My bitch  Fleur is now nearly five years old. I never intended to breed from her but as she came in season for the first time at 2years nine months and then the 12months later I wasn't going to get her spayed. Since then I bought a male pup (went for a bitch but fell in love with a dog) who is too closely related to risk an accident. Fleur came in season nine months after her second one when pup was nine months old and that was not fun. The vet was worried that her strange seasons could be due to ovarian cysts and of course there is the pyo worry. Yesterday I had her spayed. APC is never used by this vet. During the operation the vet surgery rang to say she was bleeding badly and they couldn't stop it, could they take blood for analysis. Of course anything to get her better. It took about another hour to stop the bleeding and to get her stabilized. Lung worm was suggested as a possible problem. We do not live in a lung worm area but she was at Discover dogs and apparently the South East has lung worm. She was only toileted in the services on a lead but may have eaten grass. As I went to pick her up she pooed watery reddish liquid. They gave her more injections to stop bleeding. This has not happened since but this morning she pooed small pieces of undigested bone. she is raw fed and had eaten chicken wing the day before the operation so maybe because of all the rummaging around inside her some bone had scratched her bowel. The vet phoned today to say the blood results were normal for clotting but the lung worm test will take a couple more days. Today she just lies down but is alert if I move or to sounds. She is drinking but refuses to eat. The vet gave her some tins of Hills food but she spat it across the room, her way of saying it is disgusting. She is on pro-kalin which I put on her tongue. Has anybody any ideas or know if it could be lung worm. Before the op she was healthy and very fit.

I had one of my bitches spayed 6 years ago (she is now a very fit 12 year old). She bled very badly during her spay and lost a fair amount of blood. Like yourself my first thought was Lungworm as we live in the soggy Southwest but it was not. My vet thought that if it was lungworm she would have bruised badly after the op which she didn't. She did however continue to bleed from her vulva for a few weeks after the spay which I had not had before and got me worried but it stayed a nice,healthy clean blood colour with no smell and cleared eventually. She was kept on a longer course of antibiotics to prevent infection.

My vets thoughts on the reason she bled were that the op was done just after the end of the shooting season when she was super fit and they had a problem lowering her blood pressure during the op and since then I have always waited until their fitness levels have dropped off a bit before having them spayed....is your girl a working dog or agility?

I don't know if this reassures you in any way but it sounds very similar to my bitch and I think unlikely to be lungworm.

Just to add my bitch didn't eat for a day or two after either....just keep getting fluids into her and don't blame her for refusing hills.....these so called easily digestible foods from the vets are so unpalatable to dogs....if she were mine I'd roast her a chicken!

Thank you for your reply. Yes she is a very fit rather hyper agility dog. She has not had any bleeding from her vulva and no seepage from her wound. She has had injections yesterday to help with blood clotting so that will have helped. She is not on any antibiotics. The vet had said the pain relief they had given her might wear off at about 3pm today and I might have to take her back for more. At about that time I was upstairs when I heard a wuf and a thud. I rushed down to see her standing with her front feet on the window sill watching next doors visitors. The Belgian grin is back so hopefully she is on the mend. Maybe it was the painkillers that were sedating her. Having to watch her like a hawk to see she doesn't jump up any more. Am thawing chicken out for her tea.

I would take a lot of comfort from the fact she is so bright and alert. My bitch was very tired from the blood loss for a few days.

It does sound so similar to mine....hope she is soon back to normal and as you say the hard bit is keeping them quiet.

Hope she enjoys her chicken!!

Just to suggest you go buy some tinned Chappie!!!   It's easy on the digestive system and will probably give her a more 'complete' meal than just cooked chicken?  Actually mine loves Hills I/D but then he's a Basset

Best I can offer otherwise is you keep at the operating vet is she's not picking up as she should (sounds as if she is).   I'd not think lungworm is involved with this.

Maybe it was the painkillers that were sedating her.

Quite possible, and also don't forget that Belgians as a breed are very sensitive to general anaesthetics. Blood loss as well makes you tired. Was she spayed midway between seasons? Glad to hear she's better now, phew.

I'm in a lungworm risk area and I know when I was last at the vet someone came into book a spay and was told they had to worm the dog before they brought it in due to lungworm risk. It's ment to be widespread threw out the UK with hotspots that have more risk.

Yes MamaBas chappie is a good idea, if she's not eating soon I'll go get some. When she was younger I had a 12 year old GSD who towards the end of her life had diet problems and I tried chappie. Unfortunately for her it did not work as it turned out she was allergic to chicken, a small amount of which is in chappie. Fleur ate the tins I had left and liked it. At the time she was a very faddy eater until 10 months ago I started feeding raw as that was what the breeder of my pup fed.
Goldmali. She was spayed three and a half months since her last season. As she had gone 12months and nine months between them it's difficult to know when midway would be. Her breeder told me Belgians had problems with anaesthetics and when I bought her didn't want me to have her spayed at all but others said there was no problem and I thought other potential problems e.g. pyo were more likely

She will have been spayed at a good time then I am sure, without having a crystal ball to know the perfect time. Yes I had pyo in a bitch (I have Malinois) aged just 2 ½, and my breeding bitches I will spay at 7 or 8 to play safe. I've never had any huge problems after or during anaesthetics but they certainly can take longer than other dogs to recover at times. Hopefully your girl will be fine now.

Just to update on Fleur. She's doing really well. Eating and poo is now ok. We went to the vets today for her dressing removing and her wound checking and all is ok there. She went into the vets wagging her tail as she usually does but started to freak out when we went near the scales. Obviously they caused the problems! Thank you all for your concern and replies

Pleased to hear she is on the mend...thankyou for updating.