A dog just died in the house :(

[Zerg]

A medium sized dog, Molly, a kind of boxer died at my Aunt’s house where she takes care of dogs. She was a healthy dog, so I don’t know how this is possible.

The only sign was a drooling mouth, which I also thought was normal.

Could I have hurt the dog by accident? All I did was pick her up and I put her down again and thought it was fine. Could I have picked her up incorrectly? She didn’t yelp or scream or show pain.

My Aunt now knows about it and said just to cover her with a blanket until she sees the vet.

Was it my fault?

 

[Augustinian]

Was it my fault?

Possibly, but you didn’t do anything morally wrong. You weren’t trying to kill or injure the dog.

Dogs can orderly take getting carried and picked up without any ill effects, it seems like it was most likely not the picture of health you think.

 

[CRM_Brother]

Many different breeds have various genetic tendencies for heath problems. Some of them are extremely serious like seizures or heart disease. These problems can even effect puppies. There is also the possibility that she ate something that she was allergic to. Sometimes these allergies are slow and can affect the dog over the course of hours. The most famous of these is the chocolate allergy which most dogs have. She may have eaten something hours before and her throat slowly swelled shut. You never know until the vet takes a look at her.

Don’t worry. If it was an injury, there would have been signs: shaking, whimpering, attempting to find somewhere to hide, etc. If she just fell asleep and died, then you most probably had nothing to do with it

 

[causer00000]

There are many reasons an otherwise healthy dog can pass away unexpectedly. A common reason is something called Bloat (gastric dilatation). Boxers are one of the breeds which have a higher risk for this. It could have been a number of things though. I’m sorry for your loss but don’t blame yourself, you didn’t mean to hurt the pup. God bless.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It doesn’t sound like you did anything to harm the dog. Assuming the dog was not showing symptoms, as you said, then just picking her up and putting her down is not going to hurt her. She may have had a heart attack or any number of other conditions. The vet will look into it.
Animals do die sudden deaths. I’m sorry.

 

[abucs]

It was not your fault. Sad to hear the dog has died. I felt very bad when my dog died. I used to pick up my dog in many rough and tumble ways throughout her 14 years with no adverse affect.

My dog was also bitten by another dog and run over by a 4 wheel drive and suffered a stroke.

I highly doubt picking a dog up led to its death.

Regards.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Zerg will your aunt get an autopsy?
Why and how did you pick her up and put her down. Boxers are heavy dogs .

Was there bait or poison around the house, possible snake bite. Was the drooling normal boxer drooling or white and foamy.

 

[dochawk]

The only sign was a drooling mouth, which I also thought was normal.

There are many problems with animals that have no generally observable symptoms; you can’t be faulted for not seeing them.

Dogs drool.

FUS (Feline Urinary Syndrome [gallstones]) in cats has the primary symptom that “the cat is lethargic”.

Uhm, gee, a lethargic cat? How would you notice?

(In my case, it was when he stopped to rest halfway to a litter box . . .)

These things happen, mores in some breeds than others.

hawk

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Animals, including cats and dogs, will also hide their symptoms until it gets so bad they just can’t mask them any more. By the time the animal starts to look or act sick, it’s often very seriously ill.

With respect to cat lethargy, the cat pretty much has to not show up to the food bowl or not move from its spot for a day to alert anybody about that. I’ve had cats who slept a whole day just because they were stressed or had a minor tummy upset or even because they were happy and just wanted a nice long nap.