Hello Forum,
Today I wanted to share a sad life lesson I learned just about a year ago. I took my senior pekingese dog Lulu to the groomer for a much needed haircut and bath. Lulu was yelping and crying out to me as I walked out of the groomers shop. When I returned, Lulu was excited to see me and she looked fabulous 👌
The next day I noticed that Lulu was panting, so I tried to comfort her and calm her. The panting went on all night long til the morning. That morning I decided to take Lulu to the vet. On the drive over to the vet Lulu passed away in my car. The vet determined that Lulu had a heart attack. Apparently the stress Lulu felt while at the pet groomer caused her to have a heart attack. Something that is possible to happen to a senior dog who might have heart issues or just be of old age. Lulu was 13 years old. I didn’t expect something like this to happen, and I wanted to share this story to possibly help save the lives of other senior dogs. 🙏
What a sad story. Had she been stressed at the groomers before, or previously diagnosed with a heart condition?
I’m sorry for your loss, but I think your experience with an elderly dog and taking her to be groomed isn’t something that is going to happen very often to people and their pets.
I’ve taken a number of my elderly dogs to the groomers and a few of my dogs had known heart issues. The grooming did stress them a little bit, but it was a low level stress, none of my dogs ever had separation anxiety, and they had been groomed often enough in their lives that it wasn’t a new or scary thing.
Sometimes, things just happen…so please, don’t blame groomer, or yourself for taking your pet to the groomer. Often after grooming, a dog feels So Much better….especially if it’s a little hot outside, or there were some tiny matts tugging at the skin here and there.
BTW, I had one dog, a golden retriever named HaHa, at my vets for a check up after he had been sick for a week, but seemed to be on the road to recovery. I put him on the large scale to weigh him, and when I turned him around to get him step down off the scales….he just shot forward and slammed head and chest into the end of a cabinet….then lay on the floor jerking about and yipping.
He had a stroke.
It was totally out of the blue, and like most heart attacks…it was something that probably would have happened in a near future…regardless of stress. I doubt my dog was all that stressed at the vets, but there is always a little bit and sometimes only a ‘little bit’ is enough. 🙁
HaHa recovered from that stroke, but a few weeks later we found out he had cancer, and then he had another more severe stroke…so it was time and I had to put him to sleep. He was only 5 years old. It goes back to that ‘Life is rarely fair’ — but I still get angry that he was cheated by life, and didn’t get the chance to see old age.
Again, I hope you are not blaming yourself.
Many dogs don’t live past 16, so it sounds like Lulu lived into a comfortable old age, and that’s a credit to you taking such good care of her.
My condolences,
Stormy