Tales from the Dark Side: When a Multiple Dog Caregiver Gets Sick

I recently awoke from the dead. Okay, I am being a touch dramatic but quite frankly, that is what it feels like some days. What actually happened is that I was very very sick. Like hospital stay sick, though I refused admission and lived to tell about it. Briefly, because this is not meant to be about me, I ended up with pancreatitis. Yeah, I had/have a dog disease. Go figure. Anyway, there is evidently no magic pill for this condition and it is seriously slow going back to normalcy. Setbacks did not help at all. The pancreas is a very fickle organ. I have, quite frankly, never felt this bad and I have had all of my extraneous organs already removed so that is saying quite a bit.

This whole ordeal scared me silly because I am a single multiple dog mom. There is no other immediately handy human caregiver to fall back on. So if things had been much worse, I would have or rather my dogs would have, been in a bind.

How long is it going to be till we get our walk?
Photo courtesy Heather Long.

I now realize that I need be better prepared for such a situation in the future. It occurred to me that there are probably other single heads of multiple dog households that should be as well. So I wanted to brainstorm some on how that could be done better.

Asking on the How Many Dogs Facebook page resulted in the usual suggestions: pet sitters, extra chews for extra crate time, fenced in yards, etc. All good info but expanding on this is important. It’s just not enough in the face of a real emergency if one is not at least somewhat prepared.

Make no mistake, I have several friends who would come at a moment’s notice to let my dogs out, who are very skilled with my crew. My dearest friend Jackie is who let my dogs out and fed them dinner, when it became clear that I was not leaving the ER with antibiotics for an infection. But she has her own multiple dog household so she cannot spend the night at a moment’s notice. Few people can offer that kind of a favor.

Now with my former crew, pre-Kenzo, I would have felt comfortable leaving them overnight having been fed, pottied and loved, with someone coming again in the morning. They would have been worried about where I was, but they were all trustworthy enough that I would not be worried for their safety or the safety of my house. But Kenzo is only 15 months old and 135#. I never leave him alone with the others outside of his crate for more than an hour or so, to run to the store. They all do wonderfully in those instances but an overnight stay with him loose even in the bedroom would have me worried about their stress levels. Trent would be stressed and he would be less apt to handle Kenzo’s pushing for play. Siri would manage them both well, but as I preach to my clients, we are not at this stage yet for the long term. So I could not leave him crated all night for that long. Hence my release “against medical advice”. It worked out.

So planning is now in progress. I have petsitter friends who do overnights. I will have them meet my dogs so if such an emergency occurs again and any one of them are free then, I have that option. I plan to start increasing the time they are alone for some outings and see how that plays out. I feel better about them having the whole house for this rather than just the bedroom, as they do when I leave for more than a store visit. Siri and Trent are trustworthy in the house, Kenzo is 95% trustworthy now and I am careful about what is out. Kenzo and Siri typically hang in the kitchen and wait my return. Trent tends to hang out in the bedroom. They have access to toys and bones in almost every room and they are wonderful with sharing. Extra space gives them less time in each other’s face should stress set in.

My dear friend Jackie knows how to feed my dogs but I will write up instructions just in case, so others can do it without worry. I have at least seven friends close enough by who can come into my house safely without fear of my dog’s wrath, and let them out and care for them. One has a key. I will now make and dispense other keys just in case!

In addition to my HMD Facebook page, I also asked on my HMD Yahoo group. I got some good suggestions on there as well, that prompted some of the above ideas.

Tara in Texas has a hubby and family close by but she is the back up caregiver for a friend in a similar position to myself. It was she who suggested the feeding instructions.

Kati in Maryland has a huge crew due to rescue work so she has an arranged back up plan of several friends who will do what is needed until she is well again.

So how did I manage without a plan? Well, I am very lucky. I have really wonderful dogs. We have a very good relationship and they clearly knew something was very wrong. They did their best to comfort me and keep me close. I have a fenced in yard with a privacy fence so pottying needs are easily tended to. I do feed raw so while that is not as easy as filling a bowl with kibble, I have it down to a routine so I managed. Pancreatitis and the subsequent inability to eat at all at first and then really lightly for a very long time, make for a huge amount of fatigue. I did use the aforementioned extra chew things and bones pretty much nightly at first.

Before I got worse, I sat on the floor with them and played easy training games. My finished attic that I use as a doggy playroom is priceless to me and them. Last but not least, some of you may be surprised to learn that even on the worst days, I still walked them. It was definitely a risky proposition for me but as I said, I have wonderful dogs and we have a great relationship. We walked far slower than usual and far shorter routes. My foremost thought was simply getting them out of their element every day. All this enabled me to sleep almost non-stop, aside from these activities, in the first week or so of my illness. For that I am grateful. It helped me start healing.

So now you have some ideas to start planning if you don’t have one now. If you do have a plan, especially if you have used your plan, feel free to add your ideas and experiences in the spaces below.