My 4 year old dog died on Tuesday. My boyfriend was home and saw it happen. They were in the yard and he had just treed a squirrel, then he seemed (to me, given the description from my SO) to have a neurological event (lost control of hind end, collapsed, contorted/spasmed) and died. SO was with him the entire day to that point, so there’s no chance he ingested something toxic without it being seen. In days prior, it’s possible I guess, but unlikely. He was at the vet a few weeks ago for his annual vaccines and check up with no indication anything was wrong.
We’re having a necropsy done, but so far they haven’t found an obvious cause like evidence of a heart attack or stroke. They’re evaluating tissue samples and cultures now. We mostly want to know what happened in case there’s an environmental factor that puts our other dog at risk. We did get her checked out at the vet and a blood panel already (vet says she’s perfect).
The breeder is reputable and breeds for sport (pointers). The breed is robust in terms of heritable diseases. Our dog was from a repeat mating, with no similar deaths in his or prior litters (no deaths at all, as far as I know). The sire passed at age 12, and the dam is still alive (at 10).
Anyone have or know of similar experiences? Any ideas about what could have happened?
I looked for generic information online about sudden death in dogs, and saw a paper with some statistics. In ~20% of the cases, no cause could be determined. Causes that could be determined included things like gastrointestinal disruptions, heart attacks, poisons, trauma, and infections. Also aspirations, but that was mostly puppies.
