MONSON – Authorities are not sure if a dog death reported Monday night is connected to the deaths of several other dogs in the community that appear to have been poisoned over the past five months.

The death of a 15-year-old black Labrador retriever on North Guilford Road came about two hours after the owners let the dog outside at dusk to relieve itself. The owners said the dog returned to the house, laid down and later began twitching before it died.

Aside from the 15-year-old dog, five dogs have died in the past four or five months in the Monson area, possibly from poisoning.

The dogs either were bleeding from the mouth, had a seizure or went into convulsions before their deaths, according to Joseph Guyotte, Monson’s animal control officer. Two other dogs were taken to animal hospitals with the same symptoms.

“Something’s happening,” Guyotte said Thursday. He believes someone is leaving tainted meat or meatballs in driveways in the area to kill the animals. One resident reportedly found two meatballs that had turned green and were oozing in her driveway. At the time she had no knowledge dogs were dying in her neighborhood, but she was suspicious so she placed them inside her freezer. After showing them to some friends, she later discarded them, according to Guyotte.

Guyotte turned the investigation over to the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday. “It’s more than my ability,” he said, but added that he was still gathering information for the police.

Some of the earlier deaths of dogs did not appear connected or suspicious at the time so the owners disposed of their pets without checking with police. Only when it was reported later that other dogs in the area had died from similar symptoms did some of those pet owners contact authorities.

“It’s now of a concern,” Dr. Ronald Miles of Foxcroft Veterinary Service in Dover-Foxcroft said Thursday. His office has seen three of the affected dogs, two of which were from Monson and the other from an outlying area. All of them had similar symptoms such as vomiting and neurological signs, he said. Miles said there is no easy, inexpensive test to determine if the dogs were poisoned, but he has not ruled out that possibility.

Lt. Robert Young of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department urged anyone who may have information regarding the death of the dogs to contact his office at 564-3304.