| Sad story and Q: strychnine?
Hello everyone,
I'm sorry to introduce myself in this manner, but unfortunately this is where I find myself standing right now.
About 5 months ago, we brought home our wirehaired fox terrier puppy. She was the first terrier I've ever owned, before I'd had larger, mostly working dogs (German and Belgian shepherds, a rottweiler and even a Rhodesian Ridgeback couple), but since I no longer have the space, this time around we decided on a feisty little fox terrier.
She was quite a pleasant surprise for me, as I was not very receptive to the idea of a terrier. She was extremely playful, tireless, and bold almost to a fault. My girlfriend and I have a fairly active lifestyle and she adapted immediately.
I am uncertain as to exactly what happened, hence my post. Please excuse the graphic nature and avoid if you are very sensitive to this kind of description, I guess I am just trying to see if others agree with what I think happened.
Unfortunately, last Saturday while we were visiting my family she passed away. As usual, we had taken her with us for the 3 hr road trip. The place where we went is a large house with some surrounding fields and plenty of kids to play with, and she used to love it. Late in the day, I was holding her while we were watching the kids play, so she wouldn't interfere. All of a sudden, she burst out running and barked her strong warning bark a couple of times (she always was exceptionally quiet, barking only on rare occassions). Then she started running, circling the main house and suddenly ran off towards a far fence, this was now very unusual.
When we caught up with her she had managed to go past the fence, which I could not, as it was a tall wire fence. It was dark now and I could only hear her panting loudly and see her flash in front of me running on the other side. After a couple of times of this running I stopped hearing her, I ran back to the house to get a flashlight and when I came back I saw her a few feet away from the fence, leaning against a wall and gasping. She was rubbing her head against the wall as they sometimes do when a vaccine gives them a headache. Then she fell on her side and stopped moving. A few seconds later she started paddling her legs. I finally managed to get across the fence but she had stopped breathing and her legs were stiff (what is sometimes described as a "sawohorse stance" I believe).
All this happened in less than 5 minutes from when she ran off barking to when I reached her, it was extremely dramatic. Given the things that happened, and since we were out in the country, I am thinking she somehow came across a dead animal contaminated with strycnine, but the speed at which everything happened doesn't seem to match the description of the usual symptoms (I've read it takes from 1 hr to 2hr). Also, I was aware that there was warfarine in a far corner of the house, so we were watching her constantly to make sure she didn't venture into that area, plus there was nothing to indicate she had come in contact with it (bleeding, vomit, etc).
Is it possible that strycnine had such a rapid effect? Could something else have caused it? I was told that heartworm has come into the area (and she had been there a few weeks before), but it doesn't seem like that was it. She was a very healthy, active dog and had all her prescribed vaccines and medications. She frequently visited our vet and never showed anything unusual, so this was an unexpectedly traumatic event.
Thanks,
Rob | 
