My tiny yorkie fell from the couch and passed away

Question

I just want to have a confirmation since I am really sad at the moment . Yesterday my little sister passed away , she was a year and half . She was a tiny Yorkie , you could call her teacup dog ( she weighted less than 3 lbs). I was sitting on the couch , she always liked to jump on the couch, but this time unfortunately she wanted to jump on me but she couldn’t hold and she fell back on the wood floor and she hit the head. After seeing that she didn’t move for one /two seconds I picked her up. The head was tilted , the head was moving back and for involuntarily. The tongue was sticking out , heart was beating fast . I immediately acknowledged my father who was next to me and didn’t see this happening. My dad tough that she fainted , so we brought her to the sofa . My dad kept her head still all the time .he put an nice block on her head with a blanket . After 10 minutes , nothing was improving . The tongue already turnt blue when we brought the dog to the sofa ( about two minutes after the accident ). Than i called up my brother who actually gave me this dog and has been an owner of Yorkies for a quite long time to tell me what to do . He told me put some sugar on the tongue , make her swallow it . Also we applied cardiac message , but no response . After about 30 minutes from this accident and after trying to reanimate our dog we decided to take to our closest vet . At this point we believed that she had pass away, and it was caused by some brain swelling and internal bleeding . Arriving at the Vet which took us about ten minutes , we rushed and explained everything as fast as possible . After ten minutes waiting the vet gave us the bad news . Now after one day and still shocked I would like to know if there was something I could have done to prevent this . Did we do something wrong ? Did it takes us too long to take her to the vet? If we would have taken her immediately to the Vet instead of waiting 30 minutes , my little friend would have been here now? Thank you for the answer . Also the vet didn’t specify me what caused the death she just confirmed that she passed away and gave me her condolences, is my theory about brain swelling, trauma plausible ?

Pragueratter · Answer

I did CPR (5 breathes and 30 pumps - I watched a YouTube clip - I suggest you watch before you need it)

https://youtu.be/cMYSVin-Itw

This happened to my dog, chihuahua sized. She was limp after falling off the couch.  Not responsive - tongue turning blue

She was barely coming back - we kept cpr going until reaching the emergency clinic ...she started being ok.

Do CPR (learn it now) and know where the VET is...we got seen in about 30 min.   My dog is at home, she’s weird after sedation but will be ok, we all hope

SassyLassie · Answer

I am so sorry, you have my deepest sympathy. It is so devastating when our beloved fur-babies die.

I want to reassure you, you did not do anything wrong, it was an accident, and probably, the minute she fell and hit her neck, she may have died due to a broken neck. The movements could have been due to certain reflexes. Had you taken her to the vet immediately, I still doubt if she could have been saved.

Sending you hugs.

Vivimarie · Answer

My tiny yorkie passed away today. It was sooo bizarre. He’s has always jumped from high places and would be fine but this time he didn’t jump correctly and landed in his side and he didn’t move after that . He did have a heart beat but after 5 min it stopped.

ginger899 · Answer

I am so very sorry about the loss of your sweet little dog. Please accept my heart-felt condolences.

I cannot say what happened to her....she landed awkwardly and broke her neck? Or landed on her head and suffered bleeding on the brain?
An autopsy (necropsy) would probably give you the closure but you may not feel like doing that, or still be able to by now.

It was just a tragic accient by the sound of things. Something that just happened, was no-one's fault. And probably even if you had got her to the vet 20 minutes sooner it may have made no difference. It seems the damage was done.

Dear little dog. Bless her Soul in Heaven. She will always love you. Think of her kindly and with joy as much as you can. Her Soul will know. Kind thoughts to you in your loss.

specialmom · Answer

Oh my gosh, I'm really VERY sorry.  That's terrible.  I lost a dog a couple of years ago in a tragic way (she got her head stuck in a bag she'd gotten out of the pantry herself while I was upstairs).  I also went through the process of trying to necessitate  her to no avail.  That's almost worse when you see them dying and feel helpless to save them.  This was an accident.  You can't really prevent that.  I have a friend who also lost their tea cup dog from falling off the bed.  Those tiny dogs do have special circumstances that things like falls are more problematic.  It's just the inherent risk to the breed.  Nothing you could do.  If you have another dog that is a tea cup in the future, you can prevent any jumping up on furniture.  They can learn to only be lifted or kept to sleep on a dog bed and you cuddle with them there.  That's about all you can do for prevention.  This wasn't your fault.  And you did your best to save your dog.  I'm really very sorry.  hugs