Anyone have experience with Stomach Tacking/Gastropexy?

[superifffic]

My 18 month old Fila was spayed and at the same time they did tacked her stomach, this was a week and 3 days ago. I was under the understanding this would only require one incision, however, she came out with two. The incision where they spayed her is just about healed and we had no issues with. Her incision for the stomach tack is stapled and had become infected so they put her on an antibiotic two days ago. Since the day of the surgery, she has had very very little to eat, lost a minimum of 20lbs and is still not interested in eating much more than a cracker with peanut butter on it here and there. Today, for the first time since the day of surgery, she tried eating a bit more but threw it all up less than a hour later. She's still having some blood draining from the incision. I contacted my vet who seemed to not think either of those issues was a cause for concern. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on these issues? Is this normal? Please help!

 

[aceoutdoor]

Is there any blood in the stool or vomit? Did you request the tack the stomach or did the vet recommend? Has that vet ever performed that before?

 

[cayeesmom]

If it was my dog I would have her looked at by a vet, maybe a different vet or clinic. A week and a half after surgery she should be pretty much back to "normal". Loss of appetite, throwing up, draining blood still just don't sound right to me.

 

[QY10]

If it were my dog, I would be getting a second opinion from another vet.

 

[scorning]

Sounds pretty unusual, one of my danes was tacked when he was in surgery for bloating. Overall, even with the bloat, recovery was pretty easy and he was back to normal once he was off the pain meds. I would see another vet for a second opinion.

 

[karennj]

Not wanting to eat and vomiting after that surgery is pretty normal but we are talking 24hrs not over a week later. Does she have a fever? That can cause loss of appetite and vomiting. By now the antibiotics should be kicking in. Yes it is normal to have 2 incisions. The pexy incision just allowed the vet to get their hands into the cavity to make he cuts/stitches. Staples is also normal for a pexy. There are internal stitches and the staples on the outside. My Dane had a neuter and pexy right before Christmas and his got infected as well. We actually think he may have been having a reaction to the stitches used because my vet uses different stitches internally vs. his neuter site. Anyway, his appetite after about the 3rd day was normal but because he could only have small meals through the day he lost about 4-5 pounds. His pexy incision was great until about 10 days after the surgery and then he started to get uncomfortable, he had 2 drainage tracts from his incision and he developed a seroma. We put him back on carprofen and started antibiotics and by day 2 the drainage stopped and he was acting like himself again. If you are treating the infection I would not worry so much about drainage however I wonder if you pup is in pain and that is causing the poor appetite. Is she hunched over at all or walking gingerly? Panting, seems restless or hard to get comfortable? My Dane serious took 19 days to finally get back to himself. The not eating still at this point is what concerns me. Is drinking normally? What if you offered her boiled chicken? I did have to add some canned food to Bears food the first few days to really make him interested. Have you tried canned?

Is the drainage like watered down blood? Almost like a serum with blood in it? Did yours have a seroma (pocket of fluid can be jiggly or hard).

 

[karennj]

By the way if the antibiotics don't stop the drainage in a few days I would be concerned. Drainage this long after surgery is not normal unless an infection has developed or there was a seroma and the fluid is just draining out (not that uncommon for large breed to develop seroma's after this surgery, you would see a lump somewhere under the belly).