This month has started quiet for us, Elkie has just had her hips and elbows x-rayed for the KC/BVA scheme the assessement of the x-rays usually takes between four to six weeks, as soon as we have them we will put them on her page. On the weekend of the 18th & 19th we will be at two International Shows at Lausanne in Switzerland with Geilo and Elkie, from there we will take Madi, Uschi Geilo and Elkie to Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland for their holiday in the mountains. This will be Elkie's first trip to Grindelwald, the others have been for the last few years, we hope to have some nice pictures for our homepage when we return.

After the shows in Lausanne we started our journey to Grindelwald, we left our hotel in Lausanne around 9.00am, within five minutes of driving Uschi started to become distressed in the van, we pulled over to see how she was. After calming her we drove for about fifteen minutes and she became distressed again, Jill pulled off the motorway and we took her out of the van, she appeared very hot and upset. Fortunately we found a Swiss lady walking her Westie who spoke good English, we told her one of our dogs was very ill and we needed a vet urgently. Without any hesitation she said she would take us to a vet about fifteen minutes away, we followed her in her car to a multi story car park, leaving Jill and the other dogs I took Uschi with the lady to the vet, we had to walk through the underground carpark to a lift. Getting out of the lift we had a short walk to the vets surgery, he explained he was preparing to operate and could not help, however he could see the need for urgent treatment and telephone the Bern University Veterinary Hospital. Within yards of getting back to the van Uschi collapsed , her lips were starting to go blue and she was hot, salvating, breathing heavy and rasping, from this we thought it was either her heart or heatstroke. The outside temperature was only six degrees and we had the air conditioning on in the van.

When we arrived at the Veterinary Hospital around 10.15 Uschi collapsed again as we entered the building, there were three vets waiting to rush her into intensive care. After around forty five minutes the vet  who was in charge of her care came to see us, she explained that Uschi was dangerously ill with heatstroke and may not recover, we may even have to consider having her put to sleep. We were heart broken with this news, it was a cold day and the heatstroke was brought on by some kind of stress, we could not believe this as Uschi is a seasoned traveller. She could not possibly have become phobic to the van or travelling, she has travelled in cars, vans, ferries, buses, trains, cable cars and lifts, only a few weeks ago she travelled to Maaestricht in the Netherlands with us and earlier in the year to Norway.

SO BEWARE OF HEAT STROKE AND REMEMBER IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A HOT DAY, AS WE EXPERIENCED THE TEMPERATURE WAS ONLY SIX DEGREES - WE WOULD ALSO ADVISE YOU TO CARRY A DOG FIRST AID BOX, PLENTY OF WATER FOR DRINKING AND ABSORBANT TOWELS TO SOAK IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

After great care by the veterinary team she was able to leave and come home with us, however this was not without problems, Uschi had to be sedated as a previous run out in the van the day before we were to leave Switzerland resulted in another episode. On the return trip from Bern I sat in the back of the van with Uschi to monitor her progress and check her temperature and other vital signs that she was about to relapse, Jill drove to Calais where we stayed the night in a hotel with only two very short stops for fuel. The following morning we arrived at the Pet Passport Control at the Tunnel in Calais for our schedule train, we explained to the staff one of our dogs was ill, was it possible to travell to England on an earlier train. All the Pet Passports were in order and at the main check in we were allocated an earlier train, after arriving in Dover we visited our friends (Sonja and Reg) home for a short break before our final four hour journey home. We eventually arrived home shortly after midnight after one of the worst trips we had ever made.

Had we been five minutes later arriving at Bern University Veterinary Hospital and without the fantastic care Uschi received   we would certainly not have brought he home alive.

We had one beautiful day in the mountains above Grindelwald with our other dogs Geilo, Madi and Elkie where we spent the day with Margaret and Peter Catchpole who were on holiday at the same time with their female from us Heidi.

Since we returned home Uschi has been very well, she is still not 100% in the van, we will have to take her on frequent short trips, prior to this episode she went out with me every day in the van with no problems, even now she rushes to the door to go with me.