Retained ovarian tissue

[SoddingWeddings]

One of our girls is a Romanian rescue, aged about 6 and supposedly spayed. She's a very shy, fearful and traumatised girl who trusts DH and me, and a couple of our friends and that's about it.

She came to us in November from a local Foster home, where she'd been for a couple of months. Soon after, she seemed to be on heat - bleeding a bit, licking herself a LOT, local dogs much too interested if we took her outside.

We had her checked at the vet (difficult with her level of terror and need to just run from anything scary), who couldn't decide whether she was in heat or had an infection so we treated her for an infection and it all cleared up. Great.

Then yesterday, same again but not as bloody. Back to the vet today, they still aren't sure so we have a blood test and a vaginal swab booked for tomorrow at a terrifying price to try to identify hormonal indicators of any retained ovarian material.

If she's got bits left in there, they want to get it all out but we've also discussed referring her to another vet for a laparoscopic procedure rather than a traditional spay-type one, as she'll be in much less pain and have a quicker recovery.

Has anyone dealt with this with their dogs?

It's relatively uncommon but does occasionally happen.

I'd make sure the rescue are aware of it.

What size is she? In smaller dogs laparoscopic spays are about as invasive as traditional spays and only faster if you have a very experienced surgeon. With inexperienced surgeons they can take significantly longer and be painful.

Plus how experienced is the laparoscopic surgeon in finding retained tissue? I doubt they'll see many of those cases

Speak to your vet about anti anxiety meds before exams/surgery - trazadone or sileo can be helpful

Hi @Veterinari that's incredibly helpful, thank you for taking the time like you so often do on these threads.

She's 18kg ish. My thoughts on the laparoscopy was the recovery element, more so than the time on the table. I'll definitely ask more questions about that.

Our other girl is 27kg and she's a very stoic beastie, but can also be a total drama queen, so post-spay she was off her face on tramadol for several days and had a good but slow recovery. We're worried too much pain would further traumatise Snow, its taken a long time to earn her trust. We're thinking anything we can do to make it easier for Snow post-op, we'll do.

The vet got the samples with little difficulty today and she was wagging her tail at him afterwards when he brought her outside and she was enjoying a fuss, so that's brilliant. They'll also do a culture of the vaginal swab if there's nothing obvious on the blood test or cell culture which I'm more than happy with at this point.

Ok with a bitch that size then a lap spay with an experienced surgeon can be worth it but the main thing is good pain relief post op. Lap spays have smaller incisions but for some bitches the pain of the gas used to inflate the abdomen can be significant (varies between individuals) so immediate recovery isn't always easier. Definitely chat through the options with the surgeon and regardless get good pain relief - much better for them to be off their faces and cheerful for a couple of days than sore!

Sounds like you've got a good vet who is managing her well - good luck!