Has anyone had their dog spayed and also both sides of mammary glands stripped?

LilacLouisa

Well pretty much as in the title. We have been fostering a rescue Greyhound, and she is so lovely that we decided straight away we would like to adopt her.

Have taken her to the vets today to be spayed and told them of some lumps we have found this last week in her stomach.

They told us they couldn't spay her today, but have taken a blood sample from her and they will let us know the results later today. We may also have to take her back for a chest xray. Apparently the best case scenario is that she will have to have one side stripped and be spayed, then another op to strip the other side.

We have spoken to the rescue centre and apparently this op would not be very pleasant for her, and it may be that they will not have the funds for such an op anyway. They have the dogs who come into the centre neutered, chipped and have their teeth looked at, but this may be more than they can afford to pay.

We adore her, as we do our others, but if we could get the money together to pay ourselves, would it be awful for her?

I hope this makes sense, we are shocked and really upset, but any advice or knowledge would be most welcome

lisawood78

Never heard of that op tbh, could you call the vets back and ask them what the recovery was like from it, how long, how traumatic etc?

Good luck

krlyr

It sounds quite extreme but I have no experience of tumours in dogs (fortunately for me). I've had small furries having mammary tumours removed but they were benign and nothing more was done than the removal (and the lumps never returned) so I'd probably want a biopsy of the lump to see what it was (unless this is what the blood test will answer).

LilacLouisa

Thanks both of you for replying, never had any experience of this sort of thing either and we have had dogs for years.

We are still waiting to hear from them re the blood results, and I will certainly ask more about the operations. My daughter took her in while I waited in the car, and I suppose we should have asked more then, but we were in shock really, as usual you think of things like that later. Also with the Rescue organisation still owning her at the moment they will have input too.

What we thought was going to be an evening of just making her comfy and feeding nourishing tidbits when needed has turned into something completely different.

rising_from_the_ashes

(((hugs))) what a worrying time for you ....

No personal experience of this but I have seen the op performed on TV (I watch a lot of Animal Planet etc).

There is no disguising that it's a big op but once the womb and mammory glands are removed and the dog's recovered - and if it's not spread which your vets should be able to help with - I believe there's no reason why the dog shouldn't do well.

Good luck and please let us know how it goes.

hethmar

My ex breeding rescue dog (a terrier) had this done. She was 12 at the time and lived happily for another 4 years. With her it wasnt horrific, all done in one op at the same time as spaying - but may be your dog has more tumours? - in fact she came out pulling on the lead, when I was all prepared with a blanket to carry her to the car.

hethmar

Lilac, just out of interest, I googled about this op too and found surprisingly a number of postings of the same condition with people homing ex racing greyhounds. It seems that these dogs are given hormonal treatments to delay or stop their seasons so it doesnt interfere with the racing program and this may be a contributory factor. Either way, the stories I read had good outcomes, but of course its up to you and your feelings/finances.

rising_from_the_ashes

hethmar wrote: »

It seems that these dogs are given hormonal treatments to delay or stop their seasons so it doesnt interfere with the racing program and this may be a contributory factor.

I still struggle to believe the things us humans do for our own agenda and never think of the consequences.:(

Nod_Off

A full mammary strip is a pretty tough op to go through and not one I would put my dog through if the x-ray shows secondaries in the chest area.

I hope the test results come back ok and that she can have the op. Do you know how old she is?

LilacLouisa

hethmar wrote: »

Lilac, just out of interest, I googled about this op too and found surprisingly a number of postings of the same condition with people homing ex racing greyhounds. It seems that these dogs are given hormonal treatments to delay or stop their seasons so it doesnt interfere with the racing program and this may be a contributory factor. Either way, the stories I read had good outcomes, but of course its up to you and your feelings/finances.

I did have a quick Google before I posted on here but wasn't really able to concentrate, too upset to do so. We adore her, we already had 4 others (whom we also adore) and when she came as our "in season foster girl" we knew we couldn't let her go anywhere else. We have decided that unless the outcome of the tests is really bad we will try to find the money. Our feelings are that we must give her what she needs, but not if she will have no quality of life, or will be in pain.

We are expecting that it will be very expensive, even the cost for having her teeth cleaned was around £140.00, but the charity paid for that. We have pet insurance for our other 4, but as she in't officially ours yet, I am not sure if the Rescue insurance will cover it.

Whilst there does seem to be some very caring owners/trainers, the hounds do seem to be regarded only as a money making thing, living in crates and getting only what is necessary to enable them to race. We were told (not by the Charity) that the spaying could be done weeks earlier than usual, it would be messy-but still!

We didn't get a phone call from the vets, so we rang them, but the results were not back then.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that the news will be good.

LilacLouisa

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I still struggle to believe the things us humans do for our own agenda and never think of the consequences.:(

It isn't just whilst they are racing either, but when they are finally retired the lucky ones go to the rescue organisation, others aren't so lucky. I don't know if you are aware that the greyhounds have identifing numbers tattoed on their ears, and sometimes in the past have had their ears cut off and been just turfed out.

The rescue centre we have had our greys from have a good relationship with a nearby track and the workers and trainers there, so ours were some of the lucky ones.