The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Neil Wheadon — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:22:59 GMT

There's been a few reports of this recently on emergency forums where animals are presented and they just get hotter and hotter and nothing helps. Rigor Mortis is very rapid.

Of interest

1) Malignant Hyperthermia, due to a sudden release of calcium in response to anaesthetic agent and this can include isoflurone. So there is a chance you may see this

2) Experience from human medicine is that mortality is very high (70-80%) despite aggressive cooling and supportive measures, but mortality is much lower (5-10%) if injectable dantrolene ( amuscle relaxant) is available for emergency use. There's even an association dedicated to this issue

http://medical.mhaus.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/OnlineBrochures.Display/BrochurePK/B5DBDF12-20C3-4537-948C098DAB0777E3.cfm.

3) Has anyone else seen this?

Neil

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Nicola Lawlor — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:43:25 GMT

Re Strychnine - a copy and paste from wikipedia....

There is no specific antidote for strychnine. Treatment of strychnine poisoning involves an oral application of an activated charcoal infusion which serves to absorb any poison within the digestive tract that has not yet been absorbed into the blood. Anticonvulsants such as phenobarbital or diazepam are administered to control convulsions, along with muscle relaxants such as dantrolene to combat muscle rigidity.^[2] If the patient survives past 24 hours, recovery is probable.

Re Metaldehyde - I saw a case that was a known ingestion and reported to be otherwise fine when the client called us, asked to come in asap. By the time they arrived about 20mins later the dog was hyperthermic, seizuring and in a bad way. We gave diazepam with poor effect, then propofol continuous infusion and intubed to give oxygen, whilst cooling the dog down and perfoming a gastric lavage/activated charcoal. The dog would seizure pretty much as soon as we slowed down the propofol in the short term and our only option was to carefully titrate pentobarbitone to effect over several hours with close monitoring, at which point we were able to stop and the seizures stayed away. We had wanted iv phenobarbitone but couldn't access any at the time so ended up with pentobarb (as euthatal) as our only real option. The dog thankfully made a full recovery, but I am doubtful if it would have survived much longer at all had it not reached us when it did. We did cover with antibiotics too if I recall as there was some question over the sterility of euthatal.

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Ruta — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:02:27 GMT

Hello,

Thank you for all your thoughts. The seizures appear just before death. If it was strichnine - what could be done to save the dog's life?

Ruta

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

James Allsop — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:40:32 GMT

I had a dog a few years ago with a solid circular FB on xray that presented with acute vomiting and abdo pain, whilst we were waiting for the xrays to develop (good old chemical developer ) the dog became progressively pyrexic and erythematous. We proceeded to surgery as quickly as possible and removed a golf ball. Apparently old practice balls had a lead core and having cracked the shell (presuably on ingestion) the dog was slowly absorbing lead. dog did fine and rapidly returned to normal post op. Ive never seen a dog deteriorate before my eyes like that before or since.

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Tim Cheyne — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:23:45 GMT

If there was any rigidity before death I would wonder if strychnine was involved, perhaps in a mixture of other poisons. The rigidity can be very distressing to see (almost hear the tendons squealing) and it may persist after death. Plastic bags are commonly used when laying rat poisons, in the belief that the rat needs to work for the bait and will not accept it scattered on the ground. This does not sound like a coumarin rat poison but might be something else.

Tim.

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Nicola Lawlor — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:31:10 GMT

Any seizures prior to death? You don't mention these, but metaldehyde toxicity would be high on my list from the rest of the history you gave if the dog was showing neuro signs like that.

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

mariette asselbergs — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:44:12 GMT

Like ecstacy? (Says my colleague Andrew) (Or a herbicide like 2,4D?)

Mariette

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

jd2008 — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:00:21 GMT

Hmm. What was in the plastic bag, I wonder...?

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Richard Fox — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:06:31 GMT

Seems a bit quick but anything can happen - very rapid cooling will bring on rigor quicker IIRC. I doubt it had a major bearing on the case - maybe due to underlying systemic disease i.e. toxaemia?

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Ruta — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:58:56 GMT

Hello, Mark,

The bag was swallowed in the same day when the sudden death occured. We have seen the patient after 3-4 hours. So still I am looking for explanation what could be the reason of the death.

Ruta

Re: The sudden death of the dog and body rigidity

Mark Hedberg — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:12:11 GMT

Rigor mortis can set in quite quickly after a high fever, as i recall. Wonder how many days ago he swallowed the bag?