spay complications

[Stacy]

I just had one of the worst mornings ever.  So I’m going to tell you my story because I know you will understand. With the disclaimer that this was a freak thing that will probably never happen to anyone else.  And that it might be a little gross.

 

The timeline of events goes like this:

 

Wed. 10/12 Ava was spayed

 

Sunday night 10/16 I noticed some drainage from her incision and her vagina.

 

Monday 10/17 we went to the vet and they said she had a fluid collection under her incision and it would be fine. They gave her some steroids and antibiotics and told me to try to express the drainage. The vaginal drainage they attributed to her possibly being in heat recently prior to being spayed.  Now, I hadn’t seen any signs of her being in heat or that she had been in heat – but they’re the vet. I noted that the drainage looked the same as what was coming out of her incision, but they didn’t seem concerned.

 

Thursday 10/20 I woke up and noted a small amount of frank blood coming from her vagina. So we went back to the vet. My vet wasn’t there but the other vet in the practice examined her and thought she would be okay. Gave her more steroids and antibiotics. He didn’t really give me a good explanation of what was going on. I was afraid she was hemorrhaging internally, but he kind of poo-poo’d me and sent me home. My fear was that she needed more surgery, so I was happy to accept that they didn’t think she did. My gut told me that something was still wrong. And I should have listened to it. (Let that be a lesson, always listen to your gut) But when the vet says what you hope they will say it’s hard to argue with that. He kept mumbling about her being an older dog. I was thinking she’s 6. It’s not like she’s 13. But still. He said what I wanted to hear, so I heard it.

 

Friday 10/21 at 3:30 in the morning I woke up, I think because Ava was licking herself. She was still wearing the cone, so she couldn’t reach her incision but she could reach her vaginal area.

 

And that’s when my nightmare really begins. She was hemorrhaging. And I’m not talking about a little blood. There was blood and golf ball sized clots. She was actively bleeding everywhere. I threw on some clothes and we went racing to the emergency vet. I got pulled over right before I pulled into the parking lot, but bless the heart of the nice policeman, when I asked him to give me the ticket fast because my dog was bleeding, he shined his light into the back seat and escorted me into the vets office. Later I heard that he looked a little green in the lobby – there was a lot of blood. But my hands were shaking too hard for me to notice.

 

They called the surgeon in from home and they did exploratory surgery. When he came out he told me that both ligatures had slipped off the uterine body. The uterine body had sealed itself to the top of the urinary bladder and that’s why it’s been a slow leak until this morning when everything kind of burst loose. I won’t keep you all in suspense, they think she will make a full recovery. But they’re keeping her there until tomorrow. He also said there was still a collection of fluid under her incision line and that tissue didn’t look viable so they excised that and she got a bit of a tummy tuck.

 

The estimated vet bill for my “free” sort-of-rescue is about $4000. But she is so worth it. I love that girl so much. I don’t know what I would do without her. I just wish that she hadn’t had to go through so much with this. And I would be lying if I said that the cost didn’t hurt me just a little too.

 

Now I feel really torn. I’m in health care, so I get it. No surgery is completely without risks. But what on earth happened here that everything went so wrong? And when I took her back twice with concerns how did it still get missed? I’ve been using the same vet since 2005 and this is the first time I’ve had a problem, but it’s a pretty big problem. Do I need to change vets? And not only that, I’m angry at myself. I should have pushed harder. I knew something was wrong, but I let them tell me what I wanted to hear even though I didn’t really believe them. If we had done something yesterday then maybe it wouldn’t have gotten to that critical point.

 

And I’m sure they will never read this, but I just want to give a shout out to VCA Mission Animal Referral and Emergency Center and Dr. Hazenfield. They were amazing. Wonderful, kind, compassionate. I’ve been there on several occasions for several different things over the years and they are where you want to be when you have an emergency.

 

And now I am going to try to clean up the crime scene in my car. Seriously. CSI worthy!

 

Squish all of your healthy doodles tight this morning

Stacy

[Gail and Bailey]

Ava, you look so pretty in pink!  Hang in there sweetie,  you will be running and playing soon!

[Stacy]

She really does look cute in her little outfit, doesn't she? She wishes she could run and play now, but this mean old mom won't let her have any fun at all. 

[Lana, Lola and Luna]

What a pretty girl:)

Speedy recovery Ava!!!!!!!!!