After much deliberation and consulting with her breeder and a few other "breeder/show" friends I decided to have my bitch spayed and went ahead on Monday.  She only has 4-5 months between each season and each time has had a phantom pregnancy thereafter, and had already decided I wasn't confident enough to contemplate breeding  (I'm new to this breed) and only lightly shown although I have learnt lots so far and met some great people along the way.

I collected her from the vets Monday late afternoon, she was quite raspy in breathe but they explained this was due to being a brachycephalic breed and consequently usually causes more irritation.  She settled down at home and I gave her a very small amount of food before we settled down for bed.  About 3am she was sick 3 times over my bedroom floor but settled quickly after and we slept the rest of the night comfortably.  

She was still a little quiet Tuesday and I decided to give her 5 smaller meals over the day instead of her usual 2 and by lunchtime she was a lot brighter, nearly her old self save for bombing around the house.  Toilets ok and was more than happy to go out into the garden to do her business and we had a lovely day snuggled up out of the rain watching the olympics ...

Yesterday the sore throat was still very prevalent but I wasn't unduly worried, she seemed all ok until around 5pm when she suddenly started breathing very heavily with her mouth open and a weird rasping noise and pulling in hard under her ribs as if she was struggling.  She was also sick several times which made her distressed as it was in the house so I rang the vets, reception spoke to nurse but they didn't seem too worried although I held the phone so they could hear the wheezing as she tried to breathe but my gut said otherwise so I decided I was taking her in anyway.

Vet checked her temperature and all was ok, checked wound from spay and was happy (as was I, she hadn't showed any interest in it and didn't bother her) but her breathing was still very laboured so he gave her a jab, phoned his Dad who had performed the operation to check he hadn't noted an elongated soft palette or anything else but told us she was all good.  He decided we would put her in an oxygen tent for 10 mins to just give her some extra air and see if that settled her down.

Half hour later he came back out and said would we mind waiting a little more as every time they turned off the oxygen she struggled again but was quite happy when it was on.  Another half hour passed and still no improvement so they decided they would monitor her and we left.  

At 10:30pm they rang to say she was getting worse rather than better so wanted to operate and would ring me back after.  They ended up doing a tracheotomy (sp?), found a big lump of mucus blocking her airway and her larynx was very sore and swollen (probably aggravated by the mucus and being sick which hadn't quite managed to clear it) and she was now in intensive care but much happier when she came round and had already started to pink up.

I havn't heard any more since 2:30am, I'm thinking no news can only be good news although I think I can only hold on until 10am before I ring them for an update.   Third night of not a lot of sleep too  :(

What  a nightmare but thank god you insisted things were not right.  As you say hope no news is good news.

sorry to waffle on, I often lurk and read as this forum is such a good source of information but don't often post!   

Vet just rang to say she is quite comfortable and resting and looking much happier but is now a waiting game to see when they will take out the tracheotomy tube and see if she can breathe OK on her own so will be in until Monday at least under their care.  I'm allowed to ring at 5pm to see if I can visit her, hopefully she doesn't get too excited as I'll be allowed to go every day. 

Think I'm going to try and have a snooze shortly too, the housework can wait .......

Bet you're breathing better yourself now :-)

So glad she's out of the woods. 

What a worry for you after what should have been a routine operation.  :(

Fingers crossed that she's on the mend.  :)

It's always interesting to read these things, because although spay surgery should be straight forward, sometimes things can go wrong and it's good to learn, even if just to pick up warning signs.

First of all I hope she'll be okay - removing the tracheotomy tube is always a milestone (we were advised they might need to do this with my husband after his stroke, but thankfully they didn't!!).  

I hope this doesn't put others off getting their bitches spayed - it goes without saying that MOST don't go to what you've been through.   Catch up on as much sleep as you can now - you will be up and watching for the next few days, once she's home!!

it goes without saying that MOST don't go to what you've been through.

That's fine until it's yours that's one of the few.  :(  For me it's all about risk assessment and if the owner can't cope with an unneutered dog, then it should be neutered.  I prefer not to put my dogs though anything unless medically necessary.  :)

>nearly her old self save for bombing around the house.

Just wanted to point out that when she comes home you should crate her.  No spayed bitch should be bombing anywhere for 10 days after the operation.  I have recently had a bitch spayed, who wanted to be rather more active than she should afterwards.  I had 2 choices.

Either nail her feet to the floor, or crate her and take her out for wees on a lead.  It's very important for people to remind themselves that this is a hysterectomy.

I think the OP means that the only thing different is that she's not bombing around the house as she would normally. ;-)

That's fine until it's yours that's one of the few

Quite true and for sure, I'm not for castration other than for medical reasons.   However, there is enough out there to have persuaded me to get my bitches spayed, even if this was usually done on retirement.   And in truth this was really because I didn't want to have to confine them every 8 months (the cycle most of mine had) as much as not needing to put them through that into old age.   Bassets are inclined to have false pregnancies.

As I said, you had a really bad experience, but I'd hate this one time, to put others off getting their bitches spayed .   I had one who developed mammary cancer - she'd not been spayed until retirement, at 6 years (I forget) and I'd not wish this on my worst enemy.   Whether being spayed earlier would have prevented this, I can't ever know.

I didn't post to try and put anyone off, I was only doing what I thought was best for my bitch too.  I had consulted her breeder, the club secretary for the breed and a few friends that show and breed to help me make the best decision for her wellbeing.

I was kinda hoping someone else was going to post a good news story with a similar experience. 

It is one of those unpredictable things as I already said the actual wound from the spay we have had no problems with.  She was crated next to my bed at night time and if I needed to pop into the kitchen / loo / shower during the day I popped her into the crate to make sure she couldn't jump onto the sofa, grab her toys or just wander around and get herself in any trouble.  Always supervised in the garden to make sure she didn't suddenly get excited and want to play too, she was quite happy to sit and lie calmly next to me eventually dozing off (possibly me too) as I am home all day with her normally.  Only difference being when I need to pop out she usually would have been put in the utility room not her crate.  :( 

How is she doing ?

Oooops!  Thanks Jan.

We are home.  She is doing OK, quiet but that is to be expected!  Need to do physio to make sure she coughs to clear any build up of mucus, throat being left to heal naturally from the tracheotomy tube and lots of antibiotics plus a quiet week indoors for all of us in order (luckily this means I have an excuse for an afternoon nap too   :D  ).   Hopefully not back until next Monday for stitches to be removed from spay.

Phew .....

What a worry, hope she will continue to improve.

Thank you for posting, I think every experience, good or bad will help someone in a similar situation.

Thanks for posting the update.  Blimey, a few afternoons kip has been well earned I think!  :-)

Glad I have a vet that does invisible mending.  I haven't had external stitches for spays in well over 20 years.  I assumed that all vets did this for the spays.  I only take mine back for the usual check (which mostly isn't even needed.)  Hope all goes well for you now.

My most recent spay was stitches that needed removing, quite hilarious trying to get her to stand still for them once she knew what he was up to, ended up giving treats while she had her front feet on a chair, LOL

Good idea - think I'd better take some chicken pieces to distract her next Monday ....

Not stitches but I had Zuma at the vets yesterday as he was not quite sound and kept licking/chewing at a front foot, I couldn't see anything but just wanted it checked. He is a total **** for anyone trying do do anything on the bottom of his feet!!! so I went armed with a Carrot. He stood like a lamb taking little bites off the carrot while she checked all round his nails and the pads :-D