David Beckham’s daughter-in-law, Nicola Peltz, is ready to sue a New York dog groomer after her beloved chihuahua Nala died suddenly, according to reports in the US.

The 29-year-old actress, who is married to Brooklyn Beckham, said she was heartbroken after Nala suffered what was described as a medical emergency.

The dog has been taken to the groomer, who has not been named, in upstate New York

and was rushed to an emergency vet but died a few hours later, according to the showbusiness website TMZ.

“This has been the hardest month of my life,” Ms Peltz wrote on Instagram.

“I can’t even find the words to describe my heartbreak on so many levels.

Nala was perfectly healthy when she went to the groomers yesterday but came out hyperventilating and couldn’t catch her breath.

“We rushed her to the vet and she passed hours later. I’m sharing this in hopes that it might prevent this from happening to other dogs.

“Her life was taken away from her way too soon. She was my beautiful queen and stayed by my side for nine years through everything.

“Please be careful who you send your dogs to because you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. One day without Nala on earth feels like an eternity.”

TMZ reported that the dog had fluid in her lungs, a rapid heart rate and neurological problems.

Friends of the family say her motivation to sue is to prevent the same thing from happening to other pet owners.

In a further Instagram post, Ms Peltz said that other people had suffered similar experiences with dog groomers.

“I am relentlessly investigating the situation to find out exactly what happened in that groomer’s van. I am doing everything I can to uncover the truth,” she added.

She added that the groomer was not cooperating with the family.

Chihuahuas bought from a breeder cost from $500 to $2,000 (£395 to £1,580). A shelter would look for donations ranging from $100 to $600 (£79 to £474).

The groomer saga is not the couple’s first involvement in a legal dispute.

Ms Peltz’s father Nelson, a billionaire investor, sued the Miami-based event-planning firm Plan Design Events (PDE) hired to orchestrate the couple’s wedding on his oceanfront estate in Palm Beach in April last year.

He accused the company, run by Nicole Braghin and Arianna Grijalba, of failing to return a $159,000 deposit. They countersued, describing Mr Peltz as a “billionaire bully” and accused the family of putting them through “wedding planning hell”.

The planners were hired six weeks ahead of the wedding and sacked nine days before the event,

The billionaire’s legal team alleged that the planners “viewed this as an opportunity to take advantage of Peltz by making material misrepresentations on both their website and in person regarding their experience, expertise, and capability of planning the wedding,”

The dispute was settled out of court in September with the agreement being confirmed by the company in a statement to People magazine.

“As part of the settlement, PDE will make a donation in the name of Nicola and Brooklyn to the CARE Ukraine Crisis Fund,” it said.