Urgent Please help! Catheter piece broke off and lost inside dog after surgery

[brandon_202]

I brought my Minature Maltese in the the Vet today to get neutered. I got a call from the Vet saying that the surgery went great, and that I should come and pick him up. When I got there they informed me that while trying to remove the catheter a piece of it was broken off and left inside my dog. they opened him up to remove it, and couldn't find it. They also tried x-ray, but found out that the material was not discoverable by an x-ray machine.

Long story short, the Vet said that they were truely unsure what to do, because they have never heard of this happening before. And the next closest facility with the technology to handle this problem (University of Minnesota) was closed. They found previous blogs stating that it isn't as big of a deal as it seems, as the piece will just remain internal w/o obstructing anything. But I wanted to make sure that I got a second opinion.

I understand that human error happens, but also want to make sure that my dog recieves the care he needs.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

Brandon

[brandon_202]

so far my dog is showing no signs of anything affecting him from the surgery. Which is great news. My vet contacted the cardiology specialists at the University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa. Apparently the specialists said that the fragment will most likely end up finding a home near his lung cavity... and hopefully not affecting him. They thought that surgery might be more risky then leaving it and watching for any abnormal signs.

For now all we can do is keep an eye on him and monitor I guess.

Just a bad deal... We wish we wouldn't have to worry about it.

Thanks again for the reply! I appreciate it!

[Shelly_San_Diego]

Hi, Brandon- I know it has been 8 years since you posted this, but it came up in my Google search.  The same thing just happened to my dog.  Did you notice any long-term side effects?  

[Jaybay]

Hi Brandon.  I'm so sorry I didn't see your post earlier.  Can you update us on your dog's condition?  I've never heard of this happening before either, but nothing in medicine is ever completely certain.  It seems possible that the piece of catheter may not even be inside your dog since it isn't visible on imaging scans and wasn't found with exploratory surgery.  If your dog shows no symptoms, you can likely safely assume he'll be fine - foreign body notwithstanding.  :-)