Dog Community

I just wittnessed a dog die

Posted : 1/3/2007 9:07:16 PM

I volunteer at an animal shelter and I know we put dogs to sleep every other week or so, but tonight for the first time in my life I actually watched a dog die right in front of me. I was outside with an 8 month old black retriever mix dog and she was jumping up at me and being really obnoxious so I told her "off" and made her sit before I petted her, everything was going ok and she was slowly getting it and I turned to bring her inside and she jumped at my face again and I pushed her into a sitting position and she just crumpled onto her back,,,,,which wasn't too strange because I figured maybe she was just really submissive and I had scared her by moving too quickly and using too firm a voice I started to move away from her and I noticed she had flipped onto her back and she started peeing and I thought "yup, I guess she's just really submissive and for some reason me making her sit scared her" but then she didn't get up after a couple seconds and I went over to her and she started this really strange cry that I haven't heard before,,,it was kind of a howl, but not, I can't really explain it. She literally died right in front of me right then. She howled for about ten seconds, then I watched her take her last breath. Needless to say I ran to get a more experienced volunteer and she declared her dead, we think she had a seisure or something but it's still really strange. When I walk the dogs I try not to get too attached because the sad truth is that some of them do end up getting put to sleep, we do everything we can for them to get them out and adopted but sometimes we simply get bombarded by too many dogs at once and have no other option than to put them to sleep. So I guess my heart has already prepared itself for the sad truth before I even walk through the doors of the shelter but it's still unerving to have watched this young and what looked liked healthy dog literally drop and die in front of me. Have any of you seen or heard of a dog doing this before? I'm going to attach the link to her petfinder page so you all can see her sweet face. I am glad that she's not stuck in the shelter anymore, or that she doesn't have to worry about some nasty human dropping her off at a shelter again (she was an owner surrender), and I'm glad that she died during a run outside with the sun shining, but still,,,,,,it just isn't right that she had to be there to begin with.[sm=sad.gif][sm=sad.gif][sm=sad.gif][sm=sad.gif][sm=sad.gif][sm=sad.gif]

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=7619928

Xerxes

Posted : 1/3/2007 9:10:06 PM

OMG you are taking this much better than I would. I'm sorry you had to watch this and experience it. But at least that dog had someone with a loving heart nearby. Run free puppy, run free.

mondayblues

Posted : 1/3/2007 9:19:44 PM

I'm sorry you had to see it too. To answer your question, I've never heard of that happening to a dog before. Run free, Shelby.

jjsmom06

Posted : 1/3/2007 9:29:25 PM

Oh my gosh..you poor thing...i would be a wreck right now.

I recall my last greyhound gumby made a very strange crying sound when we put her to sleep. That whole experience was AWFUL though...she fought the injection and didn't get the full dose, it took her a very long time to die and she was making awful sounds...I will never forget that ...[

]

Run free sweet Shelby!

pofi_pasquale

Posted : 1/3/2007 9:31:59 PM

So sorry for this difficult experience - she was a lovely dog. I know my DH would just love that sweet face.

Perhaps she had an aneurysm - I have known cats who succumbed to them very suddenly and my friend's cat also made this haunting howling sound - it's a very sudden and catastrophic failure of a blood vessel and therefore accompanied by a dramatic drop in bp.

So sorry - be at peace Shelby.

Elizabeth

Posted : 1/3/2007 10:23:00 PM

ORIGINAL: Xerxes

OMG you are taking this much better than I would. I'm sorry you had to watch this and experience it. But at least that dog had someone with a loving heart nearby. Run free puppy, run free.

Actually, it's kind of strange. I never would have thought I'd handle something that dramatic as well as I have, maybe it's just shock and maybe it's just that I had other dogs that needed me and I haven't really let myself dwell on it yet. In order to survive working at the shelter you have to be able to not let your emotions control you in the moment, it's later before bed that I'll really start to think about it and then the emotions will kick me. It's kind of weird, on the one hand I'm just so glad that she's finally out of this world because now nobody can ever hurt her again, and yet it's sooo sad that her life ended so soon without ever knowing the complete love and devotion that my dogs have. You know, if it weren't for that really strange howl I probably would have been able to say "well, at least she went quickly and painlessly" but you have to wonder,,,if the dog makes that kind of noise, what were her last thoughts before death took over? Were they good? Was it painfull? Did she know that death was coming? Was it any comfort that she was outside in the sunshine with a loving human nearby? sigh

Mookies Mom

Posted : 1/3/2007 10:23:22 PM

I am so sad for you. That would completely wreck havoc on me. She was a beautiful girl.

Raja19

Posted : 1/3/2007 10:30:37 PM

Barngirl I am sorry that you had to witness that poor dog die. I would be a mess right now if I were you. But at least Shelby's last memories were of you and your walk you took her on, and her last minutes were filled with happyness. She could have died alone in a kennel, but because of you she was at least with someone who cared about her.

Run Free Shelby!

paulaedwina

Posted : 1/3/2007 10:49:10 PM

I have two things to contribute:

1. Back in college when I was a tech volunteer with delusions of vethood I watched a dog die from seizure. It was a petstore mini schnauzer who presented with occipital seizures. While she was in the hospital she lay down on her side and gasped these big toothy breaths and died. It blows my mind to this day how a creature -human or otherwise - can be alive one minute and meat the next. Ironically after that experience I would say the best simulation of death I ever saw in the movies was the scientist in Terminator 2 who stayed behind in the building to set off the bomb. That gasp-gasp-gasp-sigh was pretty accurate.

2. I too have euthanized a sighthound - Jem Finch the borzoi azawakh crazy, dog/people eating dog I got from the pound. The protocol was to sedate and then euthanize. The sedation made him very agitated and very scared and it was the most horrible thing I've ever experienced. The vet just ended up having to give him the pento right then. The next time I have to put down a sighthound I'm going straight for the pink. I don't ever what to experience that again.

Paula

jenns

Posted : 1/3/2007 11:12:40 PM

What a sweet face [

] So sorry you had to witness this, I have never heard of that happening.. Thank you for being there with her when she passed on.

agilebasenji

Posted : 1/3/2007 11:20:24 PM

How awful. Poor Shelby. I'm sure she knows you did what you could for her.

jjsmom06

Posted : 1/3/2007 11:47:44 PM

2. I too have euthanized a sighthound - Jem Finch the borzoi azawakh crazy, dog/people eating dog I got from the pound. The protocol was to sedate and then euthanize. The sedation made him very agitated and very scared and it was the most horrible thing I've ever experienced. The vet just ended up having to give him the pento right then. The next time I have to put down a sighthound I'm going straight for the pink. I don't ever what to experience that again.

Paula...that is very interesting...I am not sure what happened with my greyhound gumby that I mentioned but it was a horrible experience and even my vet was totally shook up and crying...saying she had never seen a dog react like that. Perhaps it is more common in sighthounds then?

Lindsay- Bernie's Mom

Posted : 1/3/2007 11:56:39 PM

I am sorry you had to witness such a terrible thing. At least she had someone that cared by her side.

My aunt's greyhound dropped dead in a middle of a game of fetch. There were no signs, he was in the middle of bringing back his favorite toy, stopped, dropped on his side, let out a big sigh and was gone. They didn't get a necropsy- but assume it was an aneurysm. It was real hard on her, but she has since adopted two more greyhounds and loves them completely.

willowchow

Posted : 1/4/2007 2:14:53 AM

Poor sweet girl. . .she's God's dog now.

ron2

Posted : 1/4/2007 5:39:27 AM

It was, no doubt, as scary and peaceful as it was for a human. And it happens, through unknown defect, sometimes. And I understand about the euth schedule. There's only so much space and resource to go around. And it's not the food. It's the space and time it takes to manage the animals until they are adopted or PTS. It takes one person a certain amount of time to clean kennels and feed the animals. A certain amount of time to evaluate and/or train. Many times, work is done by volunteers, so it's unpaid and may be in addition to one's full day elsewhere. The paid workers are barely making enough to survive. The shelter has a budget to maintain, but I do think it's mainly a space and time issue. And liability. If a dog is just too aggressive to be rehabbed, it is PTS to make room for the next one coming in that is submissive and would follow you anywhere for a treat. And there will be a "next one coming in."

I have likened it to the dutch boy with his finger in the dike. Trying to hold back the North Sea with a finger.