Team wimsey is supposed to go wheels up for Italy on Thursday.
Vet appointment today because dog has had GI distress for the last 48 hrs; that led to possible giardia diagnosis for the pup. We won’t know for sure until the test results come back tomorrow midday.
If test comes back positive for giardia, no boarding place will take her, and we have nobody close enough (geographically close and will-do-you-a-big-favor close) to either take in, or come stay with, and clean up after a dog that is likely to have diarrhea for days on end.
Yeah. I’m still in some amount of denial that we may actually have to bail because the dog has the shits.
Wimsey jr is going to lose his mind if we have to tell him 24 hrs before planned departure that he’s not actually going to get to see where the gladiators fought, Mt Vesuvius, etc.
I have to imagine that is an option somewhere near you? Even if it isn’t your specific Vet. I get that a general Boarder wouldn’t want to liability of other dogs getting infected, but a Vet that boards might?
Not that we’ve found. There are two near-ish to us that do that, but they’re fully booked. The 11th hour nature of this is definitely adding to the challenge.
One option is Rover. My dog is reactive so we get someone to stay over in our guest room while we’re away. We’ve found some good sitters that way.
Fair warning that it can be difficult to find a new sitter on such short notice. And obviously they have to be comfortable with dealing with giardia. It’s an option though.
Giardia can be pretty serious. It was touch and go with our pup for a bit when she had it. She was incredibly weak and severely dehydrated for a few days at the worst of it, and the diarrhea was… not normal diarrhea. I think we needed a few rounds of antibiotics to fully rid her of it.
Either way, yeah, I really feel for team wimsey. Hoping for good news from the vet and that the pup gets better quickly.
If you offer enough money, I bet that you could find a competent sitter. Maybe see if the vet has a technician that you could pay to stay with the dog.
Either way, sorry to hear about it. I hope that things will work out for you.
It’s passed through contaminated food, water or feces. So if you have a regular dog that occasionally eats gross stuff, drinks out of streams and puddles while raging on a forest walk, sniff-licks other dogs’ butts, etc….it can happen
Update: the test came back (and I quote): “negative…ish”.
Vet felt good enough about the uncertain results that they signed off on sending her to dog camp with some drugs and probiotics mixed into her kibble for the first several days. Just completed drop off.
Jesus fekking christ, I feel like I lost a couple years in the last 24 hours due to the stress and uncertainty. I’m going to need this vacation to recover from the run-up to the vacation.
Now all I have to do is pack and remind my clients to piss off for the next 13 days. For the first time in well over a decade, I’m not taking my laptop on vacation. Corporate America can burn itself to the ground for all I care (or more likely, call my managing partner and ask for triage help while I’m out).
