Please help?

Question

My 4 yr old german short hair died this morning and the vet checked and tried everything and couldnt help and still doesnt know why he died.He stopped eating and drinking a few days ago and now my two daughters think my live in girlfriend killed him.Is there anyway she could have done that without the vet or me knowing?

Answer 1

The best way to find out any info is to have an necropsy with a toxicology report - but it's costly.

I pray it was not your g/f, as that would be #1 reason to have her hit the door asap. Children are #1, g/f and b/f # ? ? ?

Time to have a heart to heart with the kids and with the g/f individually. Sounds like there is tension in the home between them, which has got to be hard on you.

So sorry for your loss and your children's loss.

Answer 2

We were so sorry to hear about your beloved pet. How awful that you may still have more to bear. I would not make a judgement about anyone, as there could be a lot of jealousy on BOTH sides, until you have some facts. With the scenario you have there, it would be prudent to spend the money on an autopsy, or at least a tox report.

With antifreeze poisoning, if they are able to drink at all, they usually vomit the water shortly afterwards, and it will have a glistening "crystal" look to it. This is truly a horrible way of killing a living creature, as their system slowly shuts down and they are powerless to tell you how bad they feel. The test for this only takes a few minutes, and you would think a competent vet would check this while the animal was in the early stages, but we know of two dogs misdiagnosed (one owner was told the dog had gotten into the garbage and had an upset stomach). Both dogs suffered for almost a week before the vet's light bulb went off and he did the test just before both dogs went into seizures. In that case, it was a neighbor. She had kids, dogs of her own, and horses, but still put a pan of antifreeze for neighborhood dogs.

If your vet didn't bother to run any tests, then it would have been easy for someone to do this. But please know that even with the tests, we have been told that there's virtually nothing you can do once the antifreeze gets in their kidneys and liver.

You are in an awful position about who may be responsible for this, and I would withhold taking any sides until the test results give you facts to deal with, not accusations. Best wishes to you, and our condolences. Please do the right thing.

Answer 3

If you think something fishy is up and you told the vet, I would think he would have taken an x-ray and some blood to sample for poisons, glass, antifreeze etc. and YOU SHOULD ask him if he did, on the other hand, I've seen my next door neighbor go through three dogs in a month and a half and all of them died from Parvo! 2 were from the pound and one was from an add out of the newspaper. Bottom line that make you and your daughters feel better is this, If the vet couldn't find anything in blood samples knowing that the pet could have been poisoned, chances are... your roommate most likely didn't have anything to do with it and it's just a sad thing and a hard loss. Hope this helps

Answer 4

Poison, antifreeze, ground glass in his food, kicking or hitting him so hard that there was internal bleeding, or any number of other things that wouldn't be immediately obvious unless the vet did a thorough autopsy.

That would be my suggestion -- have a complete autopsy done, and if anything out of line shows up, your girlfriend is a *possible* suspect. Most things that she could've done to the dog could also have been done accidentally and/or done by someone else.

The autopsy will help, but you'll have to do some sleuthing on your own if you want the truth about what happened to your dog.

Answer 5

As mentioned by other answerers, the only way to truly determine a cause of death in our pets is to perform a necropsy. It's conducted the same way a human autopsy is; the doctor looks for very specific signs of death. Poison and other toxicities are evident a number of ways - hemorraging, kidney or liver necrosis, etc. It is unlikely that he would only stop eating or drinking. Often there are other physical signs like vomitting, bleeding or clotting problems, or other gastrointestinal issues.

For your own piece of mind, you might want to have the necropsy conducted. It's so profound a loss when your pet dies, and I can imagine that your children are especially heartbroken. My thoughts are with you during this difficult time.

Answer 6

I worked as a vet tech. I belive if the dog stopped eating and drinking sounds to me a toxic report should be done. You can give a dog a teaspoon of antifreeze a day and would slowly make it stop eating and drinking. And would cause it to die. Sorry about you're loss!! :(

Answer 7

what made u think of that. dont u trust ur girlfriend? Do u think she is capable of doing it. Maybe ur children doesnt like your girlfriend, so just observe the situation before u bring it further. If ur gf didnt do it and u ask her, it could be very disheartening on her part. so be cautious and dont believe ur children's speculations right away...maybe he ate something from outside not necessarily inside ur house

Answer 8

The only way to know is to pay for an autopsy. It isn't cheap but it is the only way to determine if your dog was poisoned.

Answer 9

It could have been any number of things b/s by some else hands. He could of had a heart problem....etc.
W/o a autopsy you'll always be in wonder.

Answer 10

I would follow the advice of the kind people that answered you.
I am SO sorry for your loss, I would hate to lose my dogs like that.