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Sudden and untimely death of my healthy and young dog
After searching the web for days, finally I found this forum where I guess there's a little bit of chance that someone might help me know the reason behind the sudden and untimely death of my 6 year old beloved dog.
So let me first explain to you what actually happened in details
My dog, Diego was a very healthy German Spitz and had no previous health issues. Every year he just went to the vet for his vaccinations. And then 6th of April 2015 became the darkest day of my life...He was all fit and fine till the morning, went to the roof with me for his nature's call, came back and had some water and was absolutely behaving normal as usual until around 12pm when he was on the bed and vomited right there. I've rarely seen him vomiting on the bed but this time maybe he just couldn't get down. The first time I saw him vomiting, I thought maybe it was due to some indigestion because previously when he used to eat something bad or ate more than required then he'd throw up...he threw up most of the food that he ate the other night (his regular dinner included dry kibbles of Royal Canin). after a couple of minutes he vomited again, and threw up the similar food. But this time I noticed that little bit of saliva was dripping from his mouth..not continuously just a little bit. Within an hour he had vomited about 5 times and in the last three ones most of the vomited stuff was a white-yellowish liquid. I even noticed that he was having some problem in walking. He couldn't stand still and his legs seemed a bit wobbly. I called up the vet clinic and they advised me to give him three medicines, Rantac, Zofer and Decolic, and asked me to bring him at 7pm, because that's when the doctor would come to the clinic. I quickly went to the medicine shop near my house and when I returned I saw that he had excreted some sort of a reddish-orange liquid. It was his pee. I was absolutely shocked to see this. Never in his lifetime did his urine looked like that. After giving him the medicines I gave him a mild bath to cool him down. Because the temperature in my city, Kolkata (India) is quite high and humid at this time of the year. After this his vomiting stopped but still, he looked quite week, and those little bit of saliva kept on dripping from his mouth. Once standing at a spot, it seemed that he couldn't move further. He just stood there and kept on panting. I picked him up and brought him to the bedroom and after a few minutes he slowly walked up to a spot near the bed and lied down. He was constantly panting, his tongue was hanging out as he lied and he kept on staring at the wall. I knew time was running out for him and me. There is no facility for veterinary emergency services in my city and the only option I had was to wait till the clinic opened. But it seemed that each and every second was slowly taking his life away. I just couldn't bear the sight of him in such pain. I knew no other veterinary clinic and was absolutely confused about what to do. Just as my dad came back from work at around 5pm we quickly got him into the car and was on our way to the vet. In the car I saw him taking heavy breaths and once he gave a mild stretch and kick with his hind legs, seemed like it became a bit stiff.
I still had hope that we'd be able to save him but then suddenly my worst nightmare became a reality. We were not even half the way to the vet when my diego took his last breath lying on my lap.
I suffered the biggest loss of my life on this day..I lost a loving son and a best friend. His untimely death still remains a mystery to me. Any help or clue regarding what may have happened to him would be of great help to me.
The day after diego's death I visited the vet just to get any clue about what might have happened to him. There was one lady who was a chemist, said that it might have been due to his diet, which was Royal Canin dry food. She said that the kibbles might have been contaminated with aflatoxin and maybe that was the reason behind his death. I have no idea about this. Can anyone please tell me whether this can be a reason or not?
And since that day I have been browsing the internet everyday to search for an answer and finally I found this website and even saw a similar case where a person lost his dog who died in quite a similar manner to that of diego.
Here's the link to that post : http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Dogs/Sudden-Death-of-Healthy-Dog/show/1144083
As described over there, even my diego's tongue turned purple when he died. What may be the reason for this too?
Somebody please help. I am going through the worst phase of my life.
So let me first explain to you what actually happened in details
My dog, Diego was a very healthy German Spitz and had no previous health issues. Every year he just went to the vet for his vaccinations. And then 6th of April 2015 became the darkest day of my life...He was all fit and fine till the morning, went to the roof with me for his nature's call, came back and had some water and was absolutely behaving normal as usual until around 12pm when he was on the bed and vomited right there. I've rarely seen him vomiting on the bed but this time maybe he just couldn't get down. The first time I saw him vomiting, I thought maybe it was due to some indigestion because previously when he used to eat something bad or ate more than required then he'd throw up...he threw up most of the food that he ate the other night (his regular dinner included dry kibbles of Royal Canin). after a couple of minutes he vomited again, and threw up the similar food. But this time I noticed that little bit of saliva was dripping from his mouth..not continuously just a little bit. Within an hour he had vomited about 5 times and in the last three ones most of the vomited stuff was a white-yellowish liquid. I even noticed that he was having some problem in walking. He couldn't stand still and his legs seemed a bit wobbly. I called up the vet clinic and they advised me to give him three medicines, Rantac, Zofer and Decolic, and asked me to bring him at 7pm, because that's when the doctor would come to the clinic. I quickly went to the medicine shop near my house and when I returned I saw that he had excreted some sort of a reddish-orange liquid. It was his pee. I was absolutely shocked to see this. Never in his lifetime did his urine looked like that. After giving him the medicines I gave him a mild bath to cool him down. Because the temperature in my city, Kolkata (India) is quite high and humid at this time of the year. After this his vomiting stopped but still, he looked quite week, and those little bit of saliva kept on dripping from his mouth. Once standing at a spot, it seemed that he couldn't move further. He just stood there and kept on panting. I picked him up and brought him to the bedroom and after a few minutes he slowly walked up to a spot near the bed and lied down. He was constantly panting, his tongue was hanging out as he lied and he kept on staring at the wall. I knew time was running out for him and me. There is no facility for veterinary emergency services in my city and the only option I had was to wait till the clinic opened. But it seemed that each and every second was slowly taking his life away. I just couldn't bear the sight of him in such pain. I knew no other veterinary clinic and was absolutely confused about what to do. Just as my dad came back from work at around 5pm we quickly got him into the car and was on our way to the vet. In the car I saw him taking heavy breaths and once he gave a mild stretch and kick with his hind legs, seemed like it became a bit stiff.
I still had hope that we'd be able to save him but then suddenly my worst nightmare became a reality. We were not even half the way to the vet when my diego took his last breath lying on my lap.
I suffered the biggest loss of my life on this day..I lost a loving son and a best friend. His untimely death still remains a mystery to me. Any help or clue regarding what may have happened to him would be of great help to me.
The day after diego's death I visited the vet just to get any clue about what might have happened to him. There was one lady who was a chemist, said that it might have been due to his diet, which was Royal Canin dry food. She said that the kibbles might have been contaminated with aflatoxin and maybe that was the reason behind his death. I have no idea about this. Can anyone please tell me whether this can be a reason or not?
And since that day I have been browsing the internet everyday to search for an answer and finally I found this website and even saw a similar case where a person lost his dog who died in quite a similar manner to that of diego.
Here's the link to that post : http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Dogs/Sudden-Death-of-Healthy-Dog/show/1144083
As described over there, even my diego's tongue turned purple when he died. What may be the reason for this too?
Somebody please help. I am going through the worst phase of my life.
He was just 6 years old and was eating Royal Canin since the last 2-3 years. It was in mid February that I bought the last 4kg Royal Canin pack for him...that was the one which he was eating.
No there was no extermination done on the roof and there was no poisonous items present. And one good thing about Diego was that he never licked or ate any unknown substance. He always ate what he was given for dinner and lunch. Apart from that he never used to eat anything else, he didn't even like eating biscuits. Oh ! He loved eating sweets though..no matter what time of the day it was, a little bit of sweet would always make him happy. Sweets over here are not any type of candies or anything that contains chocolate, but are made of milk and sugar.
And one more point that I forgot to add, since the past 2-3 months his appetite seemed to have fallen. He just wouldn't want to eat his lunch, it was a very tough job to make him eat his lunch (which contained boiled chicken with plain rice with no oil or salt). I consulted the vet regarding this and even a few experts, they said that it's quite common for dogs to not eat much during the summers. And outdoor temperature during summers over here in my city becomes very high.
Though there was not much problem in making him eat his dinner...he sort of liked eating the Royal Canin kibbles.
And one more point that I forgot to add, since the past 2-3 months his appetite seemed to have fallen. He just wouldn't want to eat his lunch, it was a very tough job to make him eat his lunch (which contained boiled chicken with plain rice with no oil or salt). I consulted the vet regarding this and even a few experts, they said that it's quite common for dogs to not eat much during the summers. And outdoor temperature during summers over here in my city becomes very high.
Though there was not much problem in making him eat his dinner...he sort of liked eating the Royal Canin kibbles.
Welcome to the forum.....I'm terribly sad to hear about your guy!! Your description points to Liver Failure....You don't say how old he was or how long he had been on this food....I would lean towards poisoning....Everything you describe is poisoning symptoms.....
Royal Canine food is an awful food & suddenly, it just got worse....They have had a few recalls in the past, but none this year....However, there are 100's & hundreds of consumer complaints about dogs/cats getting violently ill or worse, while on this food....There seems to be a product change (Changed their formulations) within the last year......Then the problem started...I just read about 100 terrible complaints & stopped there....
Don't waste your time trying to contact the company......These powerhouse companies DO NOT care about your dog & would never admit to a problem.
There is no way to determine cause of death without a Necropsy being preformed....
I'm so sorry for you & your guy..I hope time will heal your heart....
Royal Canine food is an awful food & suddenly, it just got worse....They have had a few recalls in the past, but none this year....However, there are 100's & hundreds of consumer complaints about dogs/cats getting violently ill or worse, while on this food....There seems to be a product change (Changed their formulations) within the last year......Then the problem started...I just read about 100 terrible complaints & stopped there....
Don't waste your time trying to contact the company......These powerhouse companies DO NOT care about your dog & would never admit to a problem.
There is no way to determine cause of death without a Necropsy being preformed....
I'm so sorry for you & your guy..I hope time will heal your heart....
Sorry to hear that, but I would definitely follow-up to see if the roof top had been exterminated prior to that, which your dog may have ingested some of the poison used for the extermination and also, I would check with Royal Canin to see if they had any recall that you are not aware. You can give the serial number off of the bag of food to the customer service representative to check.
No..I couldn't do an autopsy. But I do have some video clips of him that I had taken on the day he died. I thought of showing those videos to the vet so that he could properly begin his treatment by seeing the symptoms. But he passed away before we could reach the vet.
I am so sorry to hear about the death of your Diego. I was wondering had any extermination been done recently on the roof top of your home? Also, did you contact the Royal Canin to see if they had any recalls on the food? Did you have an autopsy done? It may have been a good thing to have done to give you some peace on what happen to him. There are so many unknowns here, which would still need to be answered in order for someone including your Vet to give you an answer.
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