Question:
Hello. I am an American now living in an apartment in France. Two days ago, our 8-year-old lab, in excellent health apparently, vomited and then seemed very sleepy. Around 3 hours later, she vomited again, and then seemed disoriented and couldn't get back up the stairs to our apartment. We made a bed for her downstairs and she then seemed to go to sleep. I called a vet who said to bring her in in the morning. Around midnight, she howled briefly, then died. We are trying to understand what might have happened. The vet suggested a stroke. She ate only food we gave her, but I exercised her in a local park, where she often pulled really hard on her leash. That day, around 4 hours before the first vomiting, she almost ran into the street and I jerked very hard on her leash. Could this have caused a stroke? She did not eat anything off the ground the day she died (I thought of poison). Around 1 month ago, she had a benign tumor removed from her side. Someone suggested a link between that and a possible stroke. The local vet couldn't do an autopsy (Christmas holiday....) and we buried our dog, but want to understand what happened to our beloved companion. She had had all her shots, had no signs of fever, and had been perfectly healthy until this happened.

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Are you sure it wasn't bloat? http://www.globalspan.net/bloat.htm#...atest%20Riskou

Without a necropsy, it would be really hard to figure out what happened.

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I have no insight on what may have happened but just wanted to say that I'm so sorry you lost your beloved friend so unexpectedly and suddenly. :(

(((((((hugs)))))))

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Thank you for your messages. I didn't know about bloat in dogs until I read your message and checked the web link. I don't know if this is what our dog had, but it's possible. I was away all afternoon before the evening when she got sick, so didn't see her behaving differently, if she did, until she first vomited. I shouldn't have listened to the vet who told me to wait til morning. So many regrets.

Your message about bloat in dogs couldn't save our wonderful dog but I hope it will save another dog somewhere.

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So sorry for your loss. It's never easy, but even harder when it's sudden I guess. Our first dog died unexpectedly after rupturing a heart valve and bleeding to death internally while at the vet's. He did an autopsy as he could not understand what had killed her. It was totally unexpected. She walked into his office and died an hour later at 7 years old. So don't blame yourselves, sometimes there's nothing to be done for them no matter what we try. All we can do is know we loved them and gave them all we could while we shared their lives.

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Prin, Celtic Fox and Dog Dancer, thank you again so much for your support. I had never checked this forum before but wish I had seen it before our dog got sick! Except for having a benign tumor removed a month ago, she had always been surpremely healthy and (since I had never heard of "bloat") I couldn't imagine she could have suddenly gotten a life-threatening condition. I'll always feel guilty for not getting her to the vet right away just in case something could have been done to save her, but I'm very grateful to all of you, because you've helped me deal with this. I realize I have to get past my own guilt, particularly to help my daughter, who's 15 and had known our dog more than half her life. I guess we should think about getting another dog, but I don't think we're ready for that yet. Anyway, thanks again.

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We can't always know everything, you know? You did the best you could for your doggy and I'm sure she was loved her whole life too. She was lucky to have somebody like you looking out for her.

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I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. It really could have been anything... even a virus. And like others said, you did the best that you could. I'm sure that your dog had a wonderful life with you. My heart goes out to you.

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Dear Glitterless, thank you so much for your sympathy. We're trying to focus on the 8 happy years we had with our lovely dog.

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I am so sorry for your loss. It could have been a stroke or internal bleeding. Like Prin said, without an autopsy, there is no way of knowing the cause.

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I am very sorry for your loss As others have said there is no way to know what caused without a necropsy, I know of very young adult greyhounds just off the track that were extremely healthy looking who have had strokes and heart attacks or died later as a result of seizures(another possibility may have happened while you were away) while at the adoption kennels some as young as 1 or 2 years old,

Do not try to lame blame on yourself, it serves no purpose but to torture yourself and she would not have wanted that dor you

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I am very sorry for your loss, but there is not much one can do for bloat. It happens so sudden that we did not have time to even get on the phone to our vet and our dog was gone. There are some surgeries to try to fix it, but it usually doesn't help. I have been told to try to prop up the food for the dog to eat so he doesn't have to bend down to eat. It helps. Also feed smaller amounts. I hear it happens mostly in larger dogs.

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I am very sorry you lost your special friend. But I also worry about you. You have nothing to feel guilty about. You are not a fortune teller, and had no way of predicting that your dog's vomiting was so serious that it would take his life. You contacted the vet, who recommended you wait until morning. Why shouldn't you trust advice that is professional? And I am sure the vet made the best call he thought he could, too. Surely he couldn't have expected that waiting until morning would make a difference or he would have said so, and even if you had brought your dog in right away there is still no guarantee that the vet would have been able to save him. It just turns out that none of us are always flawless in how we call it. None of us are gods and always know what to do for sure, no matter how much we care, and no matter how knowledgeable we are. For example, I had a friend who fell and broke her hip and ribs, and hit her head a few weeks ago. She was older and quite frail. She wasn't doing well at all. Then they performed surgery, and she was even worse. And then she died within the week. Maybe she would have survived if they hadn't done the surgery. But who could have predicted? The doctors, in their expertise, must have made the best decision they felt they could at the time, and I imagined they weighed the advantages and disadvantages of everything. But their best efforts to save her were in vain. Am I upset? Of course. Do I blame them? No. And so unless you have reason to think your vet gave you inappropriate advice to wait, then I hope you can forgive him and yourself, and let go of the feeling of being responsible for how it went. And as far as jerking your dog away from traffic, wouldn't most people have reacted exactly the same way? It sounds like it was very unexpected and shocking and my heart goes out to you. It's lessons like these that teach us all how really fragile life is, and that all we can do is make the best decisions possible at any given time, and realize that we can't guarantee that we will always do everything exactly perfectly no matter how hard we try, and then focus on appreciating what we do have and making each day count as much as possible by spending each day making it quality time. And that means not beating yourself or anyone else up over this. Life is so short. Spend time focusing on what you can do that is good in this world. Help others with their pets, and give good advice and support by responding to them in this forum. And if you can't stop blaming yourself, then I hope you can talk with someone understanding about this who can help you get past it, or take a course on healing from loss, or read a book that will help you work through it. And if you have the good fortune of being a protector of other furry friends, just resolve to give them the best love and care that you can and leave the rest up to the forces that are bigger than all of us. Hang in there. Hugs.

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