My sweet little girl died today
My 2-month-old Cavapoo puppy died suddenly last night and I’m trying to understand why. Please help.
I’m devastated and just need some answers. Here’s exactly what happened:
7:00 PM — She was completely fine, playing normally.
~7:50 PM — Took her to the backyard as part of the potty training. She ate a small green leaf from a shrub (variegated green and yellow leaves — later identified as possibly Euonymus japonicus / Japanese Spindle Tree).
~8:00 PM — Came back inside, gave her a small treat. Within 10 minutes she started vomiting and had diarrhea.
8:30 PM — Vomiting and diarrhea stopped. But she couldn’t stand on her own and was moaning softly. Towards the end of the diarrhea she passed some white discharge/precipitate.
We cleaned her up with lukewarm water. We contacted the breeder who said if vomiting continues take her to the vet. Since vomiting had stopped we thought she was stabilizing.
~9:00 PM — She became almost completely unresponsive and was opening and closing her mouth silently in a very strange way.
We rushed her to emergency care immediately (within 6 minutes). They performed CPR but couldn’t save her. The vet said she should have been brought in about an hour earlier, that her blood had gone cold and her heart had slowly stopped.
Vet diagnosed the cause and said that she choked herself and her blood got cold and her heart stopped slowly. Probably because of the treat stuck in her throat. (This is without autopsy and based on the information we gave them)
What I think happened: The Euonymus leaf contained some toxic elements, and then once vomiting stopped the toxins were absorbed into her bloodstream and attacked her heart. The white discharge at the end may have been shed intestinal lining from the severity of the reaction.
The breeder gave us a poisonous plants list but Euonymus was not on it.
I’m not trying to put the blame on anyone here but I want to know what went wrong. She’s only been there for two days and I completely got attached to her. She’s a very good girl and listened to everything. I can’t stop crying in the nights being a 27M. Never cried in the last 8 years this hard.
Wherever you are I love you so much.