Dear dog dies after kennel stay

A couple who left their $7000 dog with a Hawke’s Bay kennel while they went on holiday returned 12 days later to find the pet so sick it had to be rushed it to a veterinarian but died a short time later.

Prateek Reliya and his wife left their 1-year-old dog, a male Japanese Akita named Cash, at St Georges Kennels near Havelock North on the evening of May 13. The couple flew to the Cook Islands the following day for a holiday, returning on Wednesday.

About 9.30am on Thursday Reliya went to the kennels to collect Cash. ‘‘The guy at the kennels said Cash had been a bit unwell,’’ he said.

‘‘He was right in the corner of his kennel – there was urine everywhere. All he could do was wag his tail and make a bit of a noise. I’d never seen him look so bad,’’ Reliya said.

When he picked Cash up, he noticed foam coming from his mouth. ‘‘The guy at the kennel said [Cash] had had a bit of a cough but that he was better than he had been a few days earlier,’’ he said. Reliya took Cash straight to a vet. ‘‘The vet looked at him and took him inside straight away and put him on oxygen,’’ he said.

‘‘The vet said he was pretty much on his last breath. He was struggling so much just to breathe . . . A few minutes later, he passed.’’

An autopsy on Thursday revealed that Cash had a lung infection.

‘‘It just makes me so mad that the kennel did nothing when Cash started getting ill,’’ Reliya said.

He said Cash would be cremated. The couple were speaking to a lawyer about possible legal action.

Kennel manager Philip Allerby said Cash did not display signs of illness until Tuesday, and ‘‘at that time they appeared to be mild and the same as kennel cough, which is so prevalent in the community at the moment that it has been the subject of several media reports’’.

‘‘Cash’s symptoms appeared to improve overnight, and he seemed better on Wednesday. If I felt that the illness endangered him at all, I would obviously have sought medical advice,’’ Allerby said.

He said he did not accept responsibility for Cash’s death.