Heartbroken

iguana

About two weeks ago my husband was walking our two 6 month pups Dinny and Dougal in our local graveyard/park. Dinny found a chicken/rib bone in the park, he was too far away from him to see but he heard his jaws crack on something and instantly his behaviour changed. He went from an incredibly bouncy puppy to a wounded sick puppy in the space of a few minutes.

My husband rushed him to our incredible vet, who took X-rays, and insisted he go to vetinary hospital in Wanstead, immediately. We rushed him over. We were terrified that he perferated a lung, or his osephagus. After a few days our vet came to the conclusion that while swallowing the bone he'd choked and while doing so vomited into his lungs. Antibotics cleared up the fluid in his lungs, and the bone broke down in his stomach. This day last week we took our puppy home and counted ourselves deliriously happy that we had made such a lucky escape.

Dinny spent the week at home, he was so thin and weak, we kept him indoors most of the time and no walks. He was doing great, so sweet, and getting his strength back in.

On the day of his checkup his breathing was shallow and he vomited up phlegm. We took him back to our vet, who sent us back to the vetinary hospital, and our hearts sank. He could have a secondary infection he could have a foreign body in his lungs. So he had to go back to the animal hospital. Tbh, I just thought he had picked up a cold or flu as he was so weak and that he would be fine in a few days. I was more worried about him being upset at being away from home than I was about him being ill.

He made some improvement on Friday. They wanted to send a camera into his lungs on friday, under general anesthetic to see if something was lodged there. It was risky, he, is, was, so young, and so weak, there was a danger. We told the vet we needed to discuss it, and called her back 20 minutes later to say she should go ahead with it if it was neccesary. She suggested that they could monitor him over the weekend and do it on Monday if he hadn't improved. We were relieved at that option and as she had suggested it, rather than us, it really just led me to believe that he would be ok.

Yesterday morning (Saturday) a vet called us, telling us our Dinny was improving, but back on oxygen, as a precaution. That he was planning on leaving him on oxygen till Monday morning, see how he was and take it from there. That just sounded ideal. He called us around six saying he was still doing okay, and we'll leave it till Monday.

Then twenty minutes later our own vet called us. He had arrived at the hospital and no, Dinny was not okay. He was in worse condition than when he'd seen him on Thursday, and it was incredibly serious, and we should come over there now.

We rushed over, and Dinny was in an awful state. Wheezing oxygen direct to his nose, weak and disorientated. We spoke at length to our vet, he was planning on giving Dinny steroids, keeping his airway open, and he would personally do then endoscope in the morning. We left our poor boy around half nine, and our vet left at 10. At 11:30 the vetinary nurse called to tell us he was gone, and instantly started talking about autopsy. Autopsy? Autopsy? He's not supposed to be dead! It was literally, "I have very bad news, Dinny passed away" pause "would you like us to do an autopsy?"

I'm so angry, angry at the vet who told us he was going to be okay. Angry at myself for not getting the camera scope done on Friday because it might not be necessary, angry at evil halfwit flinging their fast food around the park, and angry that our sweet loveable boy barely got to live.

The only thing that brings me comfort is that he was loved unconditionally all his life, by his mum, and then by us, that he barely spent a second alone, and we were with him, to show him that we hadn't forgotten him before he left us.

Today we rang the breeder we got the pups from to let them know the bad news, and they told us that sadly Dinny and Dougal's mother was hit by a car two weeks ago and died. She was very young herself as our boys were from her first litter. I can only hope that I'm wrong about the whole aethiest thing and that Dinny is now back with his mother.

BeauZak

Very sorry to hear your sad news. Sounds like you gave Dinny a great life and made the best decisions at the time.

Rigsby

A sad story indeed. You must not blame yourself as you did everything you could for your dog. Sometimes when out walking, my dog will stop to sniff something I cant see. Next thing I know is she's chewing something. It's impossible to watch them every second. I'm sure everyone in this forum can understand how you must feel.

scorphonic

Ah that is shocking news about your dog. While reading it I was really hoping that the punch line would be "but he's ok now" so I'm sorry for your loss.

iguana

The autopsy results have showed that there was nothing in his airway or in his lungs. However the intial findings show that he was probably poisoned with paraquat. They'll need to examine him further to be sure. Apparently they lace carcasses with this to kill foxes. The dose he took meant he never stood a chance.

THERE WERE NO C*NTING WARNING SIGNS ANYWHERE IN THAT ****ING GRAVEYARD.

Shortly after hearing this I was walking Dougal in the park and was asked by another dog owner where his brother was. When I told her what happened and what killed him she got really upset. Apparently Dinny is the third dog to die this way, they used to put paraquat on the bowls green and one of her dogs and another big dog were killed by it.

Afaik the park and graveyard are looked after by the same groundskeepers as they are both council owned and are adjoining. I can't believe they let two dogs die but continued to use the same poison.

Not to mention if a child was to get hurt by it.

FranknFurter

Im sorry for your loss iquana.
You did everything you could for him, and Im sure he knew that.
I know its so difficult when they go, and you feel bad when you were'nt there at the time, and will always have "what if's".... but eventually you do move on, you dont forget, you just remember fondly.

*hug

B

Ruu_Old

Sorry for your loss, hope you have plenty of memories of be happy about and looks like you tried your best to make life worthwhile for Dinny.

CathyMoran

I am really sorry to hear about your loss.

artieanna

jeez what an awful story, brought a tear to my eye, you're hopes being lifted and then stolen from you.. am Truely sorry to hear about poor little dinny

This is a disgraceful way to kill foxes and poor innocent animals and birds that pick up the posion too....Appalling sooo careless and dangerous for both animals and kids...Horrendous and disgusting:mad: :mad: :mad: !!!

It seems to be occuring lately in public parks/places see other postings here about the peoples park in bray...

Our man in Havana

Awwwww hun I am so sorry for the loss - I don't want to offend you but I find this site is very comforting to look at when I lose a pet http://www.indigo.org/rainbowbridge_ver2.html

Huge Hugs

Faye x

racso1975

What a bunch of F**kers!!! That dogs end up being killed and as you say the potential harm that could come to a child is a disgrace. My thoughts are with you.

boomer_ie

iguana wrote:

The autopsy results have showed that there was nothing in his airway or in his lungs. However the intial findings show that he was probably poisoned with paraquat. They'll need to examine him further to be sure. Apparently they lace carcasses with this to kill foxes. The dose he took meant he never stood a chance.

THERE WERE NO C*NTING WARNING SIGNS ANYWHERE IN THAT ****ING GRAVEYARD.

I could be wrong but I have heard a few people mention that Paraquat is illegal in this country, Unfortunately it is a poison that there is no cure for and sadly your dog got taken from you by it.

I am extremely paranoid about Ali (sept 06) and Tyson (Aug 05) eating anything I havent given them or seen them being given even more so with the mentions of poisons in the Peoples Park in Bray.

How is Dougal Coping with the loss of his Playmate.

nando

No, unfortunately paraquat is not illegal, or even restricted, in the UK or Ireland. It is banned in several EU countries though and distribution is restricted in the US. AFAIK the situation is under review with the EU at the moment.

It's sold as a weedkiller under the brands Weedol and Pathclear and to farmers as Gramoxone.

The fact that a poison with no antidote is so freely available is baffling though, and it is also sometimes used in suicides. Perhaps stricter control of poisons like this should be what politicians pay more attention to rather than banning "dangerous" dog breeds since, they are responsible for far more deaths worldwide every year.

iguana

nando wrote:

AFAIK the situation is under review with the EU at the moment.

The judgement is due this April, the Scandanavian countries have been largely responsible for the calls to ban it. I'm in the UK btw.

Dougal is confused and being very, very clingy. He can get hysterical when left alone, but he is getting a bit better. Don't know what to do for the future with him. We never intended for either of them to be an only dog, but I don't really want to feel like I'm replacing Dinny or to force a different dog on Dougal while he is upset.

Mr Magnolia

Very sorry for your loss, hopefully time can prove healing.

franksm

Sorry to hear about this, Iguana !

I wonder should you report this to the Gardai, or even the local paper (Northside People or the like... or would that alert the scumbags that this is another good way to annoy people ?)