My 1 year old shitzu just died and i don't exactly the reasons. Was it the chocolate or the vet?

Question

She ate a piece of a milky way chocolate 4 days afterwards she was vomiting and had diahrrea but because she had gotten sick before we just thought it was an upset stomach and treated her with metradozone(antibiotic). A week passed since she had eaten the chocolate we took her to the vet and he said that we should continue what we have been doing and give her pedialyte. She continued sick and we took her to the vet again this time he said that due to the fact that she had bloody stools he thought she ate rat poisoning. We informed him that it was very unlikely,she had just eaten the chocolate. however he treated her as she was rat poisoned. Vitamin k was given to her for 5 days. The blood in her stool stopped , however she continued with the diahrrea and vomit. She wasn't eating. We forced fed her and gave her vitamins. But as the days passed she got worse and skinnier. The vet visits continued but everthing was the same. Almost 3 weeks after it all started we got home and she was dead

Answer 1

Did the vet ever do a complete blood panel and CBC?

Vomiting and diarrhea (along with increased heart rate, restlessness, tremors/seizures, irritability, and excitability) are symptoms of chocolate toxicity, but many other things could also cause those two symptoms.

When your dog had diarrhea, did your vet run a fecal floatation (to check for parasites)? Did your vet prescribe the Metronidazole? What was she vomiting? Bile, digested food, undigested food, etc.? Did she have an appetite?

Bloody stools could also be many things. Does not necessarily mean she ingested any type of rat poison. Colitis, Giardia, cancer, etc. can all cause bloody stool. Did your vet check for Giardia?

You could have had a necropsy done (animal autopsy) to determine her cause of death.

I am so sorry for your loss. It is impossible for any of use to tell you over the Internet what caused your girl to pass onto Heaven. She is now resting in pain-free peace will all the rest of our beloved pets we have lost over the years. I hope one day the good memories will outweigh your grief. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Answer 2

I am not trying to be rude, but if you don't have the money to take your dog to the vet then number 1 - you shouldn't be shopping at all. Number 2: you shouldn't have a dog. Take your dog to the vet. What if the puppies die inside her? WHY did you allow the two dogs to breed if you don't have the money to assist her if something goes wrong? If you can't take your dog to the vet, then take her to the shelter so the vets there can help her and find her puppies (if they are even still alive - they get their nutrients from what the mom eats and the poison went to them too) and then they can find a home for Lady and the puppies - a home where the people have the money to take care of them when they are sick, injured, or even well (shots and vaccines). How in the world can you be shopping and then post a statement that says, "I dont' have the money to take my dogs to the vet??" SELL something - ebay, craigslist, use a credit card, I don't care. Get your dogs the care that they so desperately need Let me ask you a question: if you pooped blood and vomited blood, would you take yourself to the doctor? What about your boyfriend? Yes, you would, so do the same for your dogs

Answer 3

I seriously doubt that it was the chocolate. Contrary to popular belief, dogs can tolerate small amounts of chocolate. Even if she ate too much, the symptoms would not have been what you describe. Somehow, somewhere, she can in contact with, and ingested, a warfarin type substance, which is what is in rat poison that causes the bloody stools, etc. Does anyone in your family take blood thinners, or some other type of medication that could possibly have dropped to the floor where your dog could have found and ate it? In any case, I think you did nothing wrong. I'm sorry you have lost your pet.

Answer 4

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. Here's an article about dogs and chocolate poisoning so you can check the symptoms against what happened with your dog. Blaming the vet for your dog's death just isn't going to get you anywhere and will just make you feel bad and hateful. The vet probably has seen a lot of cases of dog poisoning by chocolate and other ways and did the best he could.

Answer 5

First of all, I am so sorry about your loss.

I think the vet should have done blood work. To me, those symptoms sound too much like parvo. Not eating, vomit, diarrhea.

My 3 month old shh Tzu just died of parvo 2 weeks ago. There is a parvo outbreak right now.

Answer 6

I'm not exactly sure, but just a few weeks ago, our 8 m/o puppy decided to eat the paper wrapper of my chocolate muffin, and then a few days later had diarrhea. I assumed it was chocolate, but my mom thought it wasn't because it was a delayed reaction.
So it could have been the chocolate... but then, I would think that eating a chocolate and chocolate chip muffin wrapper is more toxic than a candy bar, but I guess because it wasn't pure chocolate, it wouldn't have that bad. But then, I had stopped giving him something that he ate daily, so that could have been it.
It sounds like it was something more than just chocolate. Our puppy didn't have blood, just really runny stools. He didn't throw up, but their cases sound to be alike, so maybe it was the chocolate, and because it was more pure than a chocolate-covered muffin wrapper, it could have killed her.
Either way, sorry for yur loss. By comparing, it sounds like it was the chocolate. And, now that I just though of it, our puppy is a big boy- collie/lab mix, and because your dog was smaller, it probably was more severe for the dog.

Added: Now I'm pretty sure it was the chocolate. Shih tzus are smaller, so a candy bar would be more toxic than for our collie/lab pup, even though he's younger.

Answer 7

I am sorry about your dog, but from what you describe your vet followed the usual protocol exactly. Acute liver failure from toxic ingestion (i.e. eating chocolate, human-labeled anti-inflammatories, severe infection, or other poisons) can cause all of these things to happen. On top of that, treating for coagulation defect or poisoning (Vitamin-K and so on) is normal if this type of poisoning is even remotely possible.

It is most likely that your pup suffered severe, irreversible liver damage; I am sorry your vet was unable to save her, but this is why we in the animal health profession stress the importance of never EVER giving a dog chocolate, not even a little bit.

Answer 8

I am so sorry for your loss.

It was not the milky way. She would have to have eaten pounds of it to make her sick. The chocolate in bars like that is mostly emulsifiers and milk solids. There is very little real chocolate.

Bakers chocolate is what is so harmful to dogs.

It really does sound like she ate something poisonous. Dogs can eat the strangest thing sometimes, and a little bit of rat poison can kill a god.

Answer 9

The only thing that chocolate does is A. Raise heart rate to a dangerous high, causing arrythmias and B. Cause seizures. I think your dog had serious issues other than the chocolate. I know a small dog that busted open christmas presents under a tree and ate four boxes of choco pretzels...he had a few seizures, but he was fine.

Answer 10

Well.. take take what you have paperwise to another vet.. Ask him to do a necropsy and find out why the dog died.. If you suspect that it was negligence on the part of your current vet. You will need the necropsy done to prove anything at all..