Your Dog's Vet Experiences

[Cedars]

The sticky in Vets got me thinking we should have one in here!!

So, tell me about your dog's vet trips, symptoms, treatments etc. Then hopefully when we all ask for advice, we can look in here first and see if anyone has had anything similar!

PLEASE NOTE: Please do not self diagnose your dog! Obviously if they're ill still take them to the vet.....!

Hannah xx

 

[GinaGem]

Good idea - having lurchers we've had plenty of injuries!!!!

Grass rash - left alone, it went away:

Sliced paw - left alone to heal:

Broken leg - she ran up a slipway on a beach and got her leg caught in one of the slats. Cost around £2500 to fix. Metal plate has not been removed as it hasn't caused any problems. She also got an infection in the other leg at the emergency vets due to them putting the drip in without cleaning her leg - she was still covered in sand when we collected her to take her for her op.

Lump caused by an injection - vet advised it's not uncommon in her breed to have this reaction and to leave it to go down.

Abscess on the left side of his face - thought to be from a thorn or a sting. Think he had antibiotics (can't actually remember now!!). It burst and healed fine:

Bruise from hair being pulled out of the back - from our other dog being to rough:

 

[Cedars]

Ok, my experiences with our nearly 8 month old lab.

1. Started breathing funny when eating and sucking her tummy right in, late night trip to the vets, all the flora in her stomach had been messed up by us bringing her home so she had some EM or similar??? food for a while and some antibiotics for a slight chest infection.

2. Horse trod on toe - didn't bleed for about 5 mins then bled EVERYWHERE. Didn't break anything, but skinned the hair off and sliced straight through the pad. Vet didn't think she needed stitches so they just bandaged it up!

3. When she had her spay, we had loads! I'll make more bullet points:

a) where they shaved the hair, part of it got really crusty and was clearly bothering her - steroid cream and I think antibiotics? Can't remember, btu steroid cream definitely did the trick.

b) everything great for her 3 day check, and then that night she jumped onto sofa and about an hour later a rock hard MASSIVE lump appeared directly under the scar tissue - think egg sized! Another late night trip to the vet, but was just swelling. Took about 3 weeks before it went fully but it didnt bother her at all.

c) cos she had her cone on for ages after her spay, she wasnt cleaning her bits enough, and developed a small cyst type thing right on the vulva, almost by the opening. Took to vet who said not to worry it'll go. That was about a month ago now and its still visible but really tiny, and not causing her any problems at all.

Think thats it! Keep them coming xx

 

[GinaGem]

More!! Bruise:

Dew claw partly torn off - fully removed by the vets with a pair of pliers and left to heal:

Cut to knee after jumping a stone wall, left to heal:

Skinned foot, left to heal:

Skinned bum from stopping to fast, left to heal:

Another of the abscess after it had burst:

 

[Spudlet]

Henry:
Emergency operation after eating bones out of the bin, £1300 and 10 days on the lead

Came downstairs to one hell of a mess on the kitchen floor and a very fat dog who wouldn't eat his brekkie! Healed up really well though, vet did a lovely job

Skin irritation on his scrotum after being nicked at the groomers - hibiscrub and fuciderm

Ear problems, possibly due to wax - Surolan eardrops plus ear cleaner

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Sweep - op to be castrated as only one testicle had descended.

Occaisional eye infections

One face lift due to skin infection in the soft folds of his mouth - a series of antibiotic treatment didn't work.

Op to remove lumps of fatty tissue - the one his neck weighed 1lb and had another large one on his side removed at the same time.

Not bad for a 12 year old spangle.

Max - one visit for an eye infection!

Thankfully we are not regular visitors as whenever we go there is always a trail of carnage behind us in the waiting room! Sweep because he hunts out dropped treats behind the scales and Max because the vet wakes up her puppy to play with him......

 

[FestiveSpirit]

I am LOL at Gina's pics - I have had so many similar things with mine, but have just never taken pics

Off the top of my head:

1. Reaction to grass/plants of some kind or maybe mosquito/midge bites - huge red spots all over the belly - put some Sudocream on, monitored, it cleared up very quickly

2. Localised leg infection due to puncture wound (assumed, never found) - greyhound was fine when going to bed, the next morning she was panting and wouldnt eat her breakfast. Idiot, moronic OH

left her for a few hours (despite me telling him to keep an eye on her

) and when he got back the leg was ulcerating blood all over

Final bill about £3,000 for intensive hospital stay, leg was amputated in the end, Ellen the greyhound was very happy and made a brilliant recovery as soon as that was done.

3. Dislocated elbow in whippet when playing - whippets were playing & chasing each other, then one yelped and was dead lame. Carried her 2 or 3 miles home, rushed her to the vet, the elbow had popped in by itself but she needed treatment for a few months afterwards due to complications

4. Dew claw being ripped out - Talisker managed this 3 or 4 times whilst out on walks, he was never lame and it healed up by itself without any problems. In the end it didnt grow back!

5. Lymphoma of the gut - started with just ordinary diarrhoea, but it wouldnt clear up

Kept going back to the vets, who in the end did an ultra sound and then opened him up, to find the whole gut massively inflammed

Diarrhoea for a few days would never bother me, this went on for about 2-3 weeks whilst various vet visits went on.

6. Skinned stopper pads, legs, cut pads - Islay chased a cat

Comprehensively

She was bleeding quite a lot, I bathed it in salt water and it healed by itself nicely

7. Reaction to injection - Flick had her booster and then wouldnt raise her head above the horizontal, also screamed whenever she moved

Despite intensive worrying by me she was fine the next day!

8. Pyometra - whippet was given the injection to stop her coming into season (I would NEVER EVER use this again!) She was a greedy eater but I saw her arching her back in pain as she ate, she was tense and shaking, whipped her to the vet and she was spayed the next day.

 

[competitiondiva]

Dog 1: rotti x dobbi, intermittent lameness hind leg, worse after excercise. After X rays found to have DJD (Dengenerative Joint Disorder) causing cruciate ligament to go, treatment 2 very expensive operations called TPLO op, basically the bone is altered to keep the joint stable, cost about £1600 (thank goodness for insurance!)
Dog 2: lab x dalmation:
op1: Spay
op2: tail amputation after spitting the end through wagging tail syndrome!!!
op3: lick granuloma from a small wound on hind leg, lump removed.
op4: cut on side from running past a thorn bush!! tried to staple it first but she decided to make a moutain out of a mole hill and pull it apart!
op5: fatty lump found on front of her shoulder, removed had it tested but found to be a lypoma (fatty deposit)
op6: well not so much of an op as a ga for x rays to discover mild arthritis and mild hip dysplasia.

Gods shes cost me loads!! Well cost the insurance company loads! And she's not long ago had more stitches after being bitten by another dog! That was thankfully done under local anaesthetic!

Dog 3: Dalmation, decided he could pick a fight with a rotti on the park and needed to be stitched back together again!

 

[Mosh]

I've only had Scoobie a year but hes been to the vet twice!

1st: Elbow joint, skidded into the corner of a wall and had a nice deep cut right on the joint, cue emergency vet visit for antibiotics and bandages

2nd: Tiny hole, possible thorn? never found mind. Slightly lame for a few days (as is common with the silly mutt) then foot swelled drastically overnight.
One day visit, one lot of xrays, no broken bones found, concluded it was cellulitis type thing, antibiotics, anti inflams and limited exercise for 2 weeks, that was fun for a baby greyhound!!


Other dogs:

Collie cross: ears flilled with fluid, had to be drained regularly
Border collie: Epliepsy, only ever had 2 fits and was never on medication due to the irregularity and the fact she had 2 fits before she died. If the fits carried on she would have been but she was run over by a car shortly afterwards

 

[GinaB]

_Gina_, I must say I'm shocked your poor dog ended up with an infection as they didn't carry out the most basic of care!

I must say, I have been very lucky with my three so far *touches wood* The biggest surgery has been removal of TinaDogs eye.

It started off as a cataract, which looked like this...

I then noticed the eye had changed colour and the front of it looked 'crumpled' so off to the vet.

He diagnosed ulceration of the front of the eye as well as glucoma. Both would have been treatable with life medication, however he stated that due to the huge pressure build up in the eye, there was always the worry it would burst causing unimagineable pain.

He actually said with the glucoma she would probably be in a lot of pain, but as she is such a good natured dog she never peeped once

Pictures the day after surgery. She had to stay in overnight. Not good for a dog which is very wary of people she doesn't know

Beastie was scared of her lampshade!

She went back after days to get the stitches and drain removed, however as there was still fluid draining from the eye it was decided to leave it in a few days longer.

Took her back, and the vet snipped the stitches and pulled the drain out. Not a peep from my big brave girl

A few weeks after the drain was removed...

And her eye now, it has healed up beautifully. I'm really pleased with the work the vet did

She was an angel the entire time, she never whimpered or cried once.

All together the vet bill came to £250

Ohhhh, I just remembered another one! Windsor was hit various times but sharpnel while out working

To say he was ken was an understatement. Worse one was some got him in the chest and he ended with poisoning. Chest swelled up and filled with fluid. He had to get it drained. No pictures of that I'm afraid as I was young at the time. As far as I can remember M saying the bill came to £1000

Although this was a very dear vet and we have since moved to the one who treated Tina.

 

[GinaGem]

I know it was a nightmare! They were generally useless - as usual it happened on a Sunday afternoon so we couldn't go to our own vets. We got to the emergency vets (pdsa) and they took ages to see her - bear in mind she screamed everytime she was moved. They then tried to splint the broken leg without sedation or pain killers - funnily enough she wasn't having any of it - i was in the waiting room and could here her screaming. My OH almost passed out. They eventually x-rayed and confirmed it was broken - we told them that from the start (the leg was at such a dogey angle) but they wouldn't believe us?!!! They sent us home and splinted the leg and gave her pain killers and told us to collect her the next day to take to our own vets for treatment!

Luckily our vet is excellent and is a greyhound expert so he fitted us straight in, took a look at the x-rays and gave us a list of three vets he could reocomemmd to do the op. Off we went and they operated and when we came to collect her they told us about the infection that had set in in her other leg - they were more worried about that than the break as once the break was plated as long as we were careful it was unlikely to cause many probs!

 

[GinaGem]

Oh just thought of another one.

Bes started acting strangely after playing tug of war with our other dog. She refused to jump into the back of the car (we had to lift her), she walked stiffly, was subdued and took to walking up stairs backwards. I had our McTimoney lady take a look at her when she came to treat the horses and she treated her back and her hind leg. She was back to bouncing round like a puppy within a few days.

 

[CorvusCorax]

One dog pulled the other dog's (his son) eye out in fight. Vet popped it back in (a historical anecdote)

J (10 at time) and D (9 months) hit by same car. J dislocated hip, D broke leg, was pinned, lived to 14 with no further soundness problems.
(you can see slight bump on left leg)

D- one big dead puppy blocked birth of rest of litter, all died.

D - pyometra uncovered by phantom pregnancy which prompted her to eat a pair of tights, surgery cost £500 in total 15 years ago

N - Not a thing until large tumour on liver discovered at 10, she died shortly after it was removed. Surgery £150.

Bodo - an allergy to tree pollen causing an atopia skin condition, affecting his ears and under his elbows and along his chest. See total below, we only discovered exact problem in June from a Belfast vet, not our local ones, who revealed nothing despite lots of toing and froing.
- A malformed urethra and bladder neck, very large prostate which has made him prone to UTIs and has resulted in the part removal of his sheath, he has also been neutered - two less things that can get infected!
Both problems have cost about £1000 all together in last two years over two different vet practises. We only discovered exact problem in June from a Belfast vet, not our local one, no answers despite repeat visits.
Recovering from castration:

Bella-
Occasional ear trouble, and recently had a phantom pregnancy so will be spayed.

 

[Ravenwood]

Amber - Norwegian Buhund: accidently got caught by unknown dog - one very large pup that died inside her and caused her a massive infection.

Badger - Australian Huntaway x lab: Died of pancreatitus. Awful, awful, in hideous pain - very sad

Toby - lab: diagnosed with OCD in his elbow at 6 months and then the other later - still going strong but has a stilted gait and often quite stiff. I am going with the quality over quantity of life and still working him as that is what he lives for. Not sure though, at the age of 6, that this might be his last season

Flyn - spaniel: came home with huge worm and flea burden took months to clear up. However, since then has been sound as a pound until he fell out of the back of the pick up and had to have stitches to his leg.

Flyn: Very unusual symptoms in that he looked uncomfortable ( for those few minutes he wasn't occupied tearing around!!) and slobbering excessively. Turned out to be an abcess in his throat which burst out under his tongue - poor dog but healed up very quickly.

Flyn: Gets horrible weepy skin irration (as do a lot of spaniels round here) thought to be caused by gorse. Constant cleaning with hibiscrub seems to help and fungicidal cream but if severe - off to vets for anti b's.

I am so lucky to have a very basic, down to earth vets here who are extremely cheap - so I never hesitate to consult them if I think there is something beyond what I can treat. They have been marvellous with Toby and his joint problems.