Unsucessful spay??

moving_home

has anyone experienced spaying their bitch where some part of the ovaries were left behind? my bitch was spayed in August after going into heat at around 5 1/2 mths. In last few days she started acting like she was in heat again, just over 10 1/2 mths (not eating, moaning, licking herself, dogs trying to mount her) all unusual behaviour for her. rang vet and he said to bring her in so I did. she is swollen down there so got a blood test done today and waiting for next week for results to see if part of ovary has been left behind.
Just wondering if this happened to anyone else as vet said it was very unusual?

carwash_2006

How soon after being in heat was she spayed? Normal recommendation is 3 months after being in heat, I'm assuming from a bit of counting on my fingers that this was not adhered to? Perhaps if it was done a bit too soon things were still a bit swollen and bits got missed?

I have not come across this in a dog before, but did hear about at least one definite case in a cat.

If the spay was done within 3 months of heat and the vet made no mention of this being advised procedure I would be bringing this up with the vet and would not be expecting to pay full price for a repeat op. If the vet doesn;t like this I would make some noises about asking the vet council about what they advise to do with heat and spays.

Hope it all works out for you and the dog, not good to have to go through this extra stress. Pf course I'm sure there are other possible explanations for this situation and if this is the case again I hope it works out well.

dvet

carwash_2006 wrote: »

How soon after being in heat was she spayed?....Perhaps if it was done a bit too soon things were still a bit swollen and bits got missed?

Remnants of ovarian tissue can sometimes get left behind after a spay, but the timing of the spay does not bear any relation to this. The ovaries don't change in size/become harder to distinguish because of being in heat.

The reason why a little piece of ovary can occassionally get left behind is that the ovary lies within a little bursa (pouch) and sometimes can be hard to distinguish from the surrounding tissue. So although it's rare (as your vet said), a tiny piece can get left behind purely by accident. It's not negligence or a sign of a bad surgeon neccessarily; it can just be one of those unlucky things. It's likely your vet has spayed 100's or 1000's of dogs without this happening before.

carwash_2006 wrote: »

If the spay was done within 3 months of heat and the vet made no mention of this being advised procedure I would be bringing this up with the vet and would not be expecting to pay full price for a repeat op. If the vet doesn;t like this I would make some noises about asking the vet council about what they advise to do with heat and spays.

The reason why most vets won't spay during a heat is because the blood supply to the reproductive tract increases at this time, so there is an increased risk of blood loss if it is operated on then.

It is possible and legal to spay at any stage (even to spay pregnant bitches; which is even much more risky than in-heat bitches!). But obviously most vets prefer not to spay then if they can avoid it. The '3 month' guideline is commonly used as it is a convenient mid-point between heats, but in reality the bitch's reproductive system would be back to normal (and therefore safe to operate on) within weeks of her heat.

Anyhow, as I was saying above, the timing of the spay wouldn't really have anything to do with the OP's problem in this instance.

lorebringer

My OHs parents dog had part of an ovary left behind after a spay. It took at least another 2 heats for them to realise what was up with her (she got very aggressive towards everyone other than the family during the heats but didn't show and obvious "heat" symptoms). The op had to be repeated but their vet only charged them for anaesthetic and aftercare (buster collar, pain killers) so it wasn't expensive the second time at all.

As "dvet" already said, this is not an indication that your vet is shoddy or anything like that. It's just one of those things that happens every-so-often and it is rare. If the op needs to be repeated, ask about how much it will cost and whether you will get a discount etc.