Sudden death

[Clodagh]

A friend lost her young spaniel at the weekend. Just went down in the morning and she was dead in her bed. She had no known illnesses or heart problems, and had a health check in the last twelve months. She was a rescue so age not known but young, 2ish.
Someone else then said they had lost a dog like that. I have never heard of it, but if it can happen to people I see of course it can happen to dogs.
Has anyone heard of that before? It must be so distressing.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Yes, my late mother lost one of her collies like this, was a 5/6 yr old and a v fit dog. Worked in the morning, no adverse weather nor anything out of ordinary done with exercise. Dog then slept in her bed, thought it odd she didn't get up later in afternoon, on checking, dog was dead. Vet performed pm, there was no medical reason at all.
It was v distressing, but perhaps easier to cope with than another of hers that had major organ failure overnight & the dog room looked like a abattoir early the next morning (sorry too much info!)

 

[Clodagh]

Yes, my late mother lost one of her collies like this, was a 5/6 yr old and a v fit dog. Worked in the morning, no adverse weather nor anything out of ordinary done with exercise. Dog then slept in her bed, thought it odd she didn't get up later in afternoon, on checking, dog was dead. Vet performed pm, there was no medical reason at all.
It was v distressing, but perhaps easier to cope with than another of hers that had major organ failure overnight & the dog room looked like a abattoir early the next morning (sorry too much info!)

Yes. I see that POV!

 

[Blazingsaddles]

I had one too. Perfectly normal, ate his breakfast, five minutes later dropped to his knees & died. Post mortem performed & no medical reason could be found. He was only five.

 

[MurphysMinder]

Not me personally but one of the last litter I bred. A lovely little bitch who lived an active life , did agility and was fit and healthy. She was running across the field, just short of her 6th birthday, and dropped down dead. Her owner was too distressed to ask for a pm, although the vet did say it was likely her heart. I have her mother who is now 10 and her litter sister, and for a while i considered having a full check done on the sister, but as she is a very full on active dog I decided I wouldn't want to change her lifestyle in any way if problems were indicated so am taking the ostrich approach.

 

[Moobli]

Not personally but had a friend who came home from work to find her 5 year old Malamute dead on the kitchen floor. I’m not sure if a PM was performed or not.

I have also known it happen with people. Such a shock for the families.

 

[twiggy2]

An ex puppy farm springer spaniel bitch that I fostered and rehomed died whilst running along the sea wall after 2 years with her permanent long term owners.
No post mortem but vet advised it was probably her heart. She was only about 4-5 yrs old.

 

[Clodagh]

It is far from unheard of then. How sad.

 

[cbmcts]

M dad's boxer dropped and died on a walk, she was 8 or 9. One minute snuffling around, the next dead. She had a heart murmur ( quite bad from a pup) so it was put down to a heart attack if I remember correctly.

It was a small consolation that it was quick, apparently painless with none of the heart ache of having to make a decision at the vets.

 

[Littlefloof]

Not quite as sudden as some, but my retired working Golden went from being happy and relatively active to a doddery old man in the space of a day. I took him into the vet's surgery on the way into work where they ran blood tests, they put him on a drip for IV antibiotics, I left him there and went into work (late) at 0900, and at 1030 they phoned to tell me he was gone. Very mixed feelings about that - I felt terribly guilty not to be there when he went, but glad that the vet, who he knew and liked, was with him, and relieved that he checked out in his own time and without me having to decide on euthanasia.

 

[druid]

Not unheard of (Was this Tess from Gundog Rescue?) - I had three year old rescue ESS do the same out on a walk. I had him pmed, he had a massive heart attack with no really medical indicator to why. There is a chance a murmur wasn't picked up if low grade at the time of the vet exam - they can be difficult to hear in stressed/bouncy dogs at the best of times!

 

[Dizzydancer]

My mum and dad had a Leonburger who was 18months old and same as your friend went down in morn and she had died in her sleep, she was in same place she was when they went upto bed so know she didn’t struggle or suffer. They didn’t do a post mortem as they didn’t see any benefit

 

[Clodagh]

Not unheard of (Was this Tess from Gundog Rescue?) - I had three year old rescue ESS do the same out on a walk. I had him pmed, he had a massive heart attack with no really medical indicator to why. There is a chance a murmur wasn't picked up if low grade at the time of the vet exam - they can be difficult to hear in stressed/bouncy dogs at the best of times!

It was, yes. It is always sad but the lady that had her also has two doddery oldies, so to lose the young one is awful.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

We had a what seemed perfectly healthy GSDx die in her sleep with no warning whatsoever. She wasn't a young dog but we had her litter sister for several years afterwards. We didn't have a PM, as above we didn't see the point.

 

[splashgirl45]

a friend of mine had a german shepherd who was 8 months old, he was playing with another young dog in the yard and he collapsed and was dead when she got to him. she had a pm done and they couldnt find anything....a local dog owner had an 18 month old visla who was fine when they went to bed and they found him dead in his bed, had a pm and they couldnt find any reason. isnt there something in the human population which is similar and seems to happen to young people?

 

[Cinnamontoast]

How awful! I mean, I hope it’s how big dog goes, but he’s 15. I don’t want him suffering. He’s survived a low grade heart murmur thus far. To lose a youngster like that would devastate me.

 

[splashgirl45]

my friend lost her previous german shepherd to cancer at 10 years old and got the new one quite quickly as she was so devastated. when she lost the pup she was in bits and couldnt face getting another GS so ended up with a rescue lab.....

 

[Moobli]

my friend lost her previous german shepherd to cancer at 10 years old and got the new one quite quickly as she was so devastated. when she lost the pup she was in bits and couldnt face getting another GS so ended up with a rescue lab.....

How awful 😢. It’s hard enough losing old dogs in succession but to lose a pup so soon after losing an older dog must be unbearable.

 

[Moobli]

How awful! I mean, I hope it’s how big dog goes, but he’s 15. I don’t want him suffering. He’s survived a low grade heart murmur thus far. To lose a youngster like that would devastate me.

At the beginning of the end for my old dogs I often hope they’ll go peacefully in their sleep - but then no doubt I’d have the anguish of not being there with them at the end.

 

[skinnydipper]

Bloat/GDV kills quickly. Dog can appear fine when the owner goes to bed but then gets up to a dead dog.

I knew a dog (GSD) that died from this. Owner recognised there was a problem and immediately went to the vets, dog underwent surgery but subsequently died.

 

[Aru]

DCM a type of heart disease is relatively common in the spaniels and can lead to sudden deaths with no other symptoms...theres sadly a long list of possible causes for sudden death in dogs. Sometimes a post mortum can help but most of the time unless its done in a lab where they can run extra in depth testing bloods and tissue histopath its very hard to pinpoint the causes

Always heartbreaking especially in the young dogs.

 

[Moobli]

Bloat/GDV kills quickly. Dog can appear fine when the owner goes to bed but then gets up to a dead dog.

I knew a dog (GSD) that died from this. Owner recognised there was a problem and immediately went to the vets, dog underwent surgery but subsequently died.

It’s a definite worry in our breed. I’ve known three GSDs die from GDV (two were police dogs in kennels and one was the mother of my longcoated dog) and three who survived, as well as an Italian Spinone who survived. It’s not an uncommon problem and something I’m always in the lookout for.

 

[Moobli]

DCM a type of heart disease is relatively common in the spaniels and can lead to sudden deaths with no other symptoms...theres sadly a long list of possible causes for sudden death in dogs. Sometimes a post mortum can help but most of the time unless its done in a lab where they can run extra in depth testing bloods and tissue histopath its very hard to pinpoint the causes

Always heartbreaking especially in the young dogs.

Also a big problem in Dobermans.

 

[Clodagh]

So sad. A friend of my husbands died yesterday, he was 62. He said he didn't feel well and went for a dose and was found dead a few minutes later. :-(

 

[Moobli]

So sad. A friend of my husbands died yesterday, he was 62. He said he didn't feel well and went for a dose and was found dead a few minutes later. :-(

How devastating 😢. This has happened to two people I know. One woke up to her husband dead in bed next to her and the other was the same as your friend. Husband said he felt a little unwell and went for a lie down and was found dead minutes later 😞