What happened to my dog?

[Miranda2013]

I had a full blooded black lab. She has been healthy as a horse sense I got her. She had puppy's 7 weeks ago Monday. When the puppy's reached 6 weeks old I put the mother (aka black lab) out into another part of my yard . All of the sudden yesterday . I find her hide in some bushes . She was unresponsive . I got as close as I could to her & she was still alive , she just couldn't stand or roll over, however she could move her head & arms . I pulled her out of the bushes & checked her for and blood or any signs of bit marks, that sort of thing . She had nothing on her . The women next door to me is a nurse & has plenty of dogs , so I asked her to come over & check her out . The only thing on the outside that she could find wrong with her was her breathing . She was breathing very heavy . She has never done this before . The women said she might have just gotten over heated & to just give her water in a bowl that was easier to put her head in . The next morning my grandmother checked on her while I was at school, she sat with her for 20 minutes then went inside to get her some more water & when my grandmother returned she was gone. We have already buried her , so I can't take her to the vet to see what happened , but I am just wondering what could have happened ? She wasn't sick for even 24 hours, & past this morning . She was about a year & 1/2 old , & has always been an out side dog . Also her poop was red earlier in the week , but I think it was the dog food . Because we changed food . If anyone has any idea please let me know , it's hard to have we gone , but not knowing is the worst .

[Ghilly]

I am so sorry for your loss.

Unfortunately, without performing a necropsy on the dog there is no way to tell what she could have died from.  If the red color of her stool was from blood and not from her food, it could have been any number of things.  If she was acting normally at the time, however, and if the food was reddish brown in color, then chances are it WAS from the food because if she were bleeding internally enough to turn her entire stool red, she certainly would have been showing at least SOME signs of illness.

Had she been acting TOTALLY normally since the birth of the puppies?  Or were there subtle signs that something just wasn't quite right?  If she had been acting not quite herself after the birth of the puppies it could have been a retained placenta or even a dead puppy that she didn't pass that released toxins into her system and caused her death.  These, however, are just guesses and unfortunately cannot be either proven or disproven at this point.

Again, please accept my most sincere sympathies on the loss of your girl.  

Ghilly

[Ellen038]

Im really sorry to hear of your loss.  If her feces was red and it was not from the food it could of been a perf bowel or something like that causing the bleed.  It sounds like your dog knew it wasn't going to pull thru because she was looking for a comfortable place to pass away.   Maybe the breathing issue was a sign of shock she was going thru.  You should call your vet regardless of wether she's buried already and tell him what happened.  You need to make sure it wasn't anything that could possible affect those pups.  Again, I'm very sorry for your loss.