Any vets on here?

[GeorgeEliot]

Our 5-year old, very active Springer/pointer cross has recently had surgery after a deep wound near her shoulder inflicted, we think, by a piece of wire (didn't see what happened). Wound has healed fine but there is a lot of fluid around it - vet's advice is to leave it and it will sort itself.

DH however is obsessively worried, has already asked for one 2nd opinion, and thinks we should now get a 3rd opinion.

Dog is on antibiotics and fine in herself - although a bit pissed off that she hasn't had a walk for about 3 weeks now because vet has forbidden exercise.

Hoping for advice - or maybe someone else has been through this and can tell us the lump of fluid will go away eventually.

Thank you.

I'm not a vet, but we had this issue with our lab recently. He'd had an operation on the underside of his neck to remove a lump, and the whole site filled with fluid - it looked as though he had a tennis ball under his skin. Our vet said it would clear within a week or two, and it actually took longer than this to go, probably gone in 6 weeks rather than 2 weeks.

We were advised there is no point in draining it as it will just refill, best to let the fluid get absorbed slowly. My lovely friend who is a vet (though not mine) said the same thing too.

Thank you so much for responding Onlyaphase. It's very similar and I am going to show dh what you said and hopefully he will stop worrying.

Did you have to wait until all the fluid had gone before you could walk your lab?

Yes we did wait a fair while before walking him, but this was because his stitches were under his chin and his collar would have rubbed on them. I did try a harness but he is 10 years old and doesn't like new fangled things!

We managed a few slow walks around the village green and that was it I think for weeks. A shame as I think walking would have improved his circulation and helped it drain maybe. As he is a lazy lab anyway, he didn't mind. I imagine you're struggling with an active dog though.

It sounds like this is a seroma - sterile fluid that forms where there is a space between the tissues. When we do surgery we do everything we can to reduce this dead space and prevent seroma formation, however, in very deep or wide wounds it can be impossible to not leave a space. The general opinion is that if you drain this fluid it will just come back and probably more than before and that you increase the risk of infection by draining. If you leave the fluid it allows the body to build a network that closes this space. Exercise is known to increase the size of seromas as the movement breaks down the fragile networks that the body is creating so the body produces more fluid to reduce this movement.
I hope this helps to understand the process. The lump will go, but it can take some time. The quieter you can keep your dog the faster it will resolve.

Thankyou Lizcat that is very helpful - particularly about keeping the dog quiet, which DH finds difficult - as he loves to play with her - but i think he will have a different view after reading your post.

I know it is really hard to keep an active dog quiet the way I always ask people to look at it is if they had had a similar surgery. So if your DH had had a similar wound and surgery in all likelihood he would have been advised to have 6 weeks rest. It usually helps to put it in perspective.