Our two options remaining for the dog is a dog sitter, or take her to a kennel. Dog sitters are expensive… $45/day for 3 x 1/2 hour visits… not enough time for the dog I think. And I don’t want her in a kennel where she’s in a box all day long. She still sleeps in her kennel at night here and likes it just fine, but I’d rather her be able to roam during the day.

We found the perfect spot for Maggie… Harry and Rupert’s Hotel for Dogs We went out there sunday for a visit, and Maggie got to play with a dozen or so dogs, running around a large fenced in area. The dog run is over an acre for sure, and the sleeping quarters is a converted barn. Maggie will get an old horse stall all to herself. Rather a converted horse stall, it’s got a floor, bed, and her own food/water bowls. And it’s cheaper than expected… $40/day. That and there’s someone around 24 hours/day makes it a done deal.

It’s been a while since Maggie got to run around with a bunch of dogs off leash, and she did great! She was scared quite a bit at first, but soon managed to relax enough to play with another pup a bit. She was still quite excited/nervous as she was slobbery! Foot long string of drool pretty much the whole time there, and refused water even though it was really hot out. Never seen her do that before… I’m sure the anxiety will drop within a few hours of her being there and it would have been nice to spend a bit more time there to see, but it’s a busy place and our visit time was up.

So, dog’s taken care of for our trip, so that turns my attention back to the house and our soon to be arriving visitors…

I decided that I should put a quick fix on the downstairs bathroom… it’s needs an overhaul, and might as well get it done before company arrives. I would have liked to redo the shower, but there’s a line that you have to draw somewhere with these old houses as we are not doing a full gut on it.

I’ve got the drywall up, now it’s mud/tape time. Once I’ve got the primer on the walls, I’ll get on the flooring…

Here’s a few shots of the bathroom in progress, and a few shots of nap time.

My vet is pretty awesome and she recommended we also get her stomach tacked. It’s a procedure called Gastropexy and it’s done to prevent Bloat or GVT which is a serious, life threatening, and fast killing condition. The dog’s stomach flips, trapping gas and cutting of blood flow… they can die within hours.

Danes are the #1 at risk dog for bloat (Check the previous link above to see a chart of the top 25 at risk dogs) so it was a no brainer. Well, almost a no brainer… Our vet started calling a few places for prices and we were looking at $1300 -$1500 for it… that seemed a bit much to spend on an elective, preventative procedure…

In the end, one of our vet’s buddies made room in his schedule and agreed to take Maggie in even though she wasn’t his patient. Now that’s a huge win, because this vet is a large breed specialist, and is booked up way in advance. And we got the procedure for less than $300. Wins everywhere.

We also got her micro-chipped… I actually expected this procedure to be in the hundreds of dollars as well for some reason, and never asked. It was about $30 for a ‘permanent’ id that will always link back to us.

So all in, it cost less than $800 for the surgery including meds and a lampshade…. Maggie shows no signs of trying to lick the stitches yet, so I’m not putting it on her unless I have to leave her alone, or she’s not leaving the incision alone.

Part of the prep for surgery is no food or water after 8 the day before. We dropped her off at about 8 day of surgery, and got a call just before lunch that she was all done and everything was perfect. No issues or complications, and our vet was there and scrubbed in with the surgeon to learn the gastropexy procedure. She would be ready to go home later in the day they said… anesthetic needs to wear off.

We picked up a very groggy dog about 4… Maggie is a pretty hyper puppy, especially when people are around. But still coming out of anesthesia her tail was barely twitching when she saw us. Lifting the 65lb dog into the back seat of the truck was a bit of a challenge, but since she was zoned, she didn’t put up too much of a fight. Getting her out once we got home was a different story She did not want to come out and was squirming out of the way any time I tried to get a grip to lift her out.

It took prolly 10 minutes of cajoling to get her to stand up so I could lift her out of the truck…. she slowly made her way to her kennel and crashed.

About every hour we tried to roust her to see if she needed to go out or would take some water… it’s been over 24 hours since she’s eaten or drank any water and I’m starting to get nervous. She eventually asked to go out at about 5am but still didn’t want any water. Couple more hours nap and she was up and ready for some food… but no water, so we are pushing 36 hours without a drop of water… that can’t be good for the dog. So, I wet down her kibbles and she goes for it, then has more water. fiiiinally…

So here are a few pics of her from last night… she was pretty drugged up and not very happy
And no, she does not have a white pillow and a black blanket in her kennel… those are both smaller pieces of bedding that were under her at one point… she fidgets a lot and she’d pushed them out from under her