Hi,

Unfortunately, my beloved dog Pebbles was 'put to sleep' on Sunday evening. I am obviously devastaged, she was only just turned 5 years old, hadn't been ill and was just so unexpected. I just need some answers for my own peace of mind and hope you don't mind reading what happened.. .

Friday evening she was totally fine, normal self - didn't notice anything different until bed time when she had some diarrhea on the carpet which is not like her. She slept the full night. Saturday morning I got up and she vomitted, I thought this was bug she was getting but she then took a dizzy spell and fell down our stairs. I phoned the vet who told me to bring her in at 11am.

The vet examined her and said she thought she had a neurology issue; maybe a slight fit but at this stage it may never happen again and we had to just keep an eye on it. She gave her an anti-sickness vaccine and said to starve her for 24 hours. I told her she had been gulping a lot of water down and she told me to limit this and just give her small bowls as too much water may make her sick from the gulping. She commented that her pupils weren't right and that once the sickness was over with we would need to monitor in case she did have a neurology issue.

We went home, but I knew something wasn't right with her. She wasn't eating and stopped drinking completely. She wasn't urinating and later than evening started being sick again; I then called the emergency vet who told me to bring her in. They examined her and said she was dehydrated and they would like to keep her in overnight on a IV drop to get her fluids back up; which we agreed to.
We still didn't think it was anything more than a sickness bug; this was at 7pm.

At 10pm the emergency vet phoned me to say they had did some blood tests and one of her kidneys had totally failed and the other was on the verge of failing as the BUN levels were very high, potassium levels were high etc. We were devastated. At 2am the vet called me again to say she had took a turn for the wost, was still being sick and they suggested we came and picked her up and took her to the Small Animal hospital; they would refer her there. We went in and collected her and took her to the hospital for 3am.

At 3am, they put her into intensive care and told us to go home. At 9:30am they called me and said she had started seizures but that they were doing everything they could, she was in no pain and they were wanting to put a catheter into her.
We went to the hospital but couldn't see her as they wouldn't let us into intensive care.

At 3pm they told me that they couldn't get the catheter in as her blood pressure was so high, she was at risk of a heart attack. They let me see her and she looked terrible, I asked about putting her to sleep as I couldn't bear to see her in pain but they told me she was in no pain and suggested we waited until 6pm to see if she had produced any urine as they were doing ultra sounds. At 6pm they told me her blood pressure had returned to normal, her BUN levels were coming down, potassium was back to normal and they had now fitted a drip through her main vein in her neck; but hadn't been able to put cathetar in. We were so hopeful and decided to go home as we had been there all day, to get something to eat, showered etc and they would call at 9pm.

At 9pm they called me to say she had taken a turn for the worst again and levels had gone back up; I then told them I didn't want to continue - she had been in drips and things since 7pm the previous night. We drove to the hospital and were allowed into see her - she couldn't move and her tongue was hanging out, she had drips everywhere and I knew I had make the right decision to put her to sleep; she may not have been in any pain according to the vet but she was certainly in discomfort and completely exhausted. She was put to sleep at 10:10pm.

I am not trying to blame anyone, as we don't know what caused the acute renal failure but I need to know could it have been spotted sooner? If my own vet had spotted this was kidney failure at 11am she could have started treatment - instead we waited 8 more hours until she got to emergency vet and a further 2 hours before starting treatment after the blood. .

Was the signs I told the vet about enough to make her suspect kidney failure not a nuerology issue?

Like I said, I am not trying to blame anyone and I have no intention of accusing the vet or anything like that, I've already handed a 'thank you' card into her for all the care she gave Pebbles over the 5 years but I can't help but thinking if we had just got her started on the treatment from the 11am when her first symptoms had appeared she would have had an additional 11 hours worth of treatment. I paid over £5000 to the hospital for the work they did, £500 for the emergency vet and £30 for her anti-sickness vaccine that day - the money wasn't an issue and I would have paid anything if it would have kept her alive and given her a good quality of life (as that was the other issue, if she had survived the vet didn't know the extent of damage done to her kidneys and what life she would have)

I feel compeltely devastated, she was my baby and I just feel that we didn't even get a chance to say goodbye; it was all so sudden, and we weren't allowed in the intensive care. I had her since she was puppy, never missed a annual vaccine, had her insured and never missed a payment, she got all her worming tablets, I gave her anti-flea treatment every second month, bought dog food from the vet as it was organic and supposodly better for her, athough more expensive and did everything I could for - it just seems so unfair and far too soon for her to go from our lifes - she is missed so badly already; and I can't bear the thought of thinking that she thought we abadoned her at the hospital and left to go home; I am just glad I got to see her before she went to sleep even if she didn't know I was there.

From being totally fine Friday evening to dead on Sunday evening; I just cannot get my head around it and I think that is what makes it all the more harder.

Any advise you could give would be much appreciated. Gordon

Personally I thik you did everything you could do in a timely fashion. And you should be able to know that you did what you could. Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control.

Did they offer bloodwork the first time she was there at all?

I really wish I could tell you what happened with Pebbles, but the only way to do that would be to perform a necropsy.

You did the best you could. Sadly, vets, like doctors, are not Gods. They can only work with what they know, and they don't know everything. They're human, just like you and I.

Working with animals is so much harder than working with humans. At least a human can say "doctor, it hurts here, I feel this, I did that". With a dog, or any animal, it's all guess work. Sometimes they guess right, sometimes they guess wrong. Add to it that many people don't want to pay for extra testing, and their hands really are tied most times.

Pebbles wasn't getting better, and you did all the right things. You took her to the vet, you then took her to the animal hospital, you followed all recommendations, and she simply didn't get better. You ended her suffering.

There's no one to blame in this. This happens. In fact, reading your story brings me back. If you look at my past posts in the dog forum, you'll find one about my dog Jasper. The issues he was having, that ultimately lead to his death, are exactly the same as your issues with Pebbles.

I'm so very sorry for your loss. Don't beat yourself up, don't keep trying to find out why, just deal with the fact that it happened, and you did everything you could. You're a great dog parent.

RIP Pebbles.

I also have a dog, and she is also named Pebbles, so your post really tugs at my heart. I am so sorry. I was faced with the potential of perhaps having to put my Pebbles to sleep a few months ago - she is a dachshund and slipped two discs in her back and couldn't walk. We were fortunate that she recovered about 90% of her function and I did not have to make that decision. I did have to make such a tough choice for my previous dog, Paisley, a very loveable Golden retriever - just a big bear of a sweetheart dog, and oh - I felt so terrible, questioning my decision and wondering if I had done enough.

Please know that your dog was dying. You did the humane thing. You perhaps could have found out more, but knowing more doesn't always mean you can do more. Often what you can do is beyond reach financially, so still not possible. Often what you can do if there is a financially out of reach option doesn't work. The dog suffers.

Your dog had a good life with you, and thanks to your unselfish decision, Pebbles also had a painless death thanks to you. You did the loving and responsible thing and need to find peace in that.

Hi,

Thank you for all your kind words, a week is nearly passed now and although we will never forget her it is getting easier.

Sariss - they didn't offer bloods at the first consultation, I think at that time they did suspect it was just some kind of sickness bug and that she would be okay.

I suppose it is a normal part of the grieving process to feel guilty or find something or someone to blame, but at the end of the day it isn't going to bring her back and we did have 5 great years with her. We will get her ashes back on Monday and then I can start to move on a bit knowing that she is back home again. Thank you again

Did she get into any poison? Sure sounds like a poisoning... I also question why she wasn't on IV fluids from the get go..

Hi Lucy098,

I know from my research it does sound like poison; the vet did ask about anti-freeze or anything like that - but we don't keep anything like that in the house. So the only thing I can think of is she has ate or drank something when we have had her out for a walk which we haven't noticed.

The vet did offer to investigate after her death as to the exact cause; if it was from toxins or a bacteriological infection of the kidneys or an underlying cause but we choose not to find out. We know she died of kidney failure but as to what caused the failure I didn't want her getting cut open or prodded or poked anymore than she had just so we can know, as in reality it wouldn't make any difference, it wouldn't bring her back and wouldn't comfort us in anyway.

I think our own vet didn't put her on IV as they thouught it was just a bug; literally at 11:30am when we saw her she gave her a sickness vaccine and sent us home telling us not to feed her for 24 hours and just to keep an eye on her. I did tell the vet she had been gulping a lot of water down (which I think is due to her kidneys) but she just told us to limit her water intake and just give her small bowls so that she couldn't gulp it which could cause sickness.

I think this is what is in the back of my mind, that if she had spotted something at 11:30am and got her started on IV then we would maybe have had a better chance, instead she didn't start IV until 8pm that night when we took her to the emergency vet.

However, I'm not wanting to blame anyone I think it has just been an unfortunate and unlucky event and I am coping a lot better now, today will be one week since she passed away.

Thanks

Well I am very sorry your loss. It's never easy losing a pet suddenly. I just find it interesting that she crashed and burned so fast and no one knows why. I don't think you should regret any of your choices or blame any of the vets.. some animals are just blessed with awful kidneys and this may have been something that's been going on for a long time and it just finally came to a head. Sometimes putting a pet with renal failure on fluids just prolongs the inevitable.

Once again, I'm sorry for your loss... You gave her a good fighting chance.