Helpppppp
Tonight I am going to the theatre and my brother was supposed to come over for an hour for me at 17.00pm, feed Desi for me at 18.00pm take her for a wee and put her in her cage then leave.
He just phoned and the poor boy is not well with a chest infection, sore throat etc and won't be able to come.
I don't know what to do now - can I leave Desi in her cage if I feed her at 17.00pm until we get back at around 23.00???? will she be alright if I do this? I just feel bad to leave her nearly 6 hours.
Please Help, any suggestions, will it be ok? I just worry to leave her that long.
Thanks
V

Can you not leave the door open so she can have a wander around and stretch her legs? :)

I would leave the door open, then she can stretch her legs and if she desperately needs a wee she wont be forced to wee in her cage :)

it is a good idea but even though she is toilet trained she might then still go in the house.  She is never in her cage for more than 4 hours at a time and usually sleeps.  She has also never soiled her cage only once when she was very little and not fully toilet trained.  I would worry to leave her free in the house as I have not done this with her yet and worry what a state we will come back to.

then you have to make a choice between going out and risking it or cancelling in and staying in :)

From your earlier posts it seems she is 7months old? If she toilets before you leave, she should not need to go again until you get back - after all, you sleep more than 6 hours at night (I assume) and she lasts out then. So the main problem is being left 6 hours in her crate, which I think is too long. Cant you keep her to the kitchen or somewhere that minimum damage can be done, with a radio on for background noise, and filled kong etc to keep her entertained.

I would give her a good play session before hand and then feed her so she is content and tired.I think she will then be ok...its only 2 hrs more than normal and its only once.Have you got a kong you can freeze with nice goodies in?
Archer

I agree-if you can tire her out a bit before hand, then she'd probably just snooze anyway while you were out!  Leave her a radio or something on so she has a bit of background noise.  As archer said, it's only a few hours more than normal, I'm sure she'll be okay-again, it's either that or you not going out! :)

Although your brother is unwell could you not drop her off to him?  Unless he is REALLY really unwell of course?  If he has a garden he would only need to open the door for her.  Hope you get something sorted :)

Hi Thanks for all your help.
I have a kong that she loves and always have the radio on so that is fine.  I don't want to take her to my brother as I am scared that she will catch his germs and I dont want him to have the trouble whilst he is unwell.  I think I will leave her in her cage and hopefully she will be ok I will take her for a nice walk and play beforehand and feed her before I leave.  She is always sleepy in the late afternoon / evening and she sleeps right through the night till 10:00am so I think I will take a chance just this once much as I am loathe to do so but I can't not go tonight it isn't that easy unfortunately. 
Van

I hope whatever you decides works out for you both. Incidentally, I don't think dogs can catch human germs (and vice versa - well not chest infection/sore throat anyway).

but feel free anyone to correct me if I'm wrong!  :-)

I seem to remember hearing that dogs can catch true tonsilitis......  It's one of the few zoowhatsits between man and canine.....

Oh wow! I've never heard of a dog even having tonsilitis, let alone catching it from a person! I used to suffer quite a bit with tonsilitis, but haven't ever had it since I've had my dogs. I'll definitely be paranoid if I ever get it again now tho!!

tell that to flynn that he cant kiss me when im feeling tonsilitisy!!! gosh he would move out!!! do dogs have tonsils????

well my brother does not have tonsillitis but that is kind of worrying if dogs can catch it. 

wow, my son had tonsilitis 19 times in 2 years (before finally having them removed) and my dog never caught it....nor did the rest of the family! i didn't think tonsilitis was infectious??

The suffix 'itis' after any part of the body simply means it's inflamed. You need to know the cause of the inflammation to know if it's infectious or contagious.
:)

Maybe the dogs just don't make as much of a fuss about it as the humans when they get it :d
Archer

hee hee.. i'd agree with that archer!  :-D

By the way, the term is zoonotic diseases, in case anyone wants to do a search on it. Haven't found anything about tonsilitis yet, and most of the sites talk about transmission from dogs to people, not the other way round  :-(

Well,

One of the kittens I bred caught tonsilitis off me was very unwell despite antibiotics (both of us ;) ) and recently I went down with very sore throat/tonsils, cough and sniffles the day after a very claustrophobic show, a week later both my dogs went down with something similar - question is, did I get kennel cough? or did the dogs catch what I had ??  Kennel cough was rife at the time and other dogs at the show definately caught it. The illness lasted exactly the same length of time for me and the dogs and followed the same course, coincidence or Zoonosis?  without swabs I'll never know ;)

I will see if I can find out any info from work on this as we have the Department of Zoology, Oxford Uni who I am sure will be able to give me some more info :)

Lucy
xx

Goat, how did she get on the other night without you?

-Kay

Do not know what breed of dog you have but if it is of a medium to large breed, please do not at any time take your dog for an energetic walk/run or play and then come home and feed it a meal for at least one to two hours. Excessive excercise then a meal can cause bloat, which is an emegency and sometimes death.