My retriever died...Not sure why

[lgrand31]

My 12 year old retriever died 2 days ago. I noticed that she wouldn't eat the last couple of days. She did drank water. She was walking around the yard alot almost as if she was moving from place to place to get comftable. About an hour before she died, she became very wobbly on her feet and got to the point where she couldn't get up. She then stiffened (looked like she was stretching) and looked like her body convulsed a few times and she died. We planned to see how she was doing that day and take her to the vet but times my husband got home from work she was dead. I want to know what could have been wrong with her. I did notice in the yard what looked like dried up feces that was black in color and looked like tar. The way it looked may have been diarriha like. I did not notice any coughing/vomitting.

[luvkiefers]

I worked many yrs. as a vet tech. it was alot of times a sign of whipworms. Whipworms are very deadly. I have seen it kill in 3 days from first black stool to death.  You must move quickly when black stools are first seen. I use Interceptor heartworm prevention, it does very well on whips and seems to be safe for all ages. Sorry for your loss.

[lgrand31]

While walking around the yard, I saw the black tarry stool in 3 different places. It actually resemebled dried up dirraha. It had alot of hair in it also - not sure why.
I know she is in a better place and she is not in any pain yet it is so hard to not be upset that she is gone

[Tigereye1]

The black in tarry stools is actually blood from the upper GI and/or stomach. Internal bleeding can be caused by ulcers, liver failure, infections, foreign bodies, rat poison, aspirin, cancer, and other things I'm forgetting.
When the stool is black, it's bad, in some cases too late, and calls for an immediate trip to the vet. No telling what it was for your poor baby..

I always know how my dog's BMs are, it's usually your first sign that something's wrong.. If there were a few tarry piles and she hadn't been eating then it was developing and she had been bleeding for a while.

[searcherrr]

Sorry to hear that your dog died. My sympathies.

I've been dreading that with ours. He is 8 years and about to be 9 and very full of life yet, though we know these Golden Retrievers are very medically troubled. Lots of them have stomach problems and are prone to allergies. I think I heard something about them also being prone to cancer and heart problems. The stool being black (though I am not sure, but am making a guess) could be an indication of and advanced disease/condition. It could've been cancer. In animals cancer sneaks up on them cause of no feedback about pain or other discomforts. My friend recently lost a 14 year old cat and it was extremely sudden as well and it was cancer.