So sad. I'm on another Lab board and a member just posted his dog died in his sleep early this morning. Just, out of the blue. I am not sure if Bruce, the dog, was even two years old yet. The owner says he will take him for necropsy. That is a hard thing to think of too but he wants to know why a healthy young dog just up and died. The only good thing is that a peaceful passing in sleep is what we all wish for our pets, ourselves, our family. But in old age, not youth. So sad.
It is terrible. There was a similar incident on this forum shortly after I joined. Absolutely devastating for the owner.
So sad its totally devastating a dog walking friend lost his beautful choc lab 2 year old lab very suddenly. He was in good health he jumped off a chair and was dead when he hit the ground. He turned out to have had a heart condition. Don't know how it was missed it was so shocking and very very sad we all still miss him
My Murphy died suddenly aged 2 earlier this year. He was fit and healthy, doing agility etc, and then out on a walk he just dropped dead. Devastating. We never found out why, my husband didn't want him to go through that. It's a horrible thing to happen.
The owner is awaiting necropsy results from the nearest Veterinary teaching university. What an awful thing. I'm so sorry to all of you who have experienced similar tragedies.
My Nevis died two weeks after his first birthday, we got up in the morning and he'd slept away. It still hurts
I'm so sorry, Elizabeth. Do you know why Nevis died in his sleep? My grandmother passed away in her sleep. She was 91, it was a blessing, No long term illness, no suffering, just a wee bit of flu. It's not the same when a loved one is so young.
The poor man has the necropsy results and his dog had "minor mitral valve dysplasia. While this was not the cause of death, it was the opinion of the pathologist that this underlying condition caused an "acute fatal arrhythmia"." The dog was completely asymptomatic.
Sorry Snowshoe i didn't see your question. No we didn't do a postmortem on Nevis. When we found him in the morning it just looked like he was sleeping, his eyes were closed and so was his mouth, his tongue was in his mouth. There was no sickness or froth tmi sorry. We tried everything as you can imagine but it was too late. The vet examined him and said he hadn't chocked and didn't show any signs of eating anything he shouldn't have. She checked for blockages, gases etc and concluded that he did indeed slept away in his sleep due likely to his heart. We were not keen for a post mortem as it wouldn't bring him back and did want to put him through it. Saying that if we had found him any other way or showed signs of distress i would have wanted tests to determine cause. Wouldn't wish it on anyone, we felt so robbed. He was a super happy funny dog. The forum was a great support..
Oh Elizabeth, and Frankie I've had a few tears reading your replies and remembering what a terrible,upsetting shock it was when you lost them,big hugs x
Very sad to remember these tragic events that have so deeply affected our forum friends Just googled this. Seems that it's a recessive inherited disorder (malformed heart valves) that affects some breeds more than others, Labradors being one....
So sad to hear this. It's so hard to lose our beloved pets at any time, but the shock of losing them so young is so very difficult.
