dogmedgallery
Canine Encyclopedia
Subscriber Area (members only)
Zoonotic disease
Becoming A Veterinarian
and other stuff
Other
Veterinary Issues
Your Turn
Help
Support Vetinfo, vetinfo4dogs and vetinfo4cats and make a donation
Sudden Death in Dogs
also see Anesthesia death
in dogs
also see Poisoning
and Toxicosis in dogs
also see Toxins in dogs
also see Snakebite
Question: Greetings,
My 6 yr old Husky (Specs) died in his sleep Tuesday night, 11/22.
He was in
excellent health and was very active indoor dog. We went
to bed around 10,
he slept in his usual spot at the foot of the bed. When
we awoke to take all
3 dogs for a walk, he was cold and stiff. Best I can tell,
he had been gone
for a few hours. My wife and I are very light sleepers
and would have
noticed even a small struggle. Our vet suggested that
he may have had a heart attack
or stroke. He was at the vet 30 days ago for
his semi-annual visit. Everything was fine then.
My neighbor almost lost his dog to Ehrlichia a year ago.
Looking back now,
Specs had slowed down a bit recently and we did find a small
amount of yellow
vomit in the areas he frequented. Is it possible he had
become infected and
we missed it?
Are there other possible explanations for a relatively young,
healthy dog to
die suddenly like that?
I'm taking the other 2 to the vet today for a full blood profile
for Kodiak
(14yr old Alpha male - Shep/Dobie mix) and Sunni (8yr old female
Rot mix).
I recently used your site when Kodiak got sick and was stumbling
around the
house. I thought it was a stroke, until I saw "vestibular
disease" on your
web site. I took him to the vet and they confirmed it.
He is still a bit
wobbly, but doing better.
Thanks for the help, sorry if the questions are a bit random.
These are tough times in the Adams pack.
Rob
Answer: Rob-
True sudden death (which seems to be what you are describing) is a fairly
rare event in dogs. There
are a number of reasons that this can occur and I probably won't think
of all of them, but here is a
partial list:
hypoadrenocorticism (Addison's disease)
subaortic stenosis (a defect in the aorta that can cause sudden death)
aneurysms
thromboembolic events (usually pulmonary) -- blood clots that lead to sudden death
cardiomyopathy (weakness of the heart muscles, can occur secondary
to viruses or parasites like
Neospora caninum in dogs)
supraventicular tachycardia -- this is the event that is probably
most commonly called a "heart
attack" in dogs, even though it is not like heart attacks as are seen
in humans, ischemia of the heart
muscle due to arterial blockage, which are fairly rare in dogs (although
they do occur . Other types of
arrhythmia are also possible causes of sudden death.
bleeding events -- these can occur for no apparent reason but
we see sudden death from
hemangiosarcoma tumors which occur due to bleeding induced by the tumors
and it is sometimes the
first sign of a problem. I think of these as being among the more common
causes of sudden
hemorrhage in patients six years of age or above
toxins --- usually there are some signs associated with toxins but carbon
monoxide poisoning (not
likely since everyone else is OK) would cause death without much in
the way of clinical signs
strokes are also uncommon in dogs but do occur sometimes, especially in dobermans
parasites -- there are reports of sudden death associated with lungworm
infection, Neospora
caninum infection, roundworms, hookworms and heartworms in dogs.
These are the causes of sudden death that I can come up with.
I am not sure that this list is all that
helpful since it would take a post-mortem examination to rule in or
rule out many of these problems.
However, most of them are not contagious or likely to affect more than
one dog in a household, so
hopefully that will hold true for your household.
I don't know why bad things seem to happen in bunches but it often seems
like that is the case. I
hope that Kodiak has continued to improve. I am sorry to hear about
Specs.
Mike Richards, DVM
11/27/2000
