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

[Stephanie & Reggie]

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

[Lynette Main]

Please POST anything that the vets find out. There may be a lot of our dogs doing or eating the same thing these dogs might of had..

[Stephanie & Reggie]

Will do for sure.

[Star and Goldie]

Is there a way to keep this post and the one you have in the health group linked? You've made some good progress on the other discussion that some people reading this post may not see so you may end up answering similar questions in both discussions.

[Stephanie & Reggie]

I'm not sure if they can be linked? I guess at this point I'd like as much information as possible, so I'm ok with re-answering :) I'll post the link to the other discussion, though. Thanks.

[Stephanie & Reggie]

Hi guys,

Here's a link to the other discussion in the Health/Wellness group, if anyone is interested in hearing other responses. Thanks, everyone, for your input. It feels better to have you all on our side :)

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/healthandmedicalissues/forum/topi...

[Donna K & Quincy]

I am so very sorry that this is happening and I completely understand your being worried. This really is a mystery. I have a couple of questions? What was the length of time between the deaths of the two dogs, did those two dogs still have contact with each other and did the third dog that died live in the same area as the other two? We really need to find the common denominator between all the cases to help you figure this out.

[Stephanie & Reggie]

Hi Donna,

Lucky died on Tuesday. Bentley died the week after on a Thursday, so about 9 days later. The third dog died 3 days later. Lucky and Bentley did not have direct contact with each other. My other sister's dog Odie played separately with both dogs. Odie isn't showing any of the scariest symptoms, but is sneezing a lot. The third dog wasn't in contact with any of the other dogs, but lives about 25 minutes away. A certain "wal mart" would be a common denominator, but I'm not sure Bentley ate anything from that wal-mart. We don't feed our dogs food or treats from wal-mart, but my mom was dog-sitting and had some of the dogs at a relative's house for a picnic, so there is a chance Bentley got something there from a relative that we don't know about...

[Adrianne Matzkin]

I am heartbroken for your family!!  

Could they have nibbled on any plants outside? There are so many plants that are toxic. I guess it depends on the part of they we live in to determine what plants are in our yards. We have hostas that are toxic but none of our 4 doodles bother any of them or any other of the plants in our yard.

This is a list from the ASPCA.  too long to copy

http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/poison-control/plant-list-dogs.aspx

[Stephanie & Reggie]

Hi Adrianne,

This is possible - Bentley was by far the smartest dog of our bunch, so if any of them were to avoid a poisonous plant, i would tend to think it would be him. Though my mom does have hostas... I'll look into the plants in her garden and see if there are any clues there. Thanks for the input!

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

So sorry to hear of this tragedy.  Our thoughts are with you and pray the other dogs do not become ill too.  When the dogs were together were they feed anything such as treats, or could the somehow got into some type of poison?

[Stephanie & Reggie]

Hi Linda,

Thanks for the kind words. We are trying to figure out exactly what they may have eaten. Ironically, my sisters and I were out of town last weekend, and my mom was puppy sitting the whole lot of them. So I'm headed home tomorrow to pick her brain about what treats they had, what plants/mushrooms might be in her yard, etc. None of us keep poison around and are very careful about things like that, so unless it was some obscure poison, it's doubtful.

Thanks for the input,

S

[Kyoko]

I am so sorry to hear about this tragedy....