One of my dogs died while I was on vacation...

Last week my husband and I went on vacation for about six days. We hired our neighbor who is a very mature and responsible young lady to let our six dogs out while we were gone. She was to come over at 4-5 times a day to let them out, spend time with them and of course feed and water. We live in a tropical climate in a rural area and we have quite big thunderstorms. Only one of my dogs was terrified of thunder. While the others were always so relaxed, she would pant herself into a frenzy with quick breathes, mouth slobbering, biting at her crate, etc. we always did the best we could to comfort her while we were home. We would dress her in a tshirt and tie it snuggly from the back to comfort her. When it wasn't thundering, she had the best personality. Never nervous, confident, smart, loving, great with kids...The night we were traveling home, I was talking to my dad and he informed me that one of dogs had passed. I left all the instructions for the dog sitter on the fridge along with all the emergency numbers...vets office, emergency vets office, dog breeder friends, my parents, sister,...numbers for everybody! The dog sitter called my parents and said she came over around 7 am and everybody was fine, she came over again around 11am and let everybody out for a potty break before the storm, she also brought her laptop and watched 101 Dalmatians with my doggies. The sitter came over after the storm ( it was a really bad one with bad thunder , hail and tornadoes), said it was around 3pm and said she found my dog Juno dead. She was on her side and looked like she was sleeping. It was not hot in the room...it was about 71 degrees. All my other dogs were ok and normal. A little additional info, my dog that died just had a small surgical procedure 10 days prior to her death. She had already finished her baytril ( antibiotics) . She was seen by the vet during this time and handled anesthesia normally, she was a healthy weight, and all else normal otherwise. We didn't do a necropsy because she was picked up by a pet crematorium, and they do not transport deceased pets nor are they a veterinary facility. They held her until we got back but the choice was cremation or burial, either way a necropsy wasn't an option because of the reasons above, so I will never know what happened. I was thinking maybe a stroke because of her thunderstorm anxiety. She was only 3 years old. Any ideas as to why she could have died?

[ginger899]

I am so very sorry Juno died. It is so sad when they go, and even more sad and shocking for a younger, healthy dog to die suddenly like that. There are nothing but questions and remorse,  I know.
It does indeed sound as if her heart may have given up, or possibly she had a brain hemorrage? Did she look otherwise totally normal? No swelling in her belly....bruised-looking spots on her belly.....blood in or around her mouth or nose...?

The young lady who looked after your dogs sounds like a first-class dog sitter. I bet she feels really awful about this. It seems she did her utmost best for your dogs and is a real pal. She was not to know what was about to happen.

Please accept my sincere condolences. I am so sorry this happened.