Why I believe the Country Club Pet Resort played a role in the death of my dog

Sorry readers to have not posted so long, and most importantly sorry to have to post something of this nature.

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Update 6th May 2014 (afternoon):
The Fiance' had a call with the owner, they had offered to pay for cremation (through their resort), however we had already paid for the cremation through a different vet.



Update 6th May 2014: The Fiance' has called again today to talk to a person of importance, they said the owner would call back.

Which brings to mind, why did a manager/owner not call or investigate when we removed our pet from their place early and complained. If I was a reputable business I would want to understand why any customer was upset and what has happened, in order to stop similar occurrences happening in the future.

We are having to CHASE them up for any information, any support, any honest from them.
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Update: we have recently found these reviews as well they can be found here
There are a few good reviews, and then the bad reviews keep on coming. I wish we knew this beforehand!
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So I moved to Calgary about 2 months ago. My pet Rottweiler came over on the April 13th 2014. He was placed in the Country Club Pet Resort in Calgary one day after arriving, we had to put him down yesterday (2nd May 2014).

Now this post is not to say that they 'killed' my dog. This post is to make readers aware of placing pets in kennels, and to be aware of possible neglect and a lack of care, in particular the Country Club Pet Resort.

Our dearly loved Rottweiler Jaxon had a condition commonly known as wobblers disease/syndrome. Its symptoms can be found here.

This is Jaxon:

Basically:

• A spinal condition that affects movement, control of walking, unable to run and sprint, depending on the severity. 
• Its symptom list can be quite long (quoting the above link)
• Strange, wobbly gait
• Neck pain, stiffness
• Weakness
• Possible short-strided walking, spastic with a floating appearance or very weak in the front limbs
• Possibly unable to walk – partial or complete paralysis
• Possible muscle loss near the shoulders
• Possible worn or scuffed toenails from uneven walking
• Increased extension of all four limbs
• Difficulty getting up from lying position

The reason I list the symptoms is because they are quite obvious symptoms to spot (I will come back to why it is important they are obvious later on).

Prior to Canada:

Our dear Jaxon prior to flying to Canada had been diagnosed with this condition, however his case was not severe, we were advised to not let him run or sprint. Being a 2 year old dog, he was very happy and would sprint around the room jumping on the couch when we would come home. So he was quite happy and go lucky.

Jaxon was also health checked and given the go ahead and allowed to fly.

After landing:

I picked up Jaxon from the Cargo bay, and he was alert, extremely excited to see me. My fiance' and I took him to a pet friendly hotel for the night, so that we could spend over night with him. Jaxon seemed very normal and quite active and happy for the night with us. We did not have any worries at all at this time.

This is him standing after meeting my Fiance' after the flight:

The reason for choosing Country Club Pet Resort:

Jaxon was to spend the night in the hotel with us and then be placed in a kennel for a month or so, until we were able to find a place to rent or buy.

As Jaxon is so valuable to us, the Fiance' chose the Country Club Pet Resort for the extra care that could be provided, things like mats on the floor, a heated room, walks and cuddles each and every day.

It is called the 'all inclusive package' which states clearly:

Your pet's all inclusive package includes:

• 3 times a day excercising and playing in our romping corrals (with or without a friend)
• Individual suite
• 1-2 Meals a day with snacks in between
• Daily nose to toes wellness inspection
• Daily Individual Cuddles and T.L.C.

* plus a rotation of one of the following activities daily:

• Brushing and Body Massage
• Indoor or outdoor play time in our playschool
• Off-leash park including playing ball and chase

That spelling mistake is from their website, not my mistake. Anyhow, the Country Club Pet Resort was clearly made aware of Jaxons condition, that he was not to run, not to be allowed to play with other very active dogs. We were even told that they had dealt with dogs with wobblers syndrome before, and as such were very capable and confident of safely keeping Jaxon.

As a result we paid the premium to make sure our dog was to have the highest care while we were unable to be with him. We were trying to be the best owners possible.

We did not choose a VIP special needs room, as Jaxon appeared to us to be as normal as he could be for his condition, that is to say; he was the same as he was in Australia.

Everyday my Fiance' or her mother would call the pet resort, because my Fiance' is what you would say 'OCD' about the health and care of her dog. Every time they called, they were told Jaxon is fine and to not stress, that he is happy and doing fine.

Showing up unannounced is when it all went wrong:
My Fiance' was stressing without Jaxon, emotionally a mess, unable to function normally with out him. Worry about his care, his health and how she was a bad owner for putting him in a kennel. Every night I would re assure her that there was no reason to worry as we had him at a very reputable and expensive place, assuming he was gaining the care and attention we expected.

One night she was worse than normal stressing about him, she had the day off work the next day and I said just go see him, to put your mind at rest.

My Fiance' and her mother went to the resort to see Jaxon, they did not call prior, as the website states that appointments are unnecessary.

Directly from their website : Found here 
 *Daily tours between 1-3 pm (no appointment necessary)

Upon arriving to see Jaxon,  they were told his was a 'little' stiff today. Upon bringing him out he could barely walk, which concerned them. They took Jaxon to the grass, and he was not able to walk correctly to the grass, Jaxon would fall over many times. He would get excited wag his tail and fall. Upon further inspect he had dried poo on his bum.

 After this happening my Fiance' promptly decided to take Jaxon out of the pet resort.

Her mother called me very upset, crying, saying he is so bad, falling over his front paws, and has never been like this. Being the high reputable resort I was in disbelief.

They took Jaxon straight to the emergency VET. He was given 3 types of medication, an anti inflammatory to help the swelling in his legs and a muscle relaxant. Jaxon had lost 5kgs of weight, mostly muscle. I will come back to this further on, but this is important.

Jaxon also drank furiously when given water, indicating a high amount of thirst, basically not given water.

They headed up to her uncles which is an hour away, as they have dogs and Jaxon would be able to recover. Jessica took the week off work to be able to spend 24/7 with him.

The 1st day after was a little recovery, but the luck only lasted so long:
The first day (30th  April 2014) Jaxon seemed to improve a little bit. My fiance' was able to look after him on her own, her uncle had placed a ramp for 3 stairs, as he was unable to walk up or down them.

The following day Jaxon got much worse, he was unable to walk down the ramp with assistance, she basically had to hold his whole weight to get him anywhere in the house. She would constantly call me crying while I was at work.

She took Jaxon outside to pee and he did not make it up the ramp, he fell and hurt himself. It took her an hour to get him inside. After this I took a personal day at work, so that I could come up that night and be with them to help care for Jaxon.

I was shocked at the condition of my dog, who once was happy, able to run to me as a walked in a room, was now stuck laying on his side on the couch, left to wag his tail and bark in excitement. His paws had cuts on the top, from tripping over his front feet. They looked like carpet burns, or cigarette burn on some ones hands. Little circles of cuts, where the skin had been scrapped off.

I thought I would be able to lift his spirits and lift him enough while walking to allow his muscle to strengthen up after having lost so much. To my horror Jaxon was unable to even wee or poo without support.  It was clear that his wobblers condition had become severe.

We had a harness for him, to allow us to hold him up, we would use a towel under his stomach to help raise his back legs. This was not enough for him to walk.

In order to not go into further detail on his condition, or how horrible and sudden his decline was I will not write any more on it. On the 2nd May 2014 we chose to put him to sleep. I had to carry him into the final room.


Country Club Pet Resort and their lack of care:

It is my honest belief that Country Club Pet resort has some responsibility to bare, in other words, they played a role in the sudden decline and ultimate the death of my beloved pet.




Here is my reasoning:

• Country Club Pet Resort all inclusive package included a daily nose to to toes wellness inspection. Why did they not inform us that Jaxon was unable to walkas well as when we had dropped him off, or that he had declined in health.

• Also why did he have dry poo on his bum? This would show that they did not do their inspection with which we had paid for. This is the reason we were comfortable with having him there.
• Jaxon lost 5kgs on muscle in 2 weeks and 2 days at the resort, how does an animal lose that much muscle that quickly if they had been walked multiple times a day, as well as checked all over once a day. This they did not alert us of. Which in my opinion is something would be easily noticeable.

Previously I mentioned the symptoms of Wobblers disease were obvious and that it is important. The following is above is why.

• Having wobblers syndrome animals previously,they should be able to understand the condition. If they were taking care of him as expected, how did they not notice the sudden and obvious decline. They claimed to have experience with the symptoms and disease, they should have had a careful eye on him.

• Having made them very aware of the condition, and how important he was too us, we were expecting them to make us aware of any change, no matter how small. This they failed to do.

• If we had known he had declined, we would have as my Fiance' had done, taken him to a place where he could be cared for 24/7. As they did not alert us to any changes, his condition was much worse than it could have been.

• My Fiance' called them after wards to complain to them, and was told they had NOT previously dealt with wobblers syndrome animals previously, quite a back-flip before placing Jaxon into the resort and paying the money. We had been told this is a case of 'he said she said', that is; who knows what is true. But that still does not take away the confidence and expertise they instilled in us that they were 100% capable of looking after Jaxon and dealing safely with his condition.

• The lady was to investigate why we were not alerted early to Jaxons decline in health, but as yet we have heard nothing from them

• They have not shown any sympathy, they merely have been focusing on absolving themselves of any responsibility. They have not offered to refunded any money at all, despite being forced to take him out of the kennel 'early' due to his declining condition.

The Country Club Pet Resort website is here

I will not say they killed our beloved dog, however I will say that I believe they had many failings in their care of Jaxon which attributed to his sudden decline and ultimately his death.

They either failed to check Jaxon's health everyday, or everyday they checked and did not inform us. Either way, the end result is that we were not given the chance to take care of Jaxon as soon as his wobblers syndrome had flared up.

This post is to make other owners to be careful with kennels and pet resorts. I am very angry and hurt, and have attempted to be as unbiased as possible. I do not have any photos of Jaxon's paws to prove his condition, as at the time we were focused on helping him get better. This is also why I say they DID NOT kill my dog, but they DO hold some responsibility due to their failings in everything they made us believe they would do.

The fact that they demanded payment before taking Jaxon out of the kennel despite his condition makes me sick, the fact they have not offered anything at all during this time is terrible. Perhaps they did not offer any money or support due to that showing an acknowledgement of wrong doing. However due to them offering no support I have posted this to make everyone aware.

We decided to put Jaxon to sleep 3 days after removing him from the resort.

Sorry again to post something like this.

Haydn