I've just suffered a terrible loss. My family/sport GSD died approx. 12-18 hours following a neuter operation. He was 4.5 years old. As I understand from my vet, the procedure went very well and my dog did not have any problems following the surgery. It was performed around 1pm on a Friday afternoon. I called to check on him at 5:30pm and was told that he was awake and alert. This vet routinely keeps all dogs overnight following surgery. He was in the clinic late that Friday night and said that our dog was fine when he last saw him around midnight. When the first tech arrived at 7am on Saturday, they found that our dog had passed away during the night. There were no signs of seizure or struggle. He appeared to have died in his sleep. The vet did a necropsy and found no signs of anything obvious that would have killed him. He said that there was some very minor hemorrhaging around one incision and that it was very normal. He had not given the dog any medications following the usual post-operative meds. So, it had been nearly 12 hours since the dog had been given any medication. He suspects that our dog died from a blood clot.

The vet was as devastated as we were. He had never seen anything like this in his professional career and said that he had only read of a few cases such as this. He is used by local rescue groups and breeders and is very active in the local AKC club. I don't have any reason to believe that he did anything wrong. Has anyone else ever heard of this before? It's been almost 2 weeks since it happened. I'm coming to terms with my grief in some ways, but I just can't seem to get past the unusual nature of his death. If anyone can provide me with any resources or useful information, I would sincerely appreciate it. Thanks.

I'm really sorry about your loss <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

It is very, very rare. Invariably, if enough post mortem analysis is done, it is revealed that the dog had an underlying medical problem, such as an undiagnosed liver problem, etc that was the actual cause of death and would have taken it's toll eventually. Please don't feel that you did anything wrong.

I too am very sorry about your loss. Having worked for a vet for more than 12 years we have seen a lot of things happen that can't be explained. We also keep pets overnight after surgery but also give owners the option of taking them to an emergency care clinic to be monitered around the clock instead of being left alone at the clinic. 99.9% of the time there is no problem. We always require a physical exam before surgery to rule out any obvious problems but there is no way to catch everything. There can be kidney, liver, heart or other problems that may or may not have been caught with bloodwork before the surgery. We don't routinely require this unless the pet is over 6-7 years old but maybe it should be done more often. I will try to see what I can find in terms of web sites you can research and other things you can look up.

I know what you are going through in terms of loss...I put my GSD down on that same Friday. Even though mine was a chosen and somewhat expected loss it doesn't make it any easier. As stated in the previous post...you CAN NOT blame yourself for this. Some things there are just no answers for. Maybe this loss will cause your vet to change the policy on surgeries. I do agree though that it does not sound as though there was any fault on the vets part...trust me...the employees feel the loss as much as the owners do!!! The day I stop caring what happens to the pets is the day I quit!!

Jerri

That was a good post, Jerri. It's good to have the info from someone in the vet field. The very few cases that I've known of (I've been in dogs 16 yrs and only know of 3 cases like this, one was a spay, rather than a neuter) on post, they did find physical problems. As Jerri said, it's not customary to do a pre anesthesia blood panel on a young dog. The young toy poodle bitch died of a very serious liver disorder that she was born with and discovered on post. Another young male was owned by the vet, on post she found an enlarged heart and some type of congenital heart condition. The other, I don't recall the condition. But these conditions can be totally invisible and certainly nothing you would have been expected to know.
Again, I am very sorry for your loss.

Thanks to both of you for your replies. It helps to hear of other uncommon occurences. I did opt for the bloodwork prior to surgery and nothing was found that would indicate any problems. In some ways, I wish I had asked for a more complete post-mortem analysis. But, I was so wrecked that day that I just wanted to put my pup to rest. And, I did not want to pick up any seriously mutilated remains. It's really been tough.

Thanks very much for your care and concern. If you find any good web resources that would help, I would love to know about them. Thanks.