My sister is a veterinarian. When one of my golden retrievers died earlier this month, she immediately discussed the case with her colleagues. As it turns out, there's a blood parasite (erlickia) that has been killing dogs in her area of practice.  Fearing our dogs other were infected, she tested them for the parasite and found them to be positive.  All our dogs are now on antibiotics for the next eight weeks.  

Those of you with dogs might want to have them checked. This is parasite is nasty.