Depressed & Anxious Dog in Pain... What to do?

[BellaGooch]

Hello, everyone!
This post is partially a question and partially a rant.
We took our labrador, Fisher, to get neutered on Monday. After his surgery, the vet- long story short- told us that he couldn't find anything, meaning that the surgery was pointless. Weird, but whatever. He told us that Fisher would be depressed for up to the next 72 hours, and to give him pain meds x amount of times a day.
We called the vet this morning, and he told us that he couldn't find anything because our dog was to "morbidly obese" and that he took out a lump of what might have been fat and threw it away. (he told us this two days after the surgery on the phone, mind you.) Firstly, he never said that Fisher was overweight at all before, and why would you throw a lump of something away without telling us?!
We called another vet whom we have gone to before, who- also long story short- agreed to see if he still needs to get neutered and neuter him for a cheaper price (bless that vet!)
Fisher has been severely depressed and anxious for the past 3 days, which I've heard is normal. However, he won't poop, he's peed once (on his bed, which he hasn't done since he was a puppy) and is extremely lethargic (only gets up a few times a day to sprint as fast as he can to a new spot to lay down, his tail between his legs the whole time) and drinking and eating very, very little. We may take him into the vet (not the vet who "fixed" him, the other vet) today since he has not gone to the bathroom hardly at all, per their recommendation.
Has anybody's dog gone through this? Is this behavior normal? Will it ever end? I feel so bad for him... He's whining and panting non-stop, and he is awake all night. I'm currently writing this at 2:24 a.m. on the couch while he cries and pants on the floor.

 

[di and bob]

No, crying and panting are not normal, it means pain. I would get him into that other vet ASAP. Not pooping may mean he just didn't eat before his surgery, but he should be going by now. Keep offering him lots of clean, cool water. If the other vet finds nothing, then it is pain and he could give him something different than what you have. for that. Is he taking the pain meds you were given? Now is the time to not worry about nutrition so much and just get him to eat by offering his favorites. Please keep us informed!

 

[Willowy]

No that's not normal at all. Definitely talk to the new vet, and don't go back to that old vet! I don't know if Fisher is overweight or not (Labs do like their food) but honestly it shouldn't matter for a male, as the procedure should be entirely external.

My male dog was recently neutered and he did do that sprinting with his tail down thing, but only for the first day or so.

Did he have visible testicles before he went in? What does the area look like now? It should be extremely easy to know whether a dog is cryptorchid or not, especially a large breed, so that's something the vet should have discussed beforehand.

Maybe some pictures would help? If he'll let you get them.

 

[Willowy]

Here's some pictures of my boy's post-op area. My vet is fresh out of vet school so I assume she's been trained in the newest techniques, and I think everything went as normally as possible. (I requested having his entire undercarriage shaved so that's not necessarily normal, lol.) I didn't get any "before" pictures but I think we all know what dog testicles look like .

Same day as neuter, fresh from the vet:

One week after:

2 weeks after:

So if it looks like that I'd guess everything is pretty normal. But he shouldn't be in that much pain 3 days post-op, especially if he's been getting pain pills.

 

[BellaGooch]

No, crying and panting are not normal, it means pain. I would get him into that other vet ASAP. Not pooping may mean he just didn't eat before his surgery, but he should be going by now. Keep offering him lots of clean, cool water. If the other vet finds nothing, then it is pain and he could give him something different than what you have. for that. Is he taking the pain meds you were given? Now is the time to not worry about nutrition so much and just get him to eat by offering his favorites. Please keep us informed!

Thank you for replying! We just got back from the vet and they gave him a laser treatment to promote healing and lessen the pain. I'm os happy to say that he peed multiple times and pooped at the vet. Yes, he is taking his pain meds and we've been feeding him plain chicken and rice, per the vet's recommendation. I will keep you posted, thank you so much

 

[BellaGooch]

No that's not normal at all. Definitely talk to the new vet, and don't go back to that old vet! I don't know if Fisher is overweight or not (Labs do like their food) but honestly it shouldn't matter for a male, as the procedure should be entirely external.

My male dog was recently neutered and he did do that sprinting with his tail down thing, but only for the first day or so.

Did he have visible testicles before he went in? What does the area look like now? It should be extremely easy to know whether a dog is cryptorchid or not, especially a large breed, so that's something the vet should have discussed beforehand.

Maybe some pictures would help? If he'll let you get them.

Thank you so much for responding! We just got back from the vet and they gave him a laser treatment to promote healing (and lessen the pain.) He is not overweight according to this vet, by the way (and yes, Labs love their food, lol). They had not dropped, which was a bit strange. He will not let us get pictures, sorry! He had red splotches and was bleeding a tiny bit. Hopefully, this laser treatment will put him on track, as the vet told us that he was not healing as quickly as expected.

 

[Willowy]

Ok, so if his didn't drop than the vet had to go inside like a spay, then? In that case, yeah, it can be hard to find the testicles when they're floating all over the abdomen, but the vet definitely should have made sure whatever he found was a testicle! He sounds like a terrible vet. Have you had trouble with him before?

That's cool about the laser treatments. I've heard about it for arthritis but I didn't know it worked for soft-tissue pain too.

 

[BellaGooch]

Ok, so if his didn't drop than the vet had to go inside like a spay, then? In that case, yeah, it can be hard to find the testicles when they're floating all over the abdomen, but the vet definitely should have made sure whatever he found was a testicle! He sounds like a terrible vet. Have you had trouble with him before?

That's cool about the laser treatments. I've heard about it for arthritis but I didn't know it worked for soft-tissue pain too.

We had previously only taken him a couple times for a checkup, and he seemed great! He was recommended to us by a good friend of ours. (but our friend hadn't had any major surgeries or anything with him, just checkups.) He seemed very nice at first, but after the surgery he wouldn't even admit that it was his fault and put it on us. Definitely never going to him again.

 

[BellaGooch]

Small update: Fisher is getting a cone (we previously had an inflatable "donut," it almost looked like a pool floatie but it wasn't stopping him from licking his wounds) and dog socks to stop him from itching. He is at the vet right now as some of his stitches broke. We took him on a "walk" (it was really only to the corner and back) so that he would go potty. He pooped but did not pee. He wasn't interested in his dinner earlier, but hopefully, he'll be hungry when he gets home!

 

[neely]

I'm so sorry Fisher and you had to go through this. I just saw your post but once Fisher is feeling better I would definitely write the vet who performed the neuter a letter. He did not act professionally and should receive feedback. I hope Fisher recuperates from having to get new stitches and feels better soon.

 

[BellaGooch]

I'm so sorry Fisher and you had to go through this. I just saw your post but once Fisher is feeling better I would definitely write the vet who performed the neuter a letter. He did not act professionally and should receive feedback. I hope Fisher recuperates from having to get new stitches and feels better soon.

This vet isn't done with us. Thank you for your support

 

[BellaGooch]

Fisher is going back to the vet right now for the 3rd time today. He is now virtually peeing out blood. Every time he gets up from sitting down there is a small pool of blood. I don't know what this first vet did, but I pray that the "lump" he took out wasn't something vital. This has been such a long week... Nobody in this family (Fisher included) has gotten much sleep at all. A dog being in pain is one thing, but to have him leaking blood out is another. We're all just so exhausted and done with this situation, and frustrated at this ignorant, unprofessional, careless vet for making this so unnecessarily hard on all of us.
That being said, he is doing a lot better with the cone. His tail isn't between his legs as much, and he seems to be a bit more chipper. We all just want him back to his normal, happy, puppy self.

 

[neely]

We all just want him back to his normal, happy, puppy self.

Amen to that!
I hope the other vet you're taking Fisher to can get to the bottom of what happened when you brought him to the first vet for his neuter surgery.

 

[BellaGooch]

Quick update: He is still leaking out blood and he's still crying a bit, but not as much. He's acting more like himself, but internally he doesn't seem to be doing as good as he was before going to the stupid vet. We are taking him to the vet tomorrow morning. The vet says he has seems to have seroma in his ankle, which was probably caused by the other vet pulling out a lump. (a lump of fat, perhaps?)

 

[neely]

We are taking him to the vet tomorrow morning.

Best of luck, we'll be thinking of you. Please keep us posted after Fisher's vet appointment.

 

[BellaGooch]

Thank you, and thank you to everyone! You guys here on TCS have been so sweet and supporting.

 

[BellaGooch]

Got back from the vet. Good news- He's going to be okay. The vet gave him some new/better pain pills and antibiotics and we got- how pitiful is this- doggy diapers for him. He's sleeping but seems to be doing fine. The swelling in his ankle seemed to be from the bandage on his stomach being wrapped too tightly.
I'm going to focus on the positive and assume that he's going to be fine. Last night he cried and cried and cried literally all night long, but hopefully, this new medicine will help that tonight. Thank you again for all of your support, everyone... You guys are the greatest.

 

[neely]

Got back from the vet. Good news- He's going to be okay.

Thanks for the update, that's great news! I hope he makes a full recovery. I can relate to a dog crying off and on all night, it's heartwrenching. I also remember a few late night visits to the ER. Fingers crossed the new pain pills and antibiotics do the trick.

 

[BellaGooch]

Hey guys! Fisher is doing much better. He is back to his normal, peppy self.
If he was overweight before (like that vet told us he was ), he isn't now because he has lost a lot of weight from not eating very much at all in these past two weeks. He is still bleeding, but much less severe than before, thank God.
We are still waiting for the results of his blood culture to come back. He has been sleeping through the night for the most part, fortunately.
Although his cone is rather clumsy, he doesn't seem to mind it.
Here is a picture of him with his first bandage and his cone:

He, fortunately, looks a lot less pitiful than that, now. (Right now he is passed out on his side in a deep sleep .)

Thanks again everyone for the encouragement and support.

 

[neely]

Fisher is doing much better. He is back to his normal, peppy self.

Thank you for the latest update! Glad to hear Fisher is not only feeling better but bleeding less too. His bandage and cone look a bit cumbersome but he's such a good patient.