I wrote this because a lot of folks wanted to know if I found out anything about what caused Ryder’s death. If you are reading this, you probably know the abbreviated version, but here is the long version in hopes that someone might recognize the symptoms in their dog someday and take action sooner.
Amazingly it’s been only 3 weeks since our hearts were broken when Ryder started having seizures. Two days later Jonathan had to put him to rest at the vet, but I firmly feel that he left us that Tuesday night. I have gone over and over that night in my head trying to find something that we missed that could have changed the outcome.
The night before (Monday), everyone had a nice meaty pork bone … I feed raw and have for several months. However, this was the first time I’ve actually let them have anything larger than a chicken bone. Pork bones are soft and generally thought of as edible. An hour or so later, I went downstairs and was quite surprised that several of the dogs had completely eaten the bone which made me a little nervous because I’m still new to the raw thing. The following morning everyone was fine, Ryder was bouncing about per the usual with absolutely no signs of impending disaster. I went to work, Jonathan happened to be at home that day because he had to burn some vacation days. There was never any unusual noise downstairs on the ground level where the dogs were.
When I came home I immediately noticed a bad smell and Ryder had apparently vomited and rolled in it. It is not particularly unusual for dogs to vomit after a bony meal so the fact that he vomited was not that unusual. However it WAS unusual that he would get any of it on himself and Ryder was an extremely clean dog and my crates are akita-sized so plenty of room to avoid anything like that. I put him outside to run while I cleaned up his kennel. When I was done I called him in and he didn’t come. Again, not entirely unusual if he’s having a good time. I went outside to call him again and he ran toward the door which was closed. When I came over to him, he cowered and barked and growled at me. Very unusual, but I thought perhaps it was because I was coming at him with a light behind me with a coat on and he just didn’t know who it was and was startled … seemed logical at the time.
I sent him upstairs and he was able, at that time, to run up the stairs and jump onto Jonathan’s chair and lay down. It was apparent to me that he might be having some digestive issues, but I had watched him outside and he had pottied and was not having any difficulty eliminating. I finished feeding everyone and everyone else was fine. I went upstairs and Ryder was resting on the chair. I had wiped him off with a damp washcloth earlier but he was still a bit smelly, so I gave him a quick bath as well and towel dried him. He was still in some discomfort but nothing that I felt warranted a trip to the Emergency Vet.
When things started to go bad, he went downhill quickly. I had him on my lap for a while, just patting his tummy and he seemed to feel more comfortable. However he shortly decided he wanted to get off my lap and I put him on the floor. Observing him, he was starting to walk into things, within 15 minutes he was starting to knuckle over on his feet. Visions of Mickey at the end came to me. At this point, I called Bonnie because I was really upset and after I got off the phone with her, we packed him up and took him to the vet. While I was calling to tell them we were on our way, Ryder started having what I can only think were multiple seizures.
By the time we got to the ER Vet (less than 20 minutes), he had a temperature of 105.8 (I had taken it maybe an hour earlier and he was normal). Ryder had to be medicated at the ER Vet and received Phenobarbital for the seizures and something else for possible brain swelling. He was there overnight, and did actually try to stand up the next day which gave us some hope. However, by the time Jonathan got him to our regular vet he had crashed again. I had to go to work because we were at an offsite meeting and everything for that meeting was in my car. I’m a temp and if I don’t work, I don’t get paid and I knew we were going to need every penny for Ryder.
I met Jonathan at our vet and Ryder looked bad. Even though he was (and this is from memory) given an injection of Phenobarbital and valium he was still “paddling”, another dose of valium finally made that stop. He was x-rayed and other than some bone fragments in his stomach there was nothing really to be seen. Obviously my vet is not a neurologist and while the ER Vet had suggested that he might have a brain tumor and suggested a visit to the neurologist I didn’t feel brain surgery was an option for us. While I would charge up my credit cards to the max to save one of my dogs, I didn’t feel that I could do that on such a risky surgery. I wasn’t even sure at this point if there was any consciousness left to save.
My vet, during the exam, noticed a heart murmur and as a last ditch effort we had blood drawn to see if we could find anything more definitive about the liver values that were off, and she also wanted to give him antibiotics to see if there was some sort of infection that was there that might be causing the murmur.
Looking at him lying there in the x-ray room broke our hearts, I really felt he was gone already and wanted to put him to sleep right then while I could be there, and despite knowing that we would probably put him down in the morning and I wouldn’t be able to be there, I went ahead and took the chance even though I didn’t have much faith in anything changing. The vet sent us home with some valium in case he started having seizures again.
Ryder spent a quiet night in our bedroom. I brought him out in the living room in the morning and said my goodbyes because I knew in my heart I wouldn’t see him again. Jonathan took him to the vet, and again for just a moment he tried to sit up and then crashed again. He said there really was no visible difference before he was put to sleep and after. His heartbeat was barely there anymore. Poor Jonathan, having to do such a thing on his birthday.
So what happened? We allowed the vet to do a necropsy and frustratingly … we still don’t really know. What I can tell you is that it wasn’t anything below the neck, thus we feel that it definitely was neurological in nature. The necropsy showed nothing (she did not go into the brain or central nervous system), and I have not heard anything about the tissue samples which were sent out which means they were probably clear (as the vet suspected they would be).
When I talked to the vet a week ago she said everything was in working order and healthy, except for the gall bladder which was distended and is probably what was causing the liver values to be a little off. There were no stones, it was just very full of fluid, but his metabolism had essentially shut down after Tuesday night. He was no longer eliminating despite a lot of fluids being pumped into him and whatever was still left in his stomach on Tuesday was still there.
So what have I learned? Maybe not to justify things. While I knew he could have rolled in his vomit … I knew it was unlikely. I know he would never ever bark or growl or cower from me, he never had a reason to do that … but I was coming at him with a light behind me, it seemed a reasonable assumption. Even though he ran upstairs by himself and jumped into the chair, I still felt something was not quite right. Even as I blame myself for not doing more for him, I still wonder what I would have done/said if I had taken him in? He hadn’t continued to vomit, he was eliminating, he just didn’t seem “right.”
They say the good die young and in this case it is certainly true. Bonnie told me before I got him, he is the coolest dog …
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