Need advice on my dog

[Luvchefmic]

Thanks to all for your advice. Just got back from the vet- emergency call since she was bleeding some. They put a cone on her head so she can't lick it and gave us 3 different medications (2 antibiotics and 1 anti-inflammatory). The problem is is that we were going to our cottage on Monday afternoon, my DH took 2 more extra days off of work to go, and our poor dog can't go swimming and it is going to be 85-90 degrees out and she loves the water. I just feel so bad for her and hope that her problems go away soon. If this doesn't help or if it all comes back again, we are going to definitely be going to a different vet. Hope it doesn't come down to that though.

BTW- it only cost me $83.00 for today. They were going to charge me $85 just for an emergency/holiday call, but did a regular office visit call instead. That helps some.

Glad you took her to the Vet. I know you are going to feel badly for her when she is at the cottage with you Monday but just a word of cautiion watch her like a hawk & don't let her go anywhere near the water. She'll end up with a world of trouble...Good Luck to her (and all of you)

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm not getting the "find a new vet" advice. There's no indication the current vet's done anything wrong whatsoever. Incisions sometimes don't heal well, especially on a dog who might be licking it obsessively, or tearing at the stitches, etc. Hence the collar. How many vets are you going to go through every time something's not perfectly right over the life of your pets? Sheesh, I would have been 20 miles out by now. I doubt your vet did anything wrong. It's fine, OP. Hope Doggie's feeling better soon.

Her incision never looked right from the first day.

It happened on both of my females on their spays as well.

 

[Luvchefmic]

I'm not getting the "find a new vet" advice. There's no indication the current vet's done anything wrong whatsoever. Incisions sometimes don't heal well, especially on a dog who might be licking it obsessively, or tearing at the stitches, etc. Hence the collar. How many vets are you going to go through every time something's not perfectly right over the life of your pets? Sheesh, I would have been 20 miles out by now. I doubt your vet did anything wrong. It's fine, OP. Hope Doggie's feeling better soon.


It happened on both of my females on their spays as well.

Yes agree with you, not getting it either re-the new Vet advice ( I just forgot to add that when I posted I was more concerned about OP mentioning the dog loving to go in the water)

While I don't have your medical knowledge, I have worked for Vets...all bodies heal differently (human & animal) sometimes things happen in that healing process I see nothing indicating the dog's Vet did wrong either

 

[luvwinnie]

Poor girl. Hope she is ok.

 

[tinkamom]

I went through this with my cat, Boo, when she was 10 weeks old! She did not heal properly after being spayed and for a while we were at the vet every other day.

She was given a cone, oral and topical antibiotics, but still didn't heal. It was horrible.

After about a week they finally decided to re-operate. They told me she was allergic to the stitches and that they had to go in and clean out the infection and re-suture her with staples. Thankfully they did the second surgery at no cost to me, I was only charged for medications. Boo is perfectly fine now!

I certainly hope your dog heals faster than my kitten did and doesn't require a second operation.

 

[lovemylife]

I went through this with my cat, Boo, when she was 10 weeks old! She did not heal properly after being spayed and for a while we were at the vet every other day.

She was given a cone, oral and topical antibiotics, but still didn't heal. It was horrible.

After about a week they finally decided to re-operate. They told me she was allergic to the stitches and that they had to go in and clean out the infection and re-suture her with staples. Thankfully they did the second surgery at no cost to me, I was only charged for medications. Boo is perfectly fine now!

I certainly hope your dog heals faster than my kitten did and doesn't require a second operation.

Well, she has a cone, oral and topical antibiotics as well. Her area is still open and to me doesn't look much better, but it has only been 1 1/2 days. I am just hoping that this medication takes care of it for her. She acts so sad because of the cone and when I put on the topical med, she flinches, so you know that it bothers her. I will just keep doing what I can and if it is not better looking by Thursday when we come home from our cottage, I will take her back in.

Glad to hear that Boo is great now! Isn't it amazing at how much you can love an animal and really don't want it to suffer.

 

[srferson]

I'm not getting the "find a new vet" advice.

The OP's original post asked whether we thought she should have to pay more money. It seemed to me by that question and her description of the situation that she didn't seem particularly convinced the original vet did good work. I may have been misreading. If so, then you're right. No need for a new vet.

However, if she's not feeling comfortable with the original vet and/or his work, and she had to take the dog somewhere for another vet visit anyway, checking in with a second vet couldn't really hurt. Sometimes we, as humans, get second opinions from doctors. It's not all that different to do it for a dog.

It's about making sure the OP feels confident that her puppy is in good hands. That's all.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The OP's original post asked whether we thought she should have to pay more money. It seemed to me by that question and her description of the situation that she didn't seem particularly convinced the original vet did good work. I may have been misreading. If so, then you're right. No need for a new vet.

However, if she's not feeling comfortable with the original vet and/or his work, and she had to take the dog somewhere for another vet visit anyway, checking in with a second vet couldn't really hurt. Sometimes we, as humans, get second opinions from doctors. It's not all that different to do it for a dog.

It's about making sure the OP feels confident that her puppy is in good hands. That's all.

I agree. I really don't have a problem with getting another opinion. But what the OP described is very likely an extremely common post surgical problem. I think giving the vet a chance to fix it, even if it takes a while (which it often does) has greater benefits than just this one particular problem. When you have a good relationship with a vet, ie you're a "regular", you are far more likely to get better care over the life of your pet than you are when you "vet hop", which sometimes (not here necessarily) seems to be what I see advocated.

My own vet has brought my dog(s) in on several occasions when they were closed - simply because we have a good professional relationship. The day one of my dogs had to be put to sleep the office was closed for painting and they had me bring him there as they didn't want me to go through the difficulty of going to someone new at that time. That's my point.

It also doesn't mean that all the care there I've had is perfect. Sure, there have been minor problems from time to time (as there generally is with everything). But I've worked them out with my vet. If it was something major, that would be different. As a matter of fact, that's how I wound up with my current vet - I had a major problem with my previous vet so we hopped on over to this one, lol. But we've been with him now for 20 yrs.

 

[srferson]

I agree. I really don't have a problem with getting another opinion. But what the OP described is very likely an extremely common post surgical problem. I think giving the vet a chance to fix it, even if it takes a while (which it often does) has greater benefits than just this one particular problem. When you have a good relationship with a vet, ie you're a "regular", you are far more likely to get better care over the life of your pet than you are when you "vet hop", which sometimes (not here necessarily) seems to be what I see advocated.

My own vet has brought my dog(s) in on several occasions when they were closed - simply because we have a good professional relationship. The day one of my dogs had to be put to sleep the office was closed for painting and they had me bring him there as they didn't want me to go through the difficulty of going to someone new at that time. That's my point.

It also doesn't mean that all the care there I've had is perfect. Sure, there have been minor problems from time to time (as there generally is with everything). But I've worked them out with my vet. If it was something major, that would be different. As a matter of fact, that's how I wound up with my current vet - I had a major problem with my previous vet so we hopped on over to this one, lol. But we've been with him now for 20 yrs.

Agreed.

Having a good, consistent relationship with a vet you trust is most certainly the goal. And things don't go perfectly 100% of the time and I'm sure infections at the incision site are not uncommon. I'd definitely prefer for the case to be that the OP's happy with the vet she has now and doesn't need to find someone else.

I also hope the puppy's managing to stay cool and keep healing at the OP's cabin this weekend.