Two dogs died in the night

Hello, everyone.  I just joined today as I have a mystery on my hands.  We had two dogs, a large lab and a miniature pincher, both of them died during the night between midnight and 5 a.m. They got out of the fence (which happens sometimes) and we found both of them dead the next morning.  They had no signs of trauma, no blood or vomit anywhere that could be seen.  I feel they both ingested something at the same time.  My question is what could have killed two healthy dogs so quickly and in such a short period of time?

Hello - I'm so sorry to read about this distressing case.  Have there been post-mortems?   There are definitely some injectable drugs that could do this, at least one of them just requiring a sub-cut injection, but the one I'm thinking of would have to be canine specific.  I won't list them.   Most oral (by mouth) poisons available to the general public work more slowly however, and patients  tend to present ill.

The VPIS, global Veterinary Poisons Information Service, may prove very helpful people to speak to.  Apart from that, I wonder how carefully the bodies were looked over - this is where the Post Mortem examination becomes relevant.  Gun-shots and knives for example, leave only a tiny wound and might be overlooked.  If the dogs were related, it might not be inconceivae that their bodies acted the same way to some adverse stimulus eg lack of water / heatstroke, which can happen incredibly quickly.  I hope that this gives you some leads and apologise in advance if I mentioned anything distressing that you'd already ruled out.  I'll be thinking of you at this time and please would you let us know if you ever find out what happened?

I appreciate the well thought out response.  One was a lab and the other was a miniature pincher, so no relation.  I picked up both of their bodies from the ground and so no sign of gun shots or any other outward trauma.  No blood anywhere.  I ruled out heatstroke only because they had plenty of water and it happened during the night.  I buried them both that same day.  I just hate not knowing for sure.  Thank you again and I'll look into VPIS.