St Agnes

(backblip) The day started well. We got in touch with the Dascia garage & discovered it was quite close. Although they were really busy post-lockdown, they couldn't have been nicer and more apologetic and promised to sort the car out asap. We had travelled in a convoy, so thankfully we had Dan's car to get back from the garage.

Because, however, we were one car down, we rearranged our itenary and ended up having a long walk into St Agnes and then down to the beach. It's a beautiful village and beach and there were loads of children out with their surf boards. The dogs were happy and all was well but perhaps this long walk was where things started to go wrong? Caesar was thirsty and kept guzzling loads of water too.

When we got back to the site, he started to act peculiarly. It was obvious he was in a lot of discomfort and very, very restless. He kept wretching but nothing was coming up. He could not sit down.

Dan's mum was on hand by phone (she manages a vet practice) and told us to get medical attention immediately. She informed us that this could potentially be life threatening. The mood amongst us changed very rapidly as we realised that our beautiful dog was in such a grave situation. We caught the vets just in time before closure and they said to get him there straightaway! Truro was a 20 minute drive away &, once again, we were so thankful for Dan and his car.

The vet examined him and said that emergency surgery was needed for intestinal torsion. She advised us that there was no guarantee of success. If his stomach was necrotic (black) it would be too late and he would be put down. Thus began an agonising 4 hours wait. We were utterly distraught and shocked; how could our lively, fit & healthy 6 year old dog now be in a life-threatening situation. I've never prayed so hard in my life!

4 hours later, we got the call. He had survived and was doing ok but had lost his spleen because that had already become necrotic. Honestly, I can't express how relieved we all were! The nurse who was to stay with him overnight was a GSD owner, so we knew he would be in loving hands. We all had to have a dram of whiskey to calm our nerves!

What a bloody year! What a holiday too :(
Nothing really matters though so long as he is ok.