My 16 year old Maltese just died from GDV and she was also yelping from time to time….please read our story?
Question by : My 16 year old Maltese just died from GDV and she was also yelping from time to time….please read our story?
1-8-11 Saturday…Hello…..My 16.5 year old female Maltese, Mindy, was put to sleep 2 days ago because of GDV which is when air fills the stomach and the dog needs emergency surgery! What bothers us now (after the fact) is that she ate good, she drank good, she pooped and peed good too. But we always kept her food bowl FULL, and maybe she was eating TOO much food??? Also, she would constantly walk in circles, and then would stop and just stare at the wall or floor. Her back legs would give out and it looked as if she was sliding around as she was walking, but the VET did check her legs and hips and she didn’t experience any pain while the Vet was moving her around…………….but she would YELP in the night……….not a lot, just maybe once or twice, and then when I went to check on her, she was just walking in circles and seemed to be fine…then I checked on her later and she would be sound asleep and snoring like a jackhammer!…now that she is gone we have that GUILT and think that her YELPING was a cry for something. The doctor said that GDV happens overnight, but if she was YELPING maybe she was in the same pain THEN but just not as bad???? Not sure if this GDV could have been prevented? We had pee pee pads in the back room and she would always poop and pee on them and made a mess…she even would eat her poop but the vet said that was normal and not harmful….so was it our fault we didn’t take her to the vet when she was yelping?…..but then when we checked on her she seemed find…we thought maybe she was constipated and yelped trying to poop? I guess cuz she continued to do other things ok, eat, drink, pee, poop, jumping for treats, etc………..we didn’t think the YELPING was a big issues…………plus the Vet told us she is old and might have demential too…….we need to hear other similar stories….please share with us…………please tell us your thoughts…Tom and Teresa in Florida djtnt1991@att.net
Best answer:
Answer by dumplingmuffin
sorry to hear about your dog,but she was old and it sounds as if she had a good life,i lost my yorkie last July and he was 18yrs old and even though he was old i still feel moments of guilt ,maybe he needn’t have died so soon ,but this is natural in any death and ia all part of grieving,just try and keep busy and remember the good times,and maybe in time adopt another dog,
I think since she was older it may have been old age. The poop eating cold have also caused a lot of gas in her tummy from the bacteria
I’m sorry about Mindy, it’s hard to lose a friend after 16 years.
There is really nothing you could have done. A GDV is a small breed dog like a maltese is very very rare, most dogs that have that are large, deep chested dogs like German Shepherds. It happens very quickly, so yelping at night previously would not be a sign. At 16, arthritis and old age are setting in too, her hips, elbows or spine might have been giving her some trouble. If she lived that long eating well, defecating and urinating normally, they you did everything right and should not feel badly about her care. I know the guilty feelings will be there for a while, but rest assured that GDV just happens sometimes, no one knows why, and you made the right decision.