Vet suspects popular dog Caesar was poisoned

[UPDATE: on 31 Oct at 3:30pm -- adding comments from AVA]

A 10-year-old dog – well loved on the Internet with thousands of followers on Facebook and Instagram- in Eunos is suspected to have died of poisoning, according to a report from a veterinary clinic.

The dog’s owner, Genevieve Wijaya, has lodged a police report on Tuesday night. The dog died last Thursday.

The 26-year-old, who runs an online pet supplies shop, suspected something was amiss when she found her Alaskan malamute – a giant breed which resembles the husky – behaving strangely last Wednesday morning.

According to Wijaya, the dog, named Caesar, could not walk properly and passed urine while lying down.

She promptly brought it to a veterinary clinic for a check-up, which showed that Caesar’s organs were functionally well. She was told to continue monitoring it.

The dog vomited a few hours later and upon examining the substance, she realised it had regurgitated bits of carrot.

“I didn’t feed him carrot, so I went around grilling everyone else in the house. No one did. We didn’t even have any carrot at home at that point in time,” she said. “This is what made me realize that he accepted food from someone else. Initially, I thought it was just some sort of sensitive stomach.”

A few hours later, the dog’s condition deteriorated. It could not stand up on its own and passed bloody diarrhea while lying down.

“It was really bad,” Wijaya said. “Imagine seeing blood gush out of your dog as though it is water gushing out from a tap.”

Wijaya then sent Caesar down to the vet again, where it was put on an IV drip — its condition stabilised.

However, at about 6am the following morning, Caesar was found to have no heartbeat and attempts by the vets to resuscitate him failed.