We took our 4 month old, 20 pound, totally healthy pup to a really nice park. She was on leash and only on the grass. We

Hi,

I'm Dr. Burke and I will try and help.

Give me a few minutes to read over your response and to formulate a response.

Thank you.

I'm so sorry to hear about your puppy, I can't imagine what you must be feeling right now.

Did she have any trouble breathing during the entire period of time?

Did you witness her ingest something, or are we presuming she ingested something? I just want to make sure I have an accurate idea of what happened.

My immediate reaction to this is that she didn't ingest anything. Other than blue green algae, which she would have gotten from a pond, there isn't much that can cause such a rapid death.

We can see dogs that have blood clots which can cause rapid death... they will pour bloody fluid out of their lungs through their mouth after they stop breathing. It is often associated with a cough, then gagging/vomiting, then death very quickly.

I'm sure it was horrific, and I'm so sorry you had to witness something like that, and that your puppy had to go through that

Rat poin takes days to manifest in bleeding, and you will see lethargy 12+ hours before heath, prescriptions drugs would lead to neurologic symptoms like falling over, not bleeding. Mushrooms can cause GI, neurologic or liver failure... not sudden death.

The hacking cough most likely started because her lungs were filling up with fluid.

This is only mu opinion and you would need a necropsy to know for sure what happened. Your local vet may be able to assist you with this.

Your welcome, and again, I'm so sorry this happened.