My dog has just died at a boarding kennel

[Orc]

Looking for advice. We are on holiday and my dog has just died at a boarding kennel.

We have been using this kennel for years. They phoned me at 9.45 to say he had shallow breathing. And that they would normally take him to the vet straight away but they were short staffed and could not.

So they phoned my emergency contact, my sister, who lives 40 minutes away. By the time she had got there he had died. They said “ideally we like emergency contacts to live closer”, whilst also admitting that they had failed him.

I am so shocked and angry. We trusted them. I also feel like I have let him down as I was not there when he needed me.

I’m not sure how to process this but I feel like they could have done more to help him. What should I do?

DSis is taking him to the vet so we can find out how he died.

edited to add: he died about an hour after they first called. My sister did tell them it would take her 40 to 45 mins to get to them. The kennels are a 15 min drive from the vet.

It is really hard to lose a dog and I'm so sorry for your loss. I have lost two - one was jumping into the car on the Sunday after a long walk but by the Tuesday he was in dire straits. He had been investigated for limping a few months earlier. The vet said to me that she reckoned they would have found something more sinister back then if they had run more tests.

It is much harder to see an emergency vet than you might think. One of mine collapsed a few weeks ago and I had to race him there, but it took ages to even get him out to the car and then we had to drive, then get him out at the other end, none of which was easy.

Your boy was spared this. It may be that the post morten will show that he had something unsurvivable and maybe even something he was hiding from you. Dogs do often go down very, very quickly sadly xxx

Thanks @Arran2024 , and sorry for your losses. That’s desperately sad about your dogs. Our normal vet was open on Saturday but perhaps they would not have been able to save him. And whilst Riley would always jump into the car if you asked him, he really hated car journeys.

I think OP said 5 years earlier. It must be just devastating.

Yes, we had him for just over 5 years. He was a rescue so we don’t really know how old he was. The vet estimated his age a couple of years ago, and according to that estimate, he would be about 7 now. But he could have been older. We don’t know. He didn’t seem like an “old” dog, though.

Offering sympathy to you and your family, op

Thank you for your lovely replies. They are helpful.

Just had the weirdest phone call from the kennel owner, who I have never met or spoken to before. She said that the woman on the phone yesterday “mis-spoke” and they would always take a dog to the vet because she herself is always on the premises (which, without being outing, I think is true, as there’s a large house in the grounds that I assume she lives in).

So I asked why they didn’t actually do that and she fumbled around, called my dog “it” instead of “he” or even “Riley”, and then said the woman we dealt with must have been so upset herself that she wasn’t thinking straight. And that the people working yesterday were “really very upset”. I reminded them that they’d upset my sister by suggesting she wasn’t sufficiently local as a contact (my sister is also a customer of theirs btw and has used them for her dog - presumably she was local enough then). There was a load of mumbling about difficulty in getting to a vet and I reminded them that our vet surgery is 15 mins from them and was open yesterday morning. I asked again why they hadn’t tried and she said “the dog was dead by 9am” (they do their morning checks at 8.30 and I was first called at 8.44, then again at 8.57 to say he had got worse, with my sister being called in between).

Then she started talking about their great reputation of 40+ years and how all her staff are very compassionate.

Of course all of this might still be true but it felt like damage limitation/PR rather than genuinely being sorry.

They're at it. That's appalling.

8.30? Thats quite a late opening, we have the dogs up and out for breakfast at 7am. The owner will stay on site, her insurance and license will state someone has to be on the premises 24/7.

She's called you because she knows her staff have fucked up. Even being short staffed, the owner was there so could have stepped in or taken Riley to the vets. And you should be claiming post mortem costs from her insurance.

That’s a good suggestion, @CombatBarbie ; I think I will follow up on that.

Yes I’m sure she lives on site. And I am sure she was there at the time and the staff presumably didn’t ask her to help.

I am so sorry to hear about poor Riley!
Personally I would ask when they realised that he was poorly. Also at what times the dogs on their premises get checked ( I assume there should be some kind of written log?) When exactly they realised that he wasn't well etc.
I am not saying that they did anything wrong and he way have had a sudden bleed/ heart attack where nothing could have been done and which could have happened very quickly.
I am saying this as a dog owner and also as a vet.
I hope you and your family will be okay!
Sending lots of love to all of you!

I’d be asking for a full investigation and wanting to see CCTV proof of what time your dog was attended to etc.

How many times has your dog been to these kernels before OP?

Op in order to be registered they’d have also had their own vet. Did you ask about that option?

@Extragreen he had been loads of times previously and was used to them, had a favourite member of staff that he would greet with a swish of the tail and leaning on them.

I didn’t ask about them having their own vet as I didn’t know that.

Cctv of what? The only cameras we have are for our front gate and rear boundary as we back onto a forest.

I’m so sorry, this is just awful. You’re getting great advice on how to proceed, but I just wanted to offer my sympathy, you must be absolutely gutted. Riley should have been safe there.

So… yes they do need to have their own vet in order to be licensed (minimum standard AND higher standard)

and if he’s been them multiple times andyou haven’t left with even the whiff of a concern, could it be that not moving him was in fact in his best interests at the time and saved him dying in a very anxious state

I said before on this thread that they're shitting themselves, and the conversation with the owner confirms it.

If she lives on site she should have stepped up when staffing levels were low. 8.30 is ridiculously late to do a morning check. Did you mention what time bedtime checks are? It would be interesting to know how long the dogs are left alone for overnight.

They've got away with poor practices for a long time, and built their reputation on luck.

Riley has gone now, bless him, but you can help make sure other doggies aren't neglected. Speak out locally. Leave a bad review. Complain to the council. Pursue her for the PM fee at least.

Their entire attitude would be completely different if this were the case. Instead they're trying to shift the blame away from themselves. They know fine they've fucked up here.

@Orc our insurance states that any incident must be reported within 72 hours, I'm guessing other insurance company's will have a similar clause.

As @CombatBarbie said, 8:30 is quite a late start.
We are in the the kennels at 6am when we do a quick visual check before individually walking them.

If we went in at 8.30 I'm fairly sure we would be walking into shit everywhere 😳 accidents happen which is fine for 1 or 2 kennels but 18 of them would be a horrendous day!

Thank you for sharing your beautiful boy with us. Much love, you are in all our thoughts 🐾

It does sound like they have fucked up and the owner is trying to minimise the damages now. Yes, you could pursue them about it, but if I were you, I probably wouldn't. It doesn't change that Riley is gone. See what the inquest says first, and then see what you want to do after that. It might be that even if they had got him to the vet, the outcome would have been the same. I have had dogs for decades, and they can go from apparently in good health to very sick very quickly. From my experience, it is entirely possible that there were no symptoms in advance.

Call was definitely damage limitation and fabrications.

Yes. @CunningLinguist2