Our 9 month old toy poodle died recently 2 days after being spayed.

She was about 2-3 pounds, and was taken in to be spayed. The vet never said anything about the surgery and the dog was released to us at 10AM the next day. The vet simply said she ate that morning and should be fed again that night because small dogs can get hypoglycemic after surgery.

That night, our dog would not eat, but we were able to get her to drink a little water and eat a little peanut butter. The whole night she was very lethargic and quiet.

The next morning she was found barely conscious in her crate and she had thrown up and peed as well. We cleaned her off, and she could not even stand. We took her into the vet, and they immediately kept asking us why we didn't feed her.

We told them what happened and left the dog with them. The vet called a little later to say she was responding well to the IV because she had low blood sugar and they were trying to restore that.

2 hours later, they called and said our dog had brain swelling and was unconscious. They also thought she had had seizures sometime at night when she was home with us, and may have suffered brain damage from the swelling.

For 3 hours they resuscitated (spelling?) her 3 times and tried to keep her alive. They called and said she was not doing good, and she would probably not survive. Finally we told them it was enough and she died a half hour later.

Now, I'm posting here because the vet and people at the clinic have basically made it their stance that she died from hypoglycemia. To me that doesn't make sense, as I've never heard of hypoglycemia causing brain swelling. The only thing I can think would cause that would be a reaction to the anesthesia or hypoxia (lack of oxygen).

What upsets me is the fact that they take no blame and put the death solely on her hypoglycemia. They are charging for the spaying, the efforts to save her, and for the creamated ashes of the dog. I feel they should not be charging for the saving of the dog and ashes as I feel something didn't go right with the surgery. I feel something went wrong surgery-wise and for them to try to blame us for not feeding the dog and causing hypoglycemia is wrong.

Does anyone have any advice that could be offered? I've been told by a different vet that they should have not spayed a dog that was barely over 2 pounds and underdeveloped as she was. I've also been told that it is possible the anesthesia caused the dog to possibly stop breathing during the surgery and that may have caused hypoxia and the brain swelling, seizures etc.

I am trying to make sense of this, because I want to know what happened to our dog.

 

I'm not a vet, but I think your gut is right to suspect that hypoglycemia was not the cause of death.
About a year ago, my friend's dog passed away after being fixed. Turns out the vet 'nicked' a blood vessel and the poor thing basically bled out over the course of a few days. It wasn't until she went to a local news station that the vet agreed not to charge her anything for the surgery/follow up and they agreed to replace her purebred puppy from a breeder of her choice.
It's sometimes difficult to be a good self-advocate if emotions are involved, but you deserve answers and you shouldn't have to pay for that.

 

it has been a while since I did medicine but hyponatremia not hypoglycemia would be the cause of brain swelling.
sounds kinda funny.
The least they could do is write off your expenses. Heartless SOBs.

 

shareall, how did you find out or how did they find out that's what happened?

see, i wish there was a way we could find out what happened to the dog (no autopsy as i believe she's already been creamated) or find out records of the spay surgery.

 

I think she found out through a combination of autopsy, medical records and her pushing the vet for answers.
I wonder if there are any privacy laws (or any other laws) that would prohibit you from looking at the records? I don't see why you wouldn't be able to look at them.
Best of luck.

 

Sorry for your loss Wisconsin, and even more so that a bad experience has obviously turned worse now that there is doubt as to who is at fault I hope you can resolve it all so that you can move on asap

 

thanks for the kind words.

my mom has been devastated. that was her little baby since her kids (us) are all grown up. that little dog was such a big part of her life. she feels guilty too, because she feels like she handed her over to these people and she killed her. like the dog trusted her with her life and she let her down and killed her. I've tried telling her that's not the case.

 

If they did do something wrong...which they very well could have...you probably wont ever find out for sure what happened. A lot of vet offices are all about the money and when it comes down to it, they dont care about the animals.

A friend of mine has worked at 2 different vet offices in the past 4 years (shes a tech). Her previous job three different incidence happened where an animal ended up dieing due to careless behavior and the owners were flat out lied to about the reason why the animal died (two were diabetic cats that were overdosed on insulin by someone who didn't know what they were doing and the third was a toy poodle that was attacked and killed instantly by a jack russel terrier that was known for bad behavior and was allowed to run around the clinic loose).

With all the stories I've heard, I'm very wary of where I take my animals. The sad thing is, you will probably still be forced to pay the fees and they more than likely wont be willing to cooperate with you.

 

I'm sure something could be done about this. Did you know they were going to creamate the dog when they did it? Im asking because they might have been trying to prevent the autopsy.

 

Hypogycemia wouldn't cause a death a few days post-op. If it did, then the vet would be negligent for not correcting the hypoglycemia with the drip he apparently did.

You need to find which anesthetic agents were used, what premeds were used, and exactly what tretament and tests were done post op.

I helped a client here in NZ who took a case against his own vet who had overdosed a dog, and caused death during a routine procedure. We finally got all the details on the drug doses and were able to prove overdose.

The problem is, in a litigious society, vets will practise CYAM (cover your ass medicine) which is no safer for your pet, but costs a lot more. If he admits to fault (by not charging for the procedure) then he leaves himself open to being sued. The insurance companies tell them not to admit fault, and charge for everything.

Get the treatment details and PM me.

Oh, yeah... i'm a veterinarian