My dog suddenly died today and I can't understand why?

I lost my dog today, really suddenly and completely unexpected.

Storm is a 9 year old American Bulldog and has been fit, healthy and very active all her life. The sort of dog that goes for a 4 hour walk and is still full of beans! About 3 weeks ago we noticed she wasn't acting her normal self. She is usually very in your face and but was acting very subdued. However she was eating, not losing weight, not being sick and had no temperature, no blood in her stools, nothing. We took her to the vets and he diagnosed a muscle strain in the back (when he pressed here she was clearly in pain) and gave her painkillers. Knowing Storm we thought she'd tried to do something crazy and at 9 had pulled something she might not have done a few years ago! Back pain and being subdued was her only symptoms.

She has been improving since then but was not yet completely back to normal. We thought a few more weeks taking it easy and she'll be fine. However this morning I let her in the garden; she was fine and came into the kitchen after for a treat. Then she walked into the lounge and suddenly her back legs began to buckle. By the time I reached her in a matter of seconds she was unconscious on the floor, mouth open and eyes rolling but had a heartbeat. I called the vet and ran to unlock the car to get her to the vets immediately, was back in the house in 2 minutes but by this time she had no heartbeat and she was dead.

I'm so confused as to why this happened I'm just trying to understand possible causes of this? I'm just in shock.

[dominosarah]

I am so sorry about the loss of your pet~~I know how hard this is.        sara

[lindapalm]

I'm so sorry to hear about your dog, when you told your vet what had happened did he give you any idea what the cause could have been?

[Misfits4Me]

Oh My...I hate this! I'm too, am terribly sorry about your girl.....

I'm going with Heart Failure......The back pain may not be related.....Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing for sure without a Neuropsy done....

I'd like to know what pain medication (Name & dose) she was on and for how long, if you don't mind....There may be a connection there...

Again, my condolences on your loss......I'll be thinking about you....Karla

[Misfits4Me]

Sorry, I meant Necropsy....It's the same as a Human Autopsy.....

[ginger899]

I am so sorry your girl died. It's such a terrible shock. For what it's worth, I think you did everything right. You could not have foreseen what would happen to her. You did your best.
It's very sad, please accept my condolences.
Rest In Peace Storm.

[Margot49]

I'm so sorry to hear this sad story and sorry you lost your beloved dog.  Unless a necropsy is done, there is probably no definitive answer to as to why she died so suddenly.  Could be heart, which would be my first suspect.  I've had that happen twice with dogs I've had over the years.  One was older and just collapsed.  Ended up she had an internal hemmorhage and there had been no indication she had any problems. Another Sheltie I  had died suddenly.  She was up that morning, ate her food and was active. No suspicious signs. I came home from work to find her down and in shock. Rushed her to the Vet but lost her.  I had him do a necropsy and he found a large tumor on her liver.  Again, no indication to me that anything was amiss and I watch my animals closely.  So, you may never know but I know how hard it is for you.
:-(

[sm820]

I am so very sorry.  I lost my dog a few days ago.  He was sick and no vet knew why.  So  I know your pain. We had a necropsy done and he had some liver & gallbladder issues. RIP Storm....

[Orphananny]

I am so sorry to hear about your beloved dog.  Two summers ago I lost my Pom and it was just out of the blue.  I let him out and 10 minutes later went to get him and he was lying on his side under the tree in our back yard.  He wasn't breathing.  Rushed to the vet and he was gone.  Vet checked it out and it was his heart.  It just stopped.  He was 10 years old.

[sm820]

My dog became blind 2 years ago and they said it was SARDs.  Then he was diagnosed with Cushings, then they said could be Cushings, but maybe stress from being blind (after I spent 100 dollars on the medicine for Cushings). I believed he became blind from all the steroids and antihistimines the vet gave him for his allergies.  He had diaherra (diarrhea) most of the time, gained 30 pounds.  Vet put him on Metrozyzandl (sp.?) for his diaherra (diarrhea). He's been on it for a year.  He suddenly lost use of his legs while he was wagging his tail and begging for food.  We took him to the emergency vet, and they couldnt figur out what was wrong.  They did tons of blood work, urine work, x rays...and nothing showed up.  I asked them about the Metro drug, cuz I looked it up the night he went to emergency.  They said no.  But the long term side effect described EXACTLY what happened to my dog.  My dog was in the emergency for 3 days.  I went to visit him.  I asked him to give me a sign if I should put him down or not.  He laid his head down.  So we were going to put him down.  But all of a sudden he stood up, started wagging tail, did the coyote sound, gave me 5....etc.  He came home next morning.  Then they thought it was the drug.  He started to have diaherra (diarrhea) in the emergency and continued till the other day when we put him down.  When he came home, he was happy, he was playing, he acted like nothing was wrong with him...except he had diaherra (diarrhea).  I took him to the vet for the diaherra (diarrhea) and they gave me Tylon powder (for diaherra (diarrhea)) to put on his food.  He started to throw up from that day on. I dont know if he got much of the powder cuz he was nit picking his food and taking it out of the bowl.  So then we forced the medicine in him with a turkeybaster which wasnt working, and then we forced him by shoving bread down his throat.  I stopped giving it to him because I could tell it was causing him stress, and he still threw up.   He eventually stopped eating for 7 days, even his favorites.  He did try a couple times to eat a favorite treat, but spit it out, and then threw up the rest.  He looked like he was dying.  But he still wanted to walk and go bye bye. We took him to the vet again.  He had  no fever and he wasn't dehydrated. They gave us anti nausea meds and kaopectate for the weekend.  We had to force it down him.  We stopped giving it to him, we just knew it wasnt helping him. He didnt have anything to throw up except water. The last day we had him, he got up to come with me to walk my son to the bus.  He went to eat grass, and didnt go down the driveway with me.  When I came back, he was standing there, and then collapsed.  I took him back to the vet and they wanted to do a test where they stick a tube inside of him to look at intestines/stomach etc. They gave him fluids in his skin because he was slightly dehydrated. They scheduled the procedure for the next morning.  My vet went on vacation Tuesday and we had a different vet who we didnt know.  So I wanted to meet him before they did the procedure.  He basically talked us out of doing the procedure and told us that he looks like he's dying.  And he also said he thought his esophagus wasnt working due to some neurolgical problems.  We put him down and had an autopsy. He ended up having a hard liver with spots in it and something with his gallbladder.  He wouldve died soon.  He also said that part of his problems was that Metrozyandl drug. Just so sad. I did some research and I see that the steroids can cause blindness, and can affect the liver.  The gallbladder controls the bile in which my dog had diaherra (diarrhea) with bile in it, and I guess gallbladder helps the liver. Then the metrodrug was causing nuerological problems which caused his legs not to work...and so on.  Sorry about the Novel....LOL!  Sheri

[Jessicat2007]

Thankyou to everyone for your kind words. It's so hard losing a dog I didn't expect it to hit me like it has, she has left such a massive hole. Storm was prescribed Rimadyl for the 'back pain' which I think is a pretty standard drug. She'd been on it for a few weeks too so I would've expected any side effects to show sooner? I decided not to do a necropsy, mainly due to cost but I also didn't like the idea of it. It must have been her heart for her to just go like that, shed clearly felt herself until moments before. I just have to accept we can't play again or go for walkies it's so weird!

My condolencies to everyone on this page as we've all felt the same pain, let's be glad for the amazing dogs we knew.

Jess xx

[Misfits4Me]

Rimadyl Toxicity?  I wonder?  

[ruthroberts]

I've found these posts really helpful and consoling. My 4 year old greyhound, Dexter, suddenly collapsed and died four days ago while out for a run. I was beside him as his heart fluttered and then gradually stopped. Since then I've been torturing myself with the thought that I could have saved him if I'd tried CPR, but it didn't even occur to me at the time. I have since learned that it is possible to carry out chest compressions on a dog, but I didn't know that then. One good outcome is that I am now signing my family up for First Aid courses, so that they know how to deal with a human emergency.

[nic512]

my dog died yesterday morning he was 15 yrs i took him to do his business he was giddy about that next thing i knew he had collapsed on the floor struggling to breath and died in my arms on the way to the vets where we found out he had a tumor