# Puppy's spay stitches came apart resulting in terrifying emergency vet trip!



## Gina&Dogs (Mar 21, 2009)

I had Bowie, my 6 month old puppy, spayed on Tuesday. She is a very active dog, so to prevent any damage to the stitches I have kept an e-collar on her at all times and she's been kept in her crate except at meal times and for bathroom breaks.

Wednesday as i was checking her stitches I noticed a clear liquid coming from the incision site. I took her to the vet, and they told me not to worry, that it was just serum, a kind of precursor to the healing process. He said that the incision site was a bit irritated which caused the serum to be produced excessively. They bandaged the area to help prevent irritation and told me to keep Bowie as calm as possible.

I continued keeping Bowie crated with the ecollar, but even in the crate she still tended to thrash around a bit when the stitches itched her.

The very next day as I checked her stitches, they were a bit puffy and there was a lot of the clear liquid coming from the incision. I took Bowie back to the vet and they told me that the bandages were causing more irritation and took the bandages off. They sent us home and told me to keep doing what I'd been doing to keep her calm.

This brings me to the scary part of the story. Yesterday at 5:55 pm (I remember this because my vet closes at 6!), I took Bowie out of her crate to be walked and she seemed fine. Hyper as always. I bent over to carry her down the steps (to prevent her from stretching the stitches), and to my absolute horror saw a big bloody mass hanging from her incision.

This was terrifying, and I immediately called the vet, praying that they were still there. Luckily they were and told me to bring her in immediately. I had no idea how it happened or what exactly was hanging out of her incision. I carried her to the car (bloodying up my clothes and arms but not caring at all!) and hoped it wasn't as bad as it looked.

When I got her to the vet, everyone was waiting outside the front door for us. They took her in and immediately anesthetized her. After they finished working on her, the vet told me that the outer layer of stitches had come apart but the interior stitches had held strong. What was hanging from the incision was her omentum and not intestines (thank goodness!).

I still have no idea how Bowie's stitches came apart, she was in her crate with her ecollar on when it happened(and the collar was long enough, extending 3 inches past her snout). My fear is that the stitches aren't strong enough, or perhaps she had a bad reaction to them. They used regular stitches instead of the disolving kind which I understand some dogs have a bad reaction to.

I picked Bowie up this morning, and the vet gave me some tranquilizers for Bowie to keep her calm.

I've heard that tranquilizers can sometimes cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure and I'm worried about giving them to her. Of course, for now I'm using them- I can't take another emergency trip to the vet with her insides hanging out! It was the worst car ride of my life!

Has anyone else experienced or heard of anything like this? Any problems with spaying or stitches? It just worries me because I don't know how her stitches came apart. I really like my vet, but at the same time I wonder if they made a mistake with the stitches that could have caused this. Of course, Bowie is very active so I suppose it could have just been because of her thrashing around too much in the crate.


----------



## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

Oh my gosh! No, I never had anything like that happen and I have had quite a few females spayed. I also work with a volunteer spay clinic and we spay/neuter about 150 dogs a year. Thankfully, I have not had to go through that. I hope Brownie heals quickly now and that she can be feeling good enough to run around like a crazy girl again soon.


----------



## boubou64 (May 21, 2009)

That would have been terrifying!!!!!! glad she's ok!


----------



## x6stacey9x (Oct 22, 2012)

This is aweful! Hope She's okay now. This happened to my dog at 14 months (few weeks ago) but instad of the outer lear opening first it was the muscle wall and the intestines came out. 24 hours before this happened she got checked over at the vets and they said the stitches look fine. It was like been in a horror movie. Our vets was closed when we arrived so we went to the nearest one which we arrived at 4pm and it closed at 4pm, we just caught them so they stayed open for us, they saved her life! I don't know what I would do without my dog she's my baby. It still doesn't seem real.


----------



## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

I had an cryptorchid American bulldog here for training that washed out, owner wanted him neutered before picking him up. He busted his incision and had intestine dragging. Had to have part of them removed, but did fully recover.


----------

