complications from neutering and castration

[corson]

I had my 6 year old Chocolate Lab neutered and castrated this week.  I know you are probably wondering why I decided to do this so late in life but my dog suffers from bad skin allergies and is on steriods and antibiotics constantly so the vet recommended this surgery saying that it would help with this problem. We opted for the laser surgery because of his age.  He came home the next day and was his same loving self immediately.  Today is Saturday and roughly 3pm I noticed blood on the kitchen floor, a pretty big puddle, and it was coming from Corson.  I called the vet immediately and was told to bring him in.  I rushed him to the vet and he bled a lot in the van.  As we waited in the room for the vet he lost, I am assuming, a half pint of blood and it was getting worse.  The vet came in and checked him and said that 1% of dogs have this complication and the only solution is to do a scrotal ablation.  She said there was no other way to stop this bleeding and that the only other alternative was....   She wrote up an estimate and surgery would cost $1200.00,   I had just paid $500.00 for the neutering and I don't have a money tree in my back yard.  I ofcourse had no other alternative so I signed the estimate and left.  I came home and immediately started researching this on the internet.  I have read numerous articles and from what I read some bleeding into the scrotum sack can happen and some oozing as well, but no where did I read that the dog can hemmorage.  Within one article it stated that some bleeding is common but the body will reabsorb it and that is that because the arteries that supply blood to the testicles are tied off twice with stainless steel wire so hemmorage is not an issue.  I guess my question is, has anyone ever heard of this before?  I am beside myself and am considering contacting a lawyer.  I certainly would not have had the surgery done if I had known that this could happen.     If anyone has any answers I would very much appreciate it

[MO300]

In 1996 I had a young doberman neutered.  I placed him on my bed that night to sleep and woke up in the middle the night to my bed soaked in blood.  He bleed for a week - I took him to the vet that did the surgery - every morning before work, and picked him up afterwards. I had to keep him in a crate he bleed so much.  After a week I went to another vet who told me my dog was dying and I had to do something.  I ended up taking him to Va. Tech animal hospital where he had several blood transfusions.  I was too trusting in the original vet - if you think something is shady please get a second opinion.  I would hate for anyone to go through what I had to go through with my dog.  They said at the time they could not say what exactly happened.  That I'm not so sure was true.

[MommaBear1]

this is the first time I am leaving a message so I hope it goes through. I'm going through the same thing right now with my dog but not as bad as you. I'm sorry...I hope your dog is doing better right now. My dog was neutered a couple of days ago. He will be 2 in a couple of days. Yesterday we noticed his scrotum is the size of 2 apples...not 1 but 2 large apples. We've been back and forth to the vet twice in the last 12 hours because it was getting bigger. They said this sometimes happens with large dogs and that the "blood" will reabsorb back into the body OR he will need another surgery if it doesnt get better in the next couple of days that would be to remove the scrotum. Why don't they just do that to begin with? My poor baby...he was perfect before this "routine" surgery.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

Please let me know how your dog is doing!  

It is common for bleeding to occur in an older adult dog because the blood vessels are just much larger.  There can be bleeding at the incision site, and the testicle area can fill up with blood that will slowly reabsorb.

A slightly tight bandage around the bleeding area (changed daily) should help.  Please purchase Yunnan Baiyao (also spelled yunan paiyo and other spellings)  ASAP and give 2 capsules orally twice daily to your dog to help stop any hemorrhage.  Yunnan Baiyao is commonly available in Chinese or Asian markets, that are in many cities these days, and is available online.

Make sure your dog is eating!  Please supplement his diet with calves or beef liver temporarily.