02/09/2026
Our experience with Sentabarcs Kennels – Hare Park Farm
On 19th August, we dropped our happy, healthy French Bulldog, Lola, off at Sentabarcs Kennels at Hare Park Farm, along Royston Road. She was due to come home on 27th August.
Lola was incontinent through her bladder, and the kennel was fully informed of this before her stay. We provided her own incontinent bed and made sure they were aware of her needs.
Before Lola went to the kennels, she was weighed at the vets. She was weighed again when she was admitted to the vets on the day we collected her. She had lost 1kg in weight during her stay, which is a significant amount for a small French Bulldog.
On 26th August, we contacted the kennels to ask how we could pay for Lola’s stay. It was during that conversation that we were told, for the first time, that Lola had blood in her urine. We had not been contacted beforehand to inform us of this.
We immediately arranged a veterinary appointment for her the following evening. However, because we were concerned about her, we decided to collect her the next morning instead.
We feel that we should have been informed about the blood in Lola’s urine as soon as it was noticed. We are also deeply concerned that, had we not contacted the kennels to ask about payment, we may not have been told about it at that point at all. We cannot know whether we would have been informed promptly, but this is something that has caused us considerable distress and concern.
When we arrived to collect Lola, she was wet, cold and strongly smelled of urine. Once we got her into the car, we noticed that her tongue and mouth were blue and that she was struggling to breathe.
Her breathing deteriorated rapidly while we were driving, so we took her straight to the vets. She was rushed in immediately and placed on oxygen. She became so seriously unwell that she had to be sedated and intubated to try to stabilise her breathing.
While this was happening, we contacted the kennels to ask what had happened to our dog. Rather than receiving an explanation or any meaningful information about Lola’s condition, we felt that the kennel became defensive and denied that she had been unwell.
An X-ray was carried out while Lola was sedated, which showed that she had severe pneumonia and a significant amount of fluid in her lungs.
We contacted the kennels again and explained what the vets had found. Unfortunately, we found the response to be extremely upsetting. We felt that our concerns were dismissed and that the conversation was passive-aggressive rather than focused on understanding what had happened to Lola.
After spending the day fighting to save her, the vets eventually told us that there was simply too much fluid in her lungs and that they could not save her. We were faced with the devastating decision to have our beloved Lola put to sleep.
What has made this experience even more heartbreaking is that not once did anyone from the kennels apologise, show remorse or express any genuine sympathy for what had happened to Lola or for the loss we were going through. At a time when we had just lost a much-loved member of our family, we were met with defensiveness rather than compassion.
We took Lola to the kennels as a happy and healthy dog. We brought her home in a condition where she was fighting for her life, and ultimately we lost her.
We are left devastated, angry and heartbroken. We paid approximately £300 for her kennel stay and around £900 in veterinary costs, but the financial cost is insignificant compared with losing Lola.
Our biggest question is how a dog could lose 1kg in weight, become so seriously ill, develop severe pneumonia and have such a significant amount of fluid in her lungs without the kennel apparently recognising that something was seriously wrong.
We entrusted Lola to Sentabarcs Kennels believing that she would be cared for and that we would be contacted if there were any concerns about her health. We feel that we deserve answers about what happened to our dog during the time she was in their care, including when the blood in her urine was first noticed and why we were not informed immediately.
Lola was loved beyond words and deserved better. We will never get her back, but we hope that by speaking about what happened, other owners will think very carefully about who they entrust their beloved pets to.
