearby pet emergency centre. The vet on duty examined Herman carefully and did not find an obvious injury. She noticed that his neck was very painful. With some effort, I worked out how to charge an international call and got C on the phone. The vet spoke with her and then with the dog's usual vet. What came out is that the dog had experienced a recurrence of an aggressive cancer for which he had been treated some time ago. He'd had a tumour removed but the surgery did not get all the cancer. The vet believed the cancer had been growing back for some time and impairing his motor function. It's hard to say whether his impaired movement caused him to slip, or if the fall injured his already damaged neck and spine.

Anyway, after eliminating other possible explanations for Herman's inability to stand, the sad conclusion was that he could not be restored to a reasonable state of function, nor could the pain be controlled. C and H had to make the awful decision to end his life. There were many difficult phone calls on Saturday. We felt so sorry for the owners' loss, sadness that a fine animal was gone, some horror that such an event happened in our first week as caretakers -- oh, it was a bad time. The vet was very supportive. She was compassionate but very clear in her view that this was the only possible course of action.



*I'm very new to blogging but I think it's probably best to blur identity details at least somewhat, including altering names.