Year old female GSD dies - Page 1

Just got phone call the one year old female pup I sold them last April died in back yard in an hour after they played with her , with no symptoms , no evidence of any illness, or problems...happy and healthy, and then dead...any suggestions? She just ate a bowl of Iams puppy dry food, not moistened, and was tied on a long line, in a non fenced yard, that I was unaware of , till phone call, and she whinned and he went over to check her and she died within the next hour and a half? Of course , its Sunday and he had no idea anything was wrong...I've no answers for him,,,never has this happen...I questioned the dry food, maybe she was too hot, gulped food, tortioned , maybe someone poisened her, awful sudden death for that , maybe some poisons act quicker,????? He found no food , or foot prints, or nothing on her body ....no snake bite or bullet....advised to take her body to vet in A.M., Are autopsys expensive? New one on me~!

?gastric volvulus or bloat. It does sometimes happen in young dogs particularly after playing after eating. Why good practice to not play/run after eating. Of course this is just one possibility.Sorry to hear this has happened. My condolences.

A necropsy needs to be done on this dog to find out why she died.. tied to a long line???? EEEsh.. that must have made your heart stand still Most vet schools do them and no matter how expensive they are worth.. lost a young dog this spring, necropsy solved all the questions... we paid for it...

i will bet it was her HEART. she was at the age it would have happened. see below: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March96/sids.hrs.html

Sudden Cardiac Death! Not very uncommon! We lost two males between the age of one and two years of age that way which we had imported from Germany as puppies. Chris

Yellowrose, my condolences. I'm so sorry, I've been through this very recently myself. Mine was not quite 2 and I think he had a stroke. He fell while playing and was paralyzed. His eye was kind of sunken and the vet said the nerves in the same area may affect respiration. His was not affected but if it had been he wouldn't have made it to the vet. We are still without concrete answers as to exactly what happened, they kept referring to it as an injury but there was no evidence of that and my husband was with him at the time it happened. If you have a necropsy done please post the results. After $4K in vet bills we did not have a one done and are now sorry. DKiah, first of all I'm very sorry for your loss I know all too well how hard it is. What were your dog's symptoms and also the results of the necropsy?

It's known as "Inherited Ventricular Arrhythmias" our puppy at 8 wks did not show any signs of it. It developes after 8 weeks of age. So when you take that puppy in for his/her 8 wk check up the vet won't find it because its not there. It developes after 12 wks of age. No signs of him being ill whatsoever. At 6 mos he died during sleep. Cornell University is doing studies in regards to this. So far, there is no effective antiarrhythmic therapy established. According to Cornell GSDs afflicted with the propensity for sudden death have venticular arrhythmias (VA) with ventricular tachycardia indicating the highest likelihood of death. No other clinical indicators of abnormality are apparent. Death is unexpected and most frequent during sleep, or at rest or after exercise. I am sorry to hear of those who lost puppies and dogs this way, its very devastating, and happens so suddenly without any signs. :(

Actually, it was a puppy from our D litter and he was owned by a friend in my partners club... He first presented with what appeared to be an eye infection and the vet stained it and said it appeared to be scratched. Sent the owner home with some meds, within a couple days.. he called to say he was bringing the dog back.. it was looking worse and there was visible swelling of his head Vet called him before he was a mile away and said you gotta see this.. they had already sedated the dog and had him on his back with his mouth wide open and at the back of his throat was a gaping hole with this "thing" like a flower growing off it.. Vet had never seen anything like that before .. it was removed and sent out for pathology and came back with this long name that evades me right now but it was from the histiocytosis family.. an overgrowth of cells but not cancer .. that particular condition common in cats (similar to rodent ulcers) and Huskies Dog comes home and in 2 days, he is back at the vets and is now not eating or drinking and appears to have lost significant weight and muscle and after 24 hours on fluids and hosp care at the vets they refer him out to the top gun specialists. This a Friday afternoon and I get a call that the dog was carried out to the car on a stretcher and then en route starting thrashing and losing control of his bowels and bladder and I knew then, this had to be really bad (he was seizing).... But Sat they were doing tests and speculating meningitis .. obviously not contagious because he was in the general population and sun he was being sedated because the seizures would not stop.. by sun afternoon, he was put to sleep.. he had suffered so much in such a short time and would never have come back ..Necropsy came back that he had aspergillosis ( a very common fungus/bacteria) bitit was in every single spec of his tissue from skin to organs to hair... so, yes we have an answer sort of.. have found this to be common in immunosuppressed people and AIDs patients but not a healthy young dog who less than 2 weeks before was tearing up the field!! The entire process took less than 2 weeks and all vets concur the outcome would have been the same no matter when it was caught.. I have a huge paper my vet gave me on this and I need ot sit down and read it, just haven't had time to concentrate on something so heavy.....

So sorry to hear about the puppy, Yellow Rose. My money is on some sort of a genetic cardiac problem. Happens to many dogs of all breeds. Nothing you did wrong or could have done to prevent it. Without a post you will never know for sure. Nice to hear from you again although I wish it were under happier circumstances. I know of nothing more hearbreaking to a dog breeder than when a puppy they have bred dies young. Been there, done that myself. Blitzen

k9 dog..... if this VA condition develops after 8 weeks, why wouldn't it be found then?? Pups are going back to the vet for vaccines thru 16 weeks or so and even later (hopefully) for Rabies... Listening to heart and breathing should be part of the routine exam ..... Sorry about your pup... We need to tell people that their pups should still get a good once over exam everytime they go in....