We had our beloved 12 month old golden lab girl neutered last week. All went well and she came home that evening with dissolvable stitches and the standard very fetching lampshade thing on her head.
Four days later, DH popped out for less than two hours leaving her alone, and came back to find that somehow she'd managed to pop her scar open and - apologies for the grossness of this - her insides were hanging out of the hole. DH wrapped her up in a towel and rushed her to the vets where she went straight into emergency surgery. Her liver was the bit that had been hanging out and was severely damaged, and as a result the vet has removed more than 3/4 (probably nearer 7/8) of the liver.
She's now home on antibiotics and liver support medicine, and mostly sleeping or lazing in her basket, but when she's awake she's fairly perky, eating and drinking. We're now on a waiting game as if her scar becomes infected or her liver doesn't sufficiently recover then we'll probably lose her. Regular blood tests and liver function tests start next week.
We are heartbroken that such routine surgery - which wasn't even essential - has ended up going so badly wrong. That our beloved dog, who unofficially is an autism support dog to DS1 as well as being a friend to us all - was completely fit and healthy only a week ago but is now seriously ill. We know this was a freak occurrence, and the vet has been absolutely brilliant and we know will continue to give her the best care they can.
If anyone has any experience of severely damaged livers in young dogs then please share - and please hold my hand and her lovely soft paw.
If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.
The doghouse
Paw holding needed. Neutering surgery went badly wrong - TMI warning
BlackbirdSingsInTheDeadOfNight · 12/01/2017 08:15
Oh no 
No experience but a lot of sympathy. The operation was essential though as she would probably have got pregnant at some point which could have put her health just as much as risk. Don't regret having her neutered, thiswas an awful accident. Poor baby.
Here's another friendly paw to hold
Sorry no experience to share but love from another lab
Oh, you poor things - must have been ghastly for your DH finding her like that.
Hopefully one of the MN vets will come along, but the liver does have a remarkable ability to regenerate unlike other organs.
We are hugely grateful that it's her liver rather than anything else, so that there's at least the possibility of it regenerating. DH thought it was her intestines that had come out (again TMI, sorry) and the vet told him that if this was the case then she didn't have a chance of pulling through.
Quite honestly dpup deserves a part in a horror film! 
DH is pretty traumatised by finding her like that. I'm selfishly grateful that it wasn't me who found her, as I don't think I'd have managed as well as he did.
Thank you all.
Many a paw-holding from us here. What a shocker. You never can tell which are the pets that will do this. I'be had dcat rip out staples and spray walls with blood and gunk then escape (tmi sorry!) he was fine but nothing fell out. Shocking for your DH.
Hoping that she recovers well. X
Poor pup and poor you and dh
Our dog is a cone Houdini 
he learned very early that if he repeatedly banged the edge of the cone hard on the floor then he could force it open but thankfully he didn't have a go at his stitches
Paw and hand holding from us, and 
for you and a dog 
for xanthe
Poor baby (and you for the trauma!). Keeping all fingers crossed for you.
Our dog truly was Harris sized but could find his way around the biggest cone available, we came home after leaving him for 30 mins one day to confetti of plastic everywhere and just the bow remaining tied around his neck (and the drain ripped out of his foot) 
So good to hear the update. Thank you...yes, he's still fighting fit and this is many years on but your tale reminded me of that awful shock when I saw pools of blood and blood spattered walls and missing dcat with cone discardes on kitchen floor! Was really horrifying, but like everything it all fades into the dim distant past 
Continued multi-paw-holding from us for some encouraging test results. Nice young liver and healthy dpup so lets hope all goes smoothly now.
As for my dcat really sure he has gone beyond the usual allowance of just the 9 lives!
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Thanks so much again everyone, the paw holding is lovely to have.
The vet this morning was really pleased with her progress (as was the assistant vet, and the receptionist, and the groomers in the dog grooming section....she seems to have become a bit of a 'celebrity' in there since DH ran in with her in major emergency mode).
Scar is looking as healthy as it can, no signs of infection at present and all external signs are currently positive. Once the liver function test start we'll know more. But so far, so good.
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