Dog op, got a drain, how much blood?

jackomdj

Our dog had an op today to remove a big lump, he is home & feeling rather sorry for himself..... he has a drain in it, how much blood is normal with one of these? He has a t-shirt on which has a lot of blood on & he has just walked over to his food bowl & he had about 7/8 splodges on the floor whilst he was stood eating. The drain is under his tummy so I guess it is where his blood is pumping round.

The vet did say without the t-shirt it would be like having a girl dog - never had one so don't know how much that would be!

Thanks
Nicky

Penny_Watcher

Black Bob the Idiot Dog spent an awful lot of time last summer with a drain in his underside after various repair operations.

Gruesome details below warning. (Also it's not medical advice - only my observations of what happened to my dog. He's quite a big chap so your experience of 'normal' may vary from mine)

So.... the drain used to empty quite a bit. Teaspoonful blobs at a time as he was walking about (thank goodness for bleachable floors :eek:) and quite a bit more (almost a wrung out flannel amount) if he laid down for a while or got onto one of the beds. Had to throw away two duvets because of dog leakage.

The discharge was quite bloody for the first day, lessening and becoming more watery as the days went on. If the drain was leaking a lot bright red blood after the first day or there was a very nasty smell coming from it I would have taken him back to the vets. As far as I understood the drain was draining excess fluid and already spilt blood away from the area of the op.

Also it must have been quite itchy as Doggo tried scratch the drain out with his back legs even though he was wearing a Buster Collar and tee shirt - worth watching for.

Good Luck with your poorly mutt and I hope he's better soon.

jackomdj

Thanks so much for your reply. I called in to the vet's on the way to pre-school & they put my mind at rest & said it is fine....I thin I was more worried as she likened it to a female dog & I don't think they would be like this!

Unfortunately we have carpets & two little ones! We have borrowed a play per for when the two year old is around & I am not (say I go to the kitchen etc), or if people come into the house so I am not concentrating on him & my LO.

I have a couple more throws over the carpet as LO is in bed. Our eldest (age 4) knows not to give him cuddles at the moment & to avoid his throws so we are fine until LO gets back up.

For anyone that happens upon this thread a bit of advice the vet gave me today was look at their gums, if it is a nice healthy pink colour it should be fine, also if you press the gum & it goes white but then turns back to normal that is good, if it stays white that is not so good so take them back. finally she said to keep an eye on the cavity area, if it starts swelling go back.

I hope he is fine to have the drain removed by Sat or I will have a few more nights on the sofa (our soft mut sleeps up with us & does not appreciate being shut in a play pen for the night & I did not want him howling & waking the children!)

Chester is a Harrier - which is a bit like a lanky beagle (between beagle & hound size), so he is fairly big....I think the volumes you refered too are similar to what is coming out from him.

Thanks again for your reply.
Nicky

frankie55

Hi there, I've a girl dog who has just been spayed and another dog who likes to lick. we ended up putting baby vets on our dog......neck opening over the tail and back legs through the arms, and the nappy end poppered over one shoulder..tre chic. The toileting was no problem as the neck is quite wide and she only managed to get one off once when the poppers wern't fastened properly. I measred the dog from neck to tail for the size and measured the vests in the shope, we ended up with 18mth size. neither dog got to the stitches and as the vest was loose around the tummy area plenty of air was wafted arond the wound. I got a packet of 7 vest for £5 from Asda and used maybe two to three a day to keep her clean. I hope this helps. good luck. Dogs have amazing recovery powers so I'm sure yours will be back to normal very soon.

jackomdj

An update on Chesters recovery....the blood eased off enough for him to have his drain removed on Sat, it is still leaking a little bit but this is what we were told to expect. He is just about back to his old self, still unable to get about as easily but a lot happier to lie on his underside. He is struggling to get upstairs still, he can manage it with a bit of a push on his backside! He usually sleeps in our room, but seems to prefer it downstairs at the moment.

Nicky

Penny_Watcher

Good to know he's feeling better.