My young foster dog has a blood clot...

I've been caring for a 1.5 year old dog from Louisiana for a few weeks, and she had an appointment at a vet office about an hour away (since the shelter is paying for her care, they went with a smaller town vet - they charge quite a lot less than big cities) for her final heartworm treatment. I was supposed to get her back a few days ago, but she had very bad diarrhea that day so the vet decided to keep her until she was feeling better. The shelter called today and told me that she'd had a blood clot that had affected her breathing, and that she was on IV now. I love her like she was my own, I'd planned to adopt her permanently. Is there any good outcome to this? I haven't had any answers from the shelter, I guess they really don't know.

[VeraLuna]

I just found out she died last night, but hey, thanks for the speedy response.

[ginger899]

I'm so sorry about what happened here. It sounds like this was a Pulmonary Embolism. That is quite serious. It's so sad as she was young, and you had bonded with her and cared for her. It's a terrible shame.
I have no idea what could have caused this to happen.

Anyway, all I can say is I'm sorry because you must feel so sad about losing her like this.

[VeraLuna]

Thankyou Ginger. I was really upset when I wrote the comment yesterday, I'm sorry if I sounded short. I am very sad. The vet told the shelter that it was the heart worms that did it, is that possible?

[ginger899]

That's alright. You were feeling very upset, and I understand that. I noticed your question had gone quickly down the list, and had been missed probably because of that. If a lot of people post all at once, unfortunately that can sometimes happen. I go down the list when I can, and even if I don't know the answer, I 'bump up' the post so that others will see it.

It sounds to me like it is very possible the embolism could have been caused by heart worms. They can affect the lungs and pulmonary artery.

I know how sad you must feel.