In this edition of Short Tails, I’m going to be reliving quite a scary experience. One that happened to us whilst house and pet sitting in Mission, Texas at the end of 2022.
When Giant Dogs Get Sick
House sitting comes with a lot of perks. Free accommodation, great pets, lovely hosts, and some amazing properties. However, it also comes with a few stresses that we have no qualms warning people about.
The majority of our house sits have come with at least one pet, and we quickly learned that most of them will get sick at some point. Especially dogs, who generally eat whatever they can get their paws on.
But during one of our final house sits in our first full year of traveling we experienced a night like no other, with Trix, the Giant Schnauzer.
Meet Trix
Trix was a great dog to care for. A terrific guard dog that would bark, even at her hosts whenever they came through the door. She was a loveable creature who despite her massive size still believed she was a puppy and always wanted to sit on your lap. She weighed a ton!
Walking her around the small community in which we stayed was like walking with a local celeb. Being the biggest dog around, everybody knew her and loved to come and say hello. She had this funny thing about shadows and would stare for hours confused at the ‘flickies’ as they were called, and be quite literally scared by her own shadow.
We loved our time with Trix, and her hosts Rob and Irene are great people that we stay in touch with to this day.
The Fateful Night
It had been a normal day in Mission. Trix was walked, had eaten her dinner, and we were chilling on the sofa getting ready to call it a night.
However, this would turn out to be one long night! Before we could turn the TV off Trix barfed up the entire contents of her stomach. Remember how I said Trix always liked to sit on you? Well, she was lying on Hannah when it happened. She, unfortunately, caught quite a lot of friendly fire.
We cleaned up Trix, the sofa, and Hannah of course and it seemed like a singular event that wasn’t of much concern. Dogs throw up all the time, it’s only if it happens regularly that it’s an issue. We went off to bed and I set an alarm for 1am to get up and check on the poorly Trix.
Round 2
We were in the guest room and Trix slept on her owner’s bed in their absence. She would storm into our room usually about 6am ready for a walk. But on this night, she burst through the doors a little after midnight and we knew something wasn’t right.
We figured she was in desperate need of the bathroom but the situation was far worse. Trix had been sick 9 times around the house including on her owner’s bed, the lounge rug, and various spots on the carpeted portions of the floor (she had carefully avoided the easy-to-clean areas of the floor!). We became quite panicked and had to make a call to Rob and Irene.
Thankfully the time difference worked in our favor. Trix’s owners were in Africa and it was breakfast time for them. They had a reassuring tone and said all we could do was keep an eye on her, make sure she drank some water, and if things got worse take her to the vet. The nearest one in Texas at that time of night was 2-hours drive away!
Operation Clean Up
With Trix evidently now empty and settled we began the clean-up operation. We still had weeks to spend at this house sit and the smell, as you can imagine, was pretty bad. So, in our underwear and wearing washing-up gloves and masks we felt (and looked) like we were cleaning up a murder scene. If any of the neighbors spotted us through the windows they would have surely called the cops.
We filled bin bags full of kitchen cloth and went heavy on the cleaning products. The washing machine was working double time and shortly before 2am we again contemplated calling it a night. However, we were completely wired by this point so we stayed up with Trix to make sure she was really finished being sick. Thankful to say, nothing else came out!
The Aftermath
I’m thankfully able to say that Trix was fine. She must have caught a bug that made her sick for a while. We were reassured the next day when we spoke to the neighbor and he said all three of his big labradors had also been sick the day before. It’s likely a sickness for dogs was doing the local rounds.
We put Trix on a diet of rice, plenty of water, and eventually some cooked chicken, and within a few days she was as right as rain.
It was a scary situation for us because there was not a lot we could do to help Trix. Even the vet, 2 hours away, was unlikely to be of any benefit at that time of night. Thankfully we had some reassuring pet owners to call and the comfort of a 24/7 vet helpline through Trusted Housesitters on hand if we needed it.
The Owners Return
Although they were hugely concerned for Trix, I’m sure Rob and Irene were also concerned about the lasting damage to their house following Trix’s bout of sickness.
They needn’t have worried. Thanks to our midnight ‘murder scene’ clean up, they couldn’t tell anything had happened. We received a special commendation in our house sit review for having nursed Trix through her traumatic night and getting the house spic-and-span.
Learn More About House Sitting
If you’d like to discover more information about how we use house sitting to travel the world full-time, sign up for a free Trusted Housesitters membership. It takes a few seconds and requires just a few simple details to get started on the road to house sitting around the world.
To complete an exchange you’ll need to become a full paying member. THS memberships start at $129/year but use code BEACHES25 to secure a 25% discount on any membership option, click here to sign up in seconds. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the house sitting process.
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