I had a toy poodle, Lylah, that was 2 years old pass away on Thursday morning. I started feeding her a raw food diet by Nature's Variety on Friday of last week and she started having diarrhea but I thought it was just her stomach adjusting to her new food. I was mixing it with her previous food of kibble but she continued to have diarrhea. She was still acting her normal, happy self but on Wednesday when I got home from work, she vomited twice, had bloody diarrhea that looked like strawberry jam, was shaking and rejecting any type of food or treats. I'm currently a technician at a privately owned clinic so I texted the veterinarian and she said to go ahead and take her to the emergency hospital to at least get some subcue fluids and something to help her with her nausea/gastro upset. When I got to the ER, she wasn't her happy self and so she spent the night getting IV fluids and medication. I picked her up on Thursday morning and took her back to my regular clinic. She was acting fine and happy to see me. When we got back to my clinic, I hooked her up to IV fluids again and the doctor gave her an injection of Cerenia. She vomited a bright yellow fluid maybe 10 or 20 minutes after. We had her laying in her bed while getting fluids so I was sitting on the floor with her. The vet and I were talking and stopped to look at her and at that exact second, she closed her eyes and rolled over on her side. We put an endotracheal tube down her so we could give her oxygen, we were giving her compression, and pushing atropine and epinephrine. She wasn't responding and after 15 minutes of trying to resuscitate, we stopped.
I think the hardest part of the whole thing was that I was the tech doing the background stuff that a typical owner wouldn't have to see. And the one image I keep having repeat in my head is seeing her eyes close and fall to her side.
We aren't sure the cause of death but we're thinking maybe the raw food was contaminated with Salmonella. We sent her to the University of Georgia to have a necropsy done to hopefully determine a cause of death. Another cause could have been a blood clot with how quickly it all happened, but given her health status before, we just aren't sure. She was so healthy and her bloodwork looked normal. Only two years old, I barely got to know her but in that time, she did become my best friend.
this was her resting about 20 minutes before she stopped breathing.