We’ve pretty much made our decision in this situation, but wanted to see what others might do.
We’ve had our 2 week Christmas house sit, which starts on Saturday, booked for nearly a year. The HO and I have kept in contact regularly and we are staying in a hotel nearby for 2 nights prior to the sit. We both agreed that we would come over on Friday for the final handover, collect the keys and do a final meetup. I reached out to her today to find out what time she would like us to come by on Friday. She responded that she had a terrible day yesterday and spent all day at the neurologist with the dog.
Apparently the dog was chasing ball as usual at a run in the park on Sunday and sustained an injury to his neck and now has a herniated disc, resulting in leg weakness and pain. He had an MRI yesterday and they can see where the disc is pushing on the spine. It does not require surgery at the moment and could improve with extremely reduced activity, slow gentle walks, no jumping up or down off furniture and no steps. This is a 4 year old very energetic dog that is accustomed to two 45 minute runs/walk per day. If he does too much and exacerbates the injury, he will require surgery and a potentially long recovery period.
The HO is driving to their Christmas destination and is considering taking the dog with them. The relatives they are visiting however, are allergic to dogs and the dog may not be welcome, even under these new circumstances. The sit will not be cancelled as they have a cat as well and want us to be at the house. I had a call with the HO today and we discussed this.
What would my fellow house sitters do I this situation? Would you take on the care of the dog, given his new injury, and risk further injury, under your watch, that could result in surgery?
Would you be pretty firm with the HO about taking the dog with them?
Either scenario is not the best for the dog. He could remain in his home with familiar surroundings under the care of complete strangers. Or he could be with his family, but on a long car ride and end up somewhere he is not welcome.
The HO is very conscientious and a good dog mom. She is very torn and doesn’t know what to do.
@Knowmad , poor doggie. I would ask the owners what would truly make them most comfortable – canceling the trip and staying home? having the dog with them? or leaving the dog at home with you?
If the decision is that you will care for the dog, I would ask that there be a crate for the dog to stay in when you are not there to watch his every move and figure the dog will be spending a lot of time in the crate. In the event you have to take the dog to the vet, make sure all payment arrangements are in place and that the vet knows the dog will be in your care.
If you are not up for this, you can cancel the sit since the circumstances are not what you originally signed up for. I know this is difficult since you’ve established a nice relationship with the owner. What have you decided to do?
Awww poor thing. I wouldn’t leave the dog so soon with those kind of injuries, it needs to be around those that it loves to help it relax the most. That’s obviously how they already feel given they’ve considered taking the dog with them.
I don’t personally mind caring for ill or injured dogs but not when it’s only just happened, and not when it’s those sort of injuries and it’s only just happened.
I’d just nicely and kindly explain your concerns to the owners and see what they say.
Given the severity of the injury, I think the HOs should cancel the sit and stay home to take care of the dog. I don’t think this is a situation that a sitter should go into.
Cancelling their holiday would undoubtedly be the best option but the others are almost as good.
I would think second option is they take the dog as it that way they are responsible for care and any last-minute decisions that need to be made.
Last option would be you looking after the dog. That really depends on how comfortable you are taking on responsibility but none of these are bad choices from the dogs health point of view
Regardless of which of the 3 is chosen the dog should definitely be crated while recovering. It’s the only way to keep them from doing something they shouldn’t.
I’d compare this to the situation with older pets. You can have a healthy older pet or one with chronic conditions. As a pet parent we did some travelling the last couple of years of my senior cat’s life. We also had a dog with cushing’s whom we left a kennel that we trusted when that was part of our lives. In both cases, I understood that something could happen while I was away.
I don’t know what the restrictions are for keeping the dog from injuring himself, but if the homeowner trusts you to be there with the dog and understands that the dog could further injure himself, I’d take the sit. There is ALWAYS a chance of an animal being injured in the care of a sitter.
On the other hand, it would be understandable if the HO cancelled. Under the present “update” they’d need to cancel for you to even look for another sit!
Sounds like you chatted with the HO but I would be sure that chat included how the HO will feel/think if something happened while you were there, as it just might even with your best intentions.
I would not apply for sits with medical issues, so for me, I would have to ask the HO to cancel the sit, as that would be to big of an issue/ change for me to handle after a sit is confirmed.
What is the owners wishes are they going away because they don’t want to let you down and cancel the sit , would they rather stay with their injured dog but are thinking of you and your planned stay ?
@Knowmad So much this! I think if the HO is trying to be considerate to you AND you are trying to be helpful to the HO and you’re both being so nice that neither one of you says what you really want to do, that is a problem! You might need to ask the HO what she actually wants to do. She might have very mixed feelings, but you might need to let her know it’s okay by you if she cancels the sit altogether. (It might not be okay with whomever she’s planning to visit.) If you both come from a place not only of kindness, but honesty, you’ll find a solution that works for both of you (and the dog).
I would not want to take responsibility for this sort of medical issue. I can see some bad scenarios. And I don’t mind caring for dogs with medical issues. But this one could go bad very fast and I can see some liability concerns.