Saturday, 7 March 2020: Centro Veterinario Clinic

The first thing on the agenda for this morning for Justin was to go explore outside.  He knew what he would find... and, sure enough, Rudenia was dead. (Yes, one of the pigs is dead.)  

Max started out fascinated with the pigs.  I learned that Great Danes were bread to flush out wild boars.  Well, his fascination turned to terrorizing.  What was actually comical at first probably caused the poor ol’ girl to have a heart attack.  Previously, Max had been chasing Keken when she was outside of her pen and around on the property.  She’d sort of charge him and soon after she’d head back into her pen.  Max would quickly lose interest and move on. Yesterday he was barking and barking and we didn’t really worry about it.  Later in the evening, he started again.  Justin went out there to learn that Max was inside the pen and this time, he was terrorizing Rudenia.  Her ear was rather tattered and at one point he had a pretty good grip on her hind quarter. Justin called Max and he came right away.  He brought Max inside not really knowing what had happened but knowing that we needed the light of day for more assessment.  About the only was I can sleep at night is to think that Max knew Rudinia was old, weak and dying.  He knew she was weak.  Animals know.  

First thing this morning, Justin put on some real shoes and a long sleeved shirt.  As much as I was rather looking forward to the pigs being gone, this isn’t how I imagined it rolling out.  We asked Abraham if he wanted to butcher her but he said no.  He got Jonathan to help him dig a hole and bury her.  And now there is one.  

We’d made an appointment at the vet for 9:00am which meant we needed to be on the road by 7:30.  Back to Merida, this time to take Max for bloodwork prior to surgery.  Yes, we are keeping him.  Yes, even after all this.  Once his testosterone levels have leveled off, than we will see what kind of dog we have.  Next Wednesday, neutering and gastropexia are scheduled for 4:00pm.  Seems Great Danes are prone to their stomach flipping.  This is fatal and fast — there’s not much you can do about it except stitching the stomach to the side of the abdominal wall.  Justin lost a Great Dane several years ago to this malady and if we are going to keep Max, let’s not go down that road again.