right place right time

On holiday in a small fairly remote cottage in south wales with great dane. Good hols but midway after a day on beach the dane seemed distressed and wanted to be sick. 15 mins later looked really poorly. Rang the local vet provided by the cottage owner and got to his surgery 15 mins later. When he looked at Prince he told us it was "bloat" generally terminal in danes (gastric torsion) and that he couldn't help as he was a large animal vet. We asked if there was anyone else and he arranged for us to get to Llanelli, a small town about 12 miles away, where there was a small animal vet, a half hour ride away but told us he thought the dog would be dead by the time we arrived. Hairaising journey but still alive when we got there but only just. Required immediate surgery by the young locum vet who had waited in for us as it was getting quite late. Not hopeful but went back to cottage. Got a call the next morning asking that we collect dog as he was out of his "cage" and not letting anyone in! We thought that was encouraging. The locum vet, who was only there for a few days, had just finished work as a vet in a Great Dane rescue centre and had operated on 6 danes and Prince was the second in a row he had saved. He explained that he had found out that they need plenty of saline and minimal anaesthetic. We were able to take him away and ended the holiday. We had to take Prince to our own vets on our return and he confirmed, after examining him, that it is unlikely he would have been able to save him looking at the extent of the surgery that had been done. The coincidences were that the first vet was able to get hold of someone at the other surgery out of hours and who was actually prepared to see us, the road was unusually clear so we could make very good time, the dog didn't die on route and it was a vet with an extensive knowledge of great danes who was covering a small surgery and the fact that our vet admitted he probably couldn't have saved him had it happened at home in Basingstoke. Not as earth shattering as some it had a profound effect on our lives as he was a much loved "rescue" dane who deserved a better crack at life.