Post-surgical complications

Marcf · 07-05-2009, 07:40 PM

My 3.5 yr old golden retriever had surgery yesterday for removing a shredded hand towel that he had eaten. Portions of the fabric had become lodged in his stomach and intestines and were causing violent spasms of vomiting or attempted vomiting. The surgeon made one slit into the stomach and another into the intestine, but fortunately did not have to remove any tissue.

Gus has simply not perked up after coming out of anesthesia - now is the 24 hr point. He is still hospitalized on an IV, groggy and unwilling to stand. His lab values do not suggest an obvious cause such as systemic infection, though they are giving him antibiotics just in case.

I have not had a dog who was healthy before respond so slowly to surgery. Has this happened to your dog and did he or she ultimately recover?

Thanks!

Xie · 07-05-2009, 08:41 PM

I've seen quite a few post FB surgery act like this. It's a pretty invasive and painful surgery even without tissue removal and some dogs take longer to get over it than others. If it's only been 24 hours I wouldn't worry at this point.

Your pup sounds like he is in good hands and I wish him a speedy recovery and that he's back to his old self asap!

Marcf · 07-05-2009, 09:04 PM

Thanks, Xie! He had something else removed two years ago, but they avoided opening the intestine that time by working the object into his colon. He recovered amazingly fast that time and this is so different. Glad to hear you have seen similar.

Xie · 07-05-2009, 09:29 PM

You be amazed at the difference cutting into the bowel makes (and how horrendous it smells! I hate being the tech in bowel surgeries, lol). I haven't actually had it done to me but from what I've seen of the dogs it must be extremely painful.

We had one dog at work that had eaten a stocking and had to have it surgically removed. He also didn't have to have any bowel removed but he absolutely refused to eat afterwards. We finally sent him home three days post-op to see if that would help and wouldn't you know he ate right away and was back to himself in no time. He was just sick of being stuck in the clinic, lol. That dog is still one of my favorite patients.