Hi

I have a young collie bitch, who I rescued in August in a state of emaciation. She has since put weight on, and has been looking really good.

On Friday she went to be spayed. I got a phonecall Friday afternoon stating that she had not come around from anaesthetic as quickly or as cleanly as they'd have liked, and that also they had nicked her somewhere inside causing a minor bleed that they'd like to monitor overnight, and thus they wanted to keep her in the surgery over night. Fine, fair enough these things happen.
Saturday morning I picked her up, and she seemed fine, albeit a little sore and sorry for herself.
By mid-day Saturday she'd turned almost schizophrenic, completely dejected and depressed one moment (lying in her bed refusing to move or even raise her head), and the next moment completely crazy, climbing the walls, over turning furniture. She seems keen to get to her stitches so understadibly we have an elizabethan collar for her. Thinking that it was the collar unsettlg her we took it off, and put on a soft muzzle instead....still the same behaviour, but no getting more stressed trying to get the muzzle off. I put this behaviour down to post-operation silliness, and tried to sooth her through her 'mad moments', and monitor her 'down' sessions.
That afternoon/evening she was panting hard and her tongue was bright red. Alarmed I took her temperature (39.2C) and phoned the vet. He gave her intravenous antibiotic, intravenour anti-inflammatories and intravenous valium. He also put her on 5-day course of Baytril (antibiotics)
Sunday, no change in her behaviour, and further intravenous anti-inflammatories and valium.
The valium doesn;t seem to calm her, just makes her less coordinated (which in turn makes her behaviour more dangerous for herself).
She also seems terribly agoraphobic. If we take her out for a wee she just wants to hide in the bushes or is frantic to get back indoors to the pen we've set up for her. In the house, if we don't get her straight in to her pen she dives under the armchair, or tries to get behind the cabinet, in either place she simply doesn't fit, and ends up breaking stuff. But I'm more concerned about her hurting herself as she just seems to go into a frenzy and appears to have no awareness of her surroundings. Her eating and drinking is erratic...and her bowel and bladder activity is even more so.
Her temperature is going down (which is encouraging), but her behaviour isn't changing...
Off back to the vet this afternoon, but I just don't know what is going on and neither does he...
His initial thoughts were of an internal infection, but he feels it shouldn't have developed quite so quick after the operation. The wound site looks good and is healing as well as her behaviour is allowing it to. Last night he palpated the wound physically quite hard (as well as all around her belly) and she didn't even flick an ear, so no obvious pain there...

Is it possible that the anaesthetic has altered her mentality. From a happy, waggy dog she's turned into a monster and no-one I speak to seems to know of any other dogs that have reacted like this....

If anyone has had a similar experience or if this behaviour and total personality change rings any bells with anyone I would be very greatful.

I'm praying this behaviour is short-term, because we just could cope with her if this was a permanent problem.

Thanks in advance

Caroline

It sounds as if they gave her far to much anaesthetic and i would not be happy if my vet had cut more than they should have done i would not want them putting my dog/s under , she needs time to settle so long as she is not in any pain and i would talk to another vet about this, she needs calmness keep her on the lead in the garden and put her back in to her crate when she comes in doors at night time when you are sitting down let her sit with you on the lead so she cant hurt her self it will take a week maybe two before she gets a little better.

Thanks corso girl, for your reply.

Of course I'm not thrilled that they nicked her, but occasionally things like that do happen. I won't hold it against him, I have no other reason whatsoever for doubting his abilities, and he has always done a brilliant job with my dogs etc in the past.

We tried keeping her with us in the sitting room, on a lead, when we were sitting down, but it seemed to distress her more. She just wanted to get to small dark places, and was thrashing around on the end of the lead like a mad thing. We are currently carrying her through the house when we take her from her pen to outdoors, as she simply won't be 'quiet' on the lead. She's much happier shut away in our bedroom, in my whelping pen (set up for a forthcoming litter from another dog), so we are humouring her to this effect.

I hope she does 'come out of it', as she has always been such a happy little person and its devastating to see her like this. No matter how much we try to soothe her it is as if she doesn't even notice we're there.

Back to the vets this evening so fingers crossed ;o)

Thanks

Caroline

I don't know if this will help or if it is relevant but many years ago when my daughter was two she had to go under anaesthesia; when she came round she was like a thing possessed and ripped my glasses off and tried to climb up the curtains (I have that effect on some people) :). She was fine the next day; hopefully you will find the same; different anaesthetics have differing effects; when I had to have my leg plated together I was delirious and my heart was beating at twice the normal rate and I had to have immediate medication; subsequent anaesthetics used have not had the same affect on me.

Hope everything is ok.

Thanks tohme

Funnily enough someone here mentioned after-effects of anaesthetic this morning. I will suggest it to the vet this evening, as he hasn't mentioned this possibility yet.

I sure hope she starts to feel more 'normal' soon, as it is distressing enough for us to watch her while she's in this state. Goodness only knows what is going on in her own little head. All i want to do is help her, and at the moment I just don't know how, and I feel so useless! I feel so guilty for getting her spayed in the first place. I know it was the right thing to do, but I hate to watch her suffering like this. ;o(

Caroline

Latest update.

Broached the subject of hallucinations etc last night with my vet and he said it was the first time he'd heard of such a thing in dogs, but did agree symptom-wise that it really now is the only theory that fits.
He uses Ketamine (sp?) as the anaestheitic, and has always done so, but apparetnyl this was the human license for this was withdrawn after it was causing hallucinations in humans after general anaesthetic. He's going to contact the drug company to find out if they know of any other cases involving dogs acting strangely after using this anaesthetic.

We're continuing her Baytril, as it is an antibiotic, and 'we've started so we'll finish', and we are continuing with the valium, but using it as required in the hopes she won't become dependant on it.

She seems a little brighter today. Still having wild swings in her behaviour, but at least when she flat out in her bed she'll wag her tail for you when you come in to the room (something I haven't seen her do since Saturday).

Fingers crossed and hope for the best I suppose

Caroline

I have had to give a cat and a dog valium and their reaction was the same as yours, completely unco-ordinated and very restless (dangerous), it seemed to hype them up rather than calm them down. I stopped giving it and gave Quiet Life tablets instead. (Serene - um is similar) and they calmed down completely, no unco-ordination, no hyper behaviour, just a calmer sleepier animal. I think Valium is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut - overkill.

Did the vet weigh your dog before the op? or rely on other guidelines to anaesthetise? Many years ago my Afghan cross was castrated and the vet was grateful that I told him he was part afghan, apparently there are particular difficulties in administrating anaesthesia to some breeds of dog because they appear heavier than they actually are. Don't know if thats helpful to you tho.

Hope your poor dog is back to normal soon.

Regards
Dill

Out of curiosity I've just done a Uk search on Ketamine and dogs and this came up
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/744067.stm

Don't know if its relevant in dogs but in view of what you've been observing.......

Regards
Dill

Thanks Dill

Brilliant link, especially this quote "...One 22-year-old ketamine user says the main effects of special K last about an hour - she says it induces strange out of body experiences and makes you feel numb.

"You just sit down paralysed - just complete within your own world - it can make you quite sick if you do it in very large doses," she said..."

From what I have observed I reckon if my collie, Dee, could speak that would be close to her description.

Makes you think doesn't it. My vet said, on the rare occasions he has been broken in to it is the Ketamine they go for, and leave the other drugs virtually untouched!

Once again, thanks for that Dill

Caroline

PS Dee is starting to look brighter, we're weaning her off the valium. Hope to have her stitches out on Monday and fingers crossed life might go back to normal, until the impending litter of pups due from another bitch fairly shortly!