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

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

How's Ava doing today?

[Stacy]

She is doing incredibly well, thanks for asking! Her incision looks good. She's taking all of her medicine and eating and peeing and pooping. I slept on the floor with her last night, because I was afraid she would get off the bed and hurt herself (this dog has never gotten off the bed unless she was coming with me somewhere. Tonight we are sleeping in bed) I am exhausted, but she looks good. The only thing I'm a little worried about is that she keeps doing this cough thing that ends with a gag, like she's trying to throw up. She hasn't thrown up at all. I'm not sure if she has a sore throat from the surgery or if she's nauseated from the antibiotics and the narcotics. She's already on prilosec, carafate, and probiotics, so I think we have it covered. I am just ready for her to be well. This has been such a long journey already! And for something that was supposed to be routine. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jack had a lot of trouble with carafate, and would make that noise after I gave it to him, for what that's worth.  

[Stacy]

Really! I thought I noticed an increase in that after I gave her the carafate, but I thought that was what the carafate was supposed to fix! It's not a required medication. Do you think you would skip it?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It coats the entire digestive tract, and it's very waxy. It's used to treat ulcers and to protect against ulcers in dogs who are on NSAIDS, (also slows down digestive transit time) but since Tramadol isn't an NSAID (Jacks' on that, too) and she's getting the Prilosec for acid anyway, it seems to me that you could eliminate the carafate. However, you might want to check with the vet first, in case it's being used for some other purpose.

[Stacy]

I'm pretty sure he put her on the carafate for a few days because she regurgitated during surgery and he wanted to be sure she didn't have any espophageal damage after that. Though he also said they lavaged her gi tract to make sure that the acid didn't just sit there. I appreciate how thorough he was. That is a truly terrible noise though. I wonder if the coating bothers her and she's trying to "clear her throat" 

I think I have a lead on a new vet. One of the doctors today was telling me about her vet. And apparently it's the vet that several of the doctors use, including one doctor in particular who loves his dogs almost as much as I love mine. That's the kind of recommendation I feel like I can trust. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That sounds promising. :)

[Kristen and Piper]

I am so sorry. Thank goodness she is going to be alright! I would definitely switch vets if I were you and I would make them aware of the issue.  I agree, they probably won't pay because you assume the risks when you do the surgery but the fact you brought her back twice and they were not concerned? They need to be aware.  I am so sorry that happened to you and so glad you woke up. 

[Stacy]

Yes, thank goodness she seems to be doing really well! Now the hard part is enforcing her activity restrictions. It's hard to explain to her that she can't do anything. 

I was holding out a little bit of hope that the vet would still be contacting me, but I think I was overly optimistic. It's just so disappointing. I really thought my vet cared about the animals in their care. 

Sometimes it amazes me how quickly these guys can worm their way into your heart to the point you would just do anything for them. Ava is just the sweetest girl, and despite all she's been through she just wants to lay by me and be loved.

[Kat and Winston]

I'm so glad she is doing well. I really do wonder if the vet is worried about a negligence suit and therefore afraid to call or say the wrong thing and have it be on record. Absolutely no excuse to not care about how she is doing, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's a very big part of why you've had no contact.

Yes, as a patient's guardian you assumed the risks for the surgery, but there could be a case for negligence since you took her back twice and it was missed and in the end could have lost your sweet dog and are now out several thousands of dollars.

I think if this was a human case, we could be pretty sure there would be a lawyer more than willing to take it on. I don't know how it goes in the animal world in regards to vets, but I'm sure it's somewhat common.

[Stacy]

You do have a good point here. I think I let the fact that they don't have a fancy location cloud my opinion. They do have a booming practice and I know they see a lot of the fancy show dogs in the area. In fact, the vet that I actually credit with almost killing her (the one who ignored me on my second follow up visit) is known as "the bulldog doctor" and people come from all over to see him. So maybe they don't want to say anything that would be seen as an admission of guilt.

Maybe I'm too much of an apologist for people in the medical field. But I still don't think I would sue them. As much as I hate the outcome, and wish someone would offer to pay the bill, I can come up with too many reasons to explain why they did (or didn't do) what they did. So, I plan to let this go and find another healthcare provider that I trust for my girls. (And work about a dozen extra shifts to pay off that vet bill!)

[Stacy]

Ava has graduated to a much larger cone and a surgi snuggly. She managed to very carefully remove 3 staples while I was with her every single second. Luckily the incision still looks really good. It's well approximated and healing. And we still have 21 more staples. She's been a really good sport about this whole thing and she seems to be doing well. I think we're past the part where I have to worry about most complications and we just have to get the healing done.