a beloved doodle's sudden death - searching for answers :(

Hi,

I apologize in advance for the very sad and somewhat lengthy tale I'm about to tell. The reason I'm sharing it is to hopefully protect my family's remaining dogs :(

About 2 weeks ago, my sister's friend's dog became very ill and suddenly died. The dog suddenly began vomiting and being very lethargic- she took her dog (about 5 years) to the vet and while there overnight, Lucky died in his sleep :( My sister was of course concerned about the safety of her schnoodle Odie, who had recently played with Lucky, and also my doodle (Reggie), my mom's dog, and my other sister's 2 doodles, Bentley and Oliver. She told us all what happened - that the vet was not able to determine what killed Lucky, but that we should all keep a close watch on our dogs, since they had all played with Odie recently. We were all so sad for Lucky and our friend. :(

About 3 days later (last Saturday), my sister's standard goldendoodle Bentley, 4 years old, vomited twice in the night. He was still acting playful and energetic, so she didn't get too worked up - our dogs all throw up at lease once every couple of weeks, eating grass, too much rawhide, etc. About 2 days after that, he began vomiting more, and acting lethargic, (though no fever or diarrhea) so she took him in. The vet performed a bunch of tests and xrays and couldn't figure out what was wrong, though his white blood cell count was really high and it showed a lot of gas in his GI system- they hooked him up to an IV and gave him an antibiotic, no improvement in 24 hours, so decided to do a surgery to see if there was something stuck in the intestines that could be causing the gas/infection. The results of the surgery were that nothing was IN the intestines, but the intestines and bowels were not moving/working. 24 hours more of IV and antibiotics... Bentley briefly got a little better, walked around and pooped outside, seemed very happy to see my sister, then a couple of hours later suddenly took a turn for the worst and passed away :( He really was the most wonderful dog and companion, and as I'm sure you all can imagine, our family is just devastated by his death.

While our hearts are broken over the loss of Bentley, we are also very concerned for the well-being of the other dogs :( Though most of the info above is what I was told by my sister, at one point she was too upset to call the vet so I called for her (the vet happens to be our very sweet uncle) and talked to him about what was happening. I asked about Parvo (the other dogs are all puppies and have recently been vaccinated) and he said no, Parvo symptom is low white blood cell and Bentley's was high. I asked what he thought was happening, and he said his best guess was that maybe Bentley ate something that was toxic to his system. He said that he thought if it was some kind of contagious disease, the other dogs would have fallen ill by now. My family and I have wracked our brains - we are all SO careful about what our dogs are around, so we cannot figure out what he could have ingested that would have poisoned him. The clinic is doing additional tests to try to figure out what happened, but my fear is that we'll never know.

I guess my reason for posting is this - has anyone experienced or heard about an illness like this? We are all stunned at how quick and serious it was - Bentley was SUCH an active and healthy young dog, and this appeared and killed within a span of a week. What could have poisoned him to affect his GI like that? Could it have been some kind of tick? (He has had lyme disease, though they are vigilant with the flea/tick treatment). Or was it some kind of virus/bacteria? Could he have gotten it from Lucky? (He didn't play with Lucky, but Odie did, and Bentley played with Odie... could Odie have carried the illness without getting sick?) Are all of our dogs at risk? They are all behaving as usual, although Bentley's brother Ollie has been crying a lot :( but they DO all, all of a sudden, have very runny noses and are sneezing/sniffing A LOT. Could that be allergies? Or indicate something more serious? My sister said Bentley wasn't sneezing/runny nose before he got sick. We are all trying not to panic, but are worried about our beloved dogs :(

Any advice or input would be very appreciated.

Best,
Stephanie

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Permalink Reply by Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle on July 6, 2013 at 3:33pm

Reposted from your other discussion:

I am terribly sorry to hear all this. I would be interested in the liver and kidney values from the bloodwork. That might help you figure it out, although I would think that would also point the vet in the right direction, too. Of course, some of those tests do have to be sent out and take time to get the results.

One question; had the dogs who died been eating chicken jerky or other treats purchased at a place like Walmart, K-mart, Walgreen's, Target, or the grocery store? Many of the dogs who have died from treats imported from China had GI symptoms like vomiting and became very ill very quickly.

The runny noses and sniffling/sneezing are not typical signs of allergies in dogs. The allergens that cause those kinds of symptoms in people, typically pollen allergies, cause dogs to itch intensely. Those of us whose dogs do have allergies have not seen those kinds of symptoms. It sounds more like a virus or upper respiratory infection.

I'm also wondering if they had access to poisonous mushrooms or some other kind of plant that is toxic to dogs.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie & Reggie on July 6, 2013 at 3:38pm

Do you think I should delete the discussion in health/wellness? To keep things all in one place?

Thanks for all of your advice. I really appreciate it.

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Permalink Reply by Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle on July 6, 2013 at 4:27pm

I personally think it's confusing to have people commenting in two places, and it makes double work for you to respond to everything twice, but I also think it should be in the Health Group. It's good to have the info. You do get more responses in the main forum, but in the specific groups you usually get more informed responses. You could always edit one of the discussions to say it's been moved, with a link to the new discussion, and then close the other one to responses.

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Permalink Reply by Kyoko on July 6, 2013 at 8:23pm

This ( Made in China dog treat )was the first thing that came to my mind as well.....

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Permalink Reply by Nicky, Riley & Boris on July 6, 2013 at 4:12pm

Stephanie, I am so very sorry to hear this and I hope you find answers very soon for what is obviously not only a very sad story but a very worrying one too. Please do keep us updated if you find out what caused this devastating illness.