Yuck.
The good news is that Miss Nellie is going to be fine. The bad news is that I’m not particularly impressed with the level of care she received while staying at this very pricey doggie spa. The owner told me when he dropped her off that had they not been on vacation, she would likely have received better care, but still - since I paid them a hell of a lot of money while I was on MY vacation so that she WOULD receive better care, I’m not impressed with that excuse.
She came home covered with sores of an unknown nature. They took her to the vet two days ago, but besides putting her on antibiotics, they still aren’t sure what caused them. I have my suspicions, but suspicions are all they are.
She is 5 documented pounds skinnier than when she left us (We’re talking, like, 20% of her body weight, here). I know it’s tough to make her eat when she’s sad, but we did ask them to keep food in with her at night and they did not accommodate her in this rather reasonable request. I am disappointed.
She seems to have a bad case of diarrhea (which she stepped in and then tracked all over the house immediately upon coming home.)
Best of all? She is utterly and completely infested with fleas.
Now, in the name of full disclosure, I HAD found a flea on her the day we dropped her off. We assume she picked this up during Petunia’s ill-fated stay with us, since that’s the only time she’s ever spent enough time around another dog to pick up a flea, and puppy breeders have a notoriously hard time eradicating fleas entirely. However, since I told the kennel about my icky discovery when they picked Nellie up – again, in the interest of full disclosure – and told them I’d pay for a flea dip for her, both pre & post stay so that she wouldn’t infest other dogs, and since she came back literally crawling with critters, I can only assume that they did not dip her either before or after her stay, and really, that level of non-sanitation sort of bothers me – as much for the other dogs that Nellie probably gave fleas to, as for her own sake.
The sores could be from flea bites, but two of them – the two worst – look to be on her hind hocks in the exact same place. It makes me wonder if she was rubbing them raw on her crate, somehow – like bedsores. Because the crate possibly wasn’t padded adequately? I don’t know, but I’m not happy.
And the fleas. Oh, the fleas.
So I spent her first day back in my maternity bathing suit, bent over sideways, shampooing a very unhappy, skinny dog in the bathtub (a procedure which did nothing for my happiness level either, let me tell you,) and going over her with a flea comb and vacuuming her favorite areas of the house with flea poison. And doing laundry. Lots and lots of laundry.
Not exactly how I envisioned spending my first day back home.
And now I itch. And probably will continue to itch until it’s been weeks since I’ve seen a flea.
Yuck.
You know I usually just lurk, but when it comes to dogs I have to speak up. I cannot believe that they did not bathe Nellie prior to bringing her home. That is standard care at all boarding kennels. Surely they do not tolerate fleas in their home, if they had Nellie at their home for the last two days they should have noticed that she had this problem and could have easily treated her with a shampoo or with any of the medications such as Capstar or Comfortis.
Being outdoors so much it is very easy to pick up fleas. It has been a very good year for them (and hard for dogs)throughout the US, my dogs are on two different preventions and the lists that I belong to tell me that the rescue and show people throughout the US are struggling this year due to the weather we have had this winter and summer, it has made it perfect for fleas to breed out of control.
However that is no excuse not to take care of Nellie. If she is not on flea prevention you may want to look into it just until you make sure that any eggs that you may have missed have hatched. They usually do so in about 7 days and fleas can live for about 3 weeks without feeding. Can you tell I do a bunch of rescue?
I hope that she feels much better soon!
Susan Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Yeah, she’s on a flea/tick drops-between-the-shoulder-blades program (which obviously isn’t doing the trick!) I’ve changed brands, and am currently in the spray everything down stage of decontamination. I could wish, though, that this wasn’t happening quite exactly NOW for obvious reasons…
Argh!
OMG – I am shocked! poor nellie! moxie always comes home bathed from this place (can smell it on her). maybe b/c she dips herself in mud they have had to? or maybe b/c colleeen and john were away while nellie was there? all of this sounds unacceptable. they should refund your money, pay for your flea dip, and apologize profoundly! how dreadful! hearing this, i don’t know that moxie can ever go back there. ugh. sending nellie thoughts for a speedy recovery – and you thoughts for an itch-free household!
This is so sad. I can’t believe what they did. When we put our pets away for our trip these places must do everything above and beyond for them. We have an awesome kennel by us. Do you have a Pet Smart, some of them have great kennels which my daughter has used several times. Glad that she will be okay.
Ugh. Does she tolerate Advantage? That always worked way better than most over flea stuff on the dogs I’ve lived with. Ugh.
Susan Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Advantage? I’ll give it a try. She’s been on the flea/tick shoulder-blade stuff that my vet uses, but it’s obviously not up to the task this year. I’ll give Advantage a shot if this latest round of work hasn’t, um, worked. Thank you!
Oh! YUCK! EWWWW!!!!
I’m so behind in your posts (and pretty much everyone else’s). Welcome home and welcome to the home stretch! Will you be waddling anywhere near midtown and available for lunch? Also, I think we’re staying in the city this weekend. How does Sunday look? Obviously, barring labor and delivery!
i think that the kennel people owe you more than an apology.
i would totally tell them what you wrote here. them being on vacation is soo not an excuse! did they even apologize? how did you find out they didn’t leave food for her at night?
I’d ask the vet about Capstar (like Melissa above, I do a lot of rescue work) for a quick and dirty kill of any lingering fleas. I also think that the boarding kennel owes you some kind of compensation for her condition (the cuts and sores, not so much the weight loss which — while distressing – is frequently par for the course with some dogs in boarding).
What crap timing for dealing with this. Hopefully Nellie bounces back quickly with momma’s TLC.
poor nellie. I am feeling full of rage for you – I hope you give them an earful.