My darling pug Luna went for her spay on Monday. 

Everything went very well and apart from being a bit sleepy that afternoon you would never know that she had had an op.  The vet said to keep the dressing on for as long as possible but on Friday I decided to take it off as I could feel a lump under it. 

Well, it is a very large hard lump, kind of plum sized.  The wound has healed perfectly and has no scabbing or redness but the lump is scary.  OH took her to the vet yesterday and they said it could be a hernia but they didn't really think it was.  Have her booked in at the bigger branch tomorrow for a scan.  It gives her no pain at all, even after being poked and prodded yesterday and she is not unwell in herself.

Have any of you seen this before?  They might have to open her up again depending on what the scan shows.

I have never had a dressing on any of the bitches that I've had spayed.

My vet does "invisible mending" to sew up, and there are no visible stitches for a bitch to interfere with.

Does anyone else find it normal to have dressings?

If it is a hernia, how come the vet didn't notice it when he operated?

Same here Jean, when mine was speyed she also had 'invisible mending' all stitches were on the inside - I was amazed at the skill :-D   No dressing either ;)

If the lump is at the site of the op then maybe the op site has herniated?  I would have expected the vet to notice that at the time too.   On the other hand, I wouldn't expect a hernia to be really hard  

>If the lump is at the site of the op then maybe the op site has herniated?

That's what it sounds like to me too. For the vet to feel the need to apply a dressing it suggests that the spaying didn't go as smoothly as usual and that there were complications which have possibly resulted in the subcutaneous stitches (as opposed to the visible external stitches) failing in one area.

When mine have been spayed they've all had external stitches which needed to be removed after 10 days, but they've never had a dressing on the wound.

I take it haematoma has been ruled out by the vet??? Its like a large blood pool under the skin but normally there is pain and maybe a temp. These can occur after surgery where bolld has been leaking out but cant escape out so becomes like an internal balloon.

Thanks for your replies, I am going in early tomorrow.

She did have the internal stitches so maybe they failed somehow, the lump was not apparent the first couple of days although I didn't feel it for fear of hurting her. The vet said the dressing was just to keep it clean and said she would probably pull it off herself in a day or two but the good little thing never touched it, I only pulled it off because it didn't feel right. Will find out tomorrow I guess.

had one of ours done too last Monday.  lovely  invisible  stitiching  but the vet had covered the wound with a dressing.  first for us took ages to get it off and the poor bitch got distressed.

Could it possibly be a hematoma?  I had one after my own surgery to remove an overy and had a large plum size lump behind one of the scars that took weeks to go down, I know they can sometimes drain them?

i had a bitch with the internal stitching and she was in pain after and had a lump. i took her back the next day and they said the wound had broken down inside and she had to be opened up again and re stitched. she was fine afterwards but it was a bit distressing for myself  and the dog at the time.

I had a bitch spayed and there was a large lump came up along the side of the scar. My Vet reckoned she was having an allergic reaction to the internal stiches. It went down on its own.

Well, she ended up not having the scan, the senior vet said the lump was too hard for it to work.  He's almost certain she is having a reaction to the internal stitches and has given steroids and antibiotics.

After worrying all day I went to pick her up to find she had had the time of her life being fussed over and cuddled.  She sure knows how to wrap people round her little paws :)

> After worrying all day I went to pick her up to find she had had the time of her life being fussed over and cuddled.  She sure knows how to wrap people round her little paws :-)

:-)  :-)  :-)   Lovely to hear that she is on the mend.

great news she's feeling better and you didn't have to go through another operation to sort this out.