Unusual Dogs Death

Question
I have a Pomeranian, and he is an outside dog and very energetic as most Pomeranians are. Well today he was perfectly normal all day and had plenty of water and he has plenty of shade... but when it was time to take him in for the night he drank a whole bowl of water (about 6 ounces) and promptly threw up... but he seemed fine... we put him in the kennel and about 10 mins after that he was laying down and seemed very lethargic and wouldnt open his eyes, but he was breathing fine but knowing him i knew somthing was wrong... thinking he might be dehydrated i gave him some water and he didnt move he just layed there and continued to be lazy. i went to take a shower and when i was done (10 mins later) he didnt move but now he was visually having problems, he was breathing very shallow and very long in between breaths again not moving. i picked him up and he peed all over himself and i felt his heartbeat and it was going very very fast. we started to drip water down his open mouth and his breathing started getting worse.. then he started bleeding from the nose, and his heart stopped... this was very upsetting and confusing... anything that you could help with would be awesome so this doesnt happen again... i have been doing searches on the internet and i have narrowed it down to heat stroke or poisoning, the property managerfound about a 3 to four foot snake about a half dollar in diameter a couple of houses down the street, it looked solid black but i couldnt really tell... thank you  

Answer
Hi Robert, I am sorry to hear about your loss.  How hot was it there that day?  I don't think it was heat stroke or a snake bite, but possibly gastric torsion.  Gastric torsion normally happens in larger breeds, but can happen to any dog.  What happens is they either gulp a lot of food or water into their stomach, the stomach will bloat up and can flip, which one of the symtoms of that is the instant vomiting and the dog can die within 20 minutes.  It is a very quick reaction and unfortunately if not treated quickly the dog will die.  It really sounds like that is what happened.  You should always make a dog slow down when eating and/or drinking and make them take breathing breaks to help the stomach.  
If it had been a snake bite, you would have seen swelling somewhere on the body from the bite (and believe me it would be huge swelling).  I hope this helps you, and again I am sorry for your loss.

Dawn