Can anyone provide info?

Question

I woke up this morning to find one of my dogs had died. There were no indications that she had been sick or different in anyway when she went to sleep last night. She looked very peaceful, so I wouldn't suggest that she suffered. She is not old (only 10), and there was no warning.

I'm wondering if any one can offer suggestions, or if you have any knowledge of symptoms with this dog food scare...we have four other dogs...and I need to be armed with info. Thanks, in advance, for any help anyone could offer....

Answer 1

Having had to put down my dog last August, I can relate to your pain. But in your case, it's far worse. I saw my wonderful buddy getting worse each day just due to old age (he was 13 years, 9 months). In contrast, your beloved friend just suddenly died.

Because it was so sudden, my belief is that it was a organ failure of some type that just caused a rapid shut down of all other organs. Kidneys, liver, heart, etc. failure will cause this type of sudden passing.

However, the dog food scare doesn't seem relevant here. I'm assuming your dogs all share the same food - so if one were ill, others may be too, and that doesn't appear to be your situation. Plus, there would be symptoms as others expressed.

I have two nine-month old pups. One is ill (although seems to be recovering). He had a fever and "chills". The food I feed them is not on the list of recalled items - and again, if one was ill, the other should be too. Still, his illness has me worried. He appears to be on the mend, but until he returns to his behavior of two weeks ago (in terms of eating, drinking, playing, etc.) I will remained concerned. Still, it is a tragedy to think of a friend just suddenly passing and my concerns are there.

I wish you the best during this difficult time.

Answer 2

I'm so sorry for your loss. Losing a pet is always hard, but even more so when it's unexpected like this death was.

You can do a couple of things. Call your vet and they can do an autopsy to find out why your dog died. If your dog was in good heath, and as you say, relatively young, I'd suspect something like a congenital heart defect or maybe an aneurysm - but then I'm not a vet.

It's highly unlikely your dog died from tainted pet food so suddenly. I'm sure you've been watching the lists and if your dog had been ill, you'd have taken her to the vet. Also, are your other pets healthy?

I'd seriously consider the autopsy. It will cost a little bit, but you'd know exactly what happened and why. It will help you rule out any other problems if there is something in the house that could make the other dogs sick (a poison perhaps).

Also, your vet can help you with finding cremation services. That's what I did when I lost my 13 yr old. You'll get the ashes back to bury in the yard if you'd like.

Once, again, I'm very, very sorry for your loss. Hang in there and give your other dogs hugs. The most important thing now is to make sure there isn't anything in your house that could harm them.

Best of luck to you.

Answer 3

First I am so sorry for your lose. For certain large dog breed however, 10 years is actually quite old. I would suggest contacting your vet and arranging a check-up for your other dogs and you will have an opportunity to ask questions and also get some examples of possible causes with no symptoms for the unexpected death. Also you could think about an autopsy if you really wanted to know, but it is not always conclusive, is expensive and can give unnecessary stress on the owner. If there was no symptoms I wouldn't worry about it being with the food scare, which induced kidney failure within the pets which were also mainly cats. Just make sure you have checked the list and are no longer feed the possibly contaminated foods.

Answer 4

Oh my.. I am so so so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine that happening, even though I have a very elderly Labrador and I know he's not going to be around forever. :( Please accept my condolances. :( The chemical in the pet food recall making animals sick generally gives them mild symptoms of toxcity - you probably would have noticed. Vomiting, excessive drinking, lethargy, possibly drooling, etc. It shuts down their kidneys, so. Any symptom you can think of associated with renal failure they'd have. Also, if you have many dogs, your other dogs would probably be showing symtpoms by now. The best way to know for sure, however, is to have her autopsied by your vet. I know you probably don't want to do that (I wouldn't, even though it's just sentimental), but at least then you'd KNOW. You know? And it might help your grieving to have some sort of answer at this time. :( Again, I'm so sorry. Give all your dogs a hug and a kiss.

Answer 5

I am very sorry for your loss. The only way to truly know what happened is a necropsy. From your description, it sounds like she had a heart attack, stroke, or something natural and fast. If she had been poisoned, you probably would have seen signs in advance. If she had been in pain, she probably would have cried out for you. Depending on the breed, 10 years is pretty old. My family's dogs and my friend's dogs who have died because of natural causes or old age related health problems were between the ages of 10 to 13.

You should call and talk with your vet. Take care.

Answer 6

first off I am sorry to hear about your dog. What kind of food are you feeding?
The problem with the recall list is it keeps growing. It seems there are certain types of most popular dog foods on it. My understanding is that alot of the problems are related to the insecticides used in the glutens. I am by no means an expert on it all, because they all seem to blame it on something different. The sad thing about the list is it includes a huge chunk of the brands you would find at any petsmart.
Check out the link I included or do a yahoo search for dog food recall... you will have plenty of reading material.
Again I am sorry to hear about your dog, I know that can be a tough thing to deal with

Answer 7

The dog food scare, which most dogs suffered from renal failier ( kidney Failier) my dog died a few years ago from it. Symptoms from that were, i noticed my dog was becoming more weak and did not move around. It would also get sick oftern. I is a slow way to go and we had to put her to sleep. I don' t think that it would be that as you would notice the symptoms. Dogs can have heart attacks and strokes. Heavy set dogs can be prone to this. This would be a sudden way to go with not symptoms.

Answer 8

I am so very sorry for your loss. It would be just impossible for anyone here to say with any accuracy what has happened to your dog.
There are so many possibilities. Heart failure, a tumor,twisted bowel, stroke, blood clot to the brain.
If you are in need to knowing exactly what went wrong then perhaps a talk with your vet and then a necropsy should be done.
Again I am very sorry.

Answer 9

That's terrible and I'm very sorry.

The pet food recall mainly caused kidney failure. Signs of kidney failure in dogs include loss of appetite, vomiting and lethargy.

Here is a link to a list of all the recalled dog food:
http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html

Answer 10

I'm so sorry. It's always hard to lose a friend. There are all sorts of reasons she might have died, such as a heart attack, but thankfully it sounds like she didn't suffer.