Hello dog lovers,

I have recently(Sept 13th) lost my beloved companion of thirteen years, Jeb. I want to share my recent surgery experience with anyone considering this surgery option.

On August 1 this year Jeb( 80 lbs.) was in for a checkup(he was grunting when he would lay down every time) and it was found that he had two large lumps in his abdominals. The vet at first suspected it was attached to his liver, and xrays were inconclusive. So during my panic of hearing that he would probably be put to sleep, wow I really lost it. My buddy can't go. This was Wed. and they could do the surgery on Friday. After spending the night discussing the options with Jeb's mom, and a wonderful vet I found online in Montana(we live in NC), I decided that an ultrasound would be better so we could be sure what it was we were going to fight for him.

On Friday the 3rd the ultrasound results showed a mass on the spleen and a mass on the kidney the size of a "volleyball". The referral was to the only vet in town that could handle the kidney removal. So we spent the weekend preparing for Jeb's possible surgery and getting in all of our favorite things to eat and do.

Monday the 6th we drop Jeb for the consult, and recieve a call that confirms everything and get the assurance of a successful surgery prognosis for, remember, a 13yr old dogs kidney and spleen removal!! Not one of the two vets explained or encouraged me to be thankful for 13 years and allow this to take its course without extremely invasive surgery). My feeling today is that the surgery was not necessary due to the fact that he was probably living with these lumps for quite some time, and Jeb was not a very active dog. I understand now that an active dog has more risk of rupture than my old, lazy dog that just takes gentle walks and had given up chasing squirrels 5 years ago.

So back to the surgery, he comes through wonderfully. All his vitals are strong and I get to visit three days later. Yeah!!! He has an 11 day hospital stay, and he's home. So the home therapy begins, sub-q fluids 2 times per day, special diet, bunches of pills, and lots of rest. We finish the medicine and fluids are cut back to every 3 days because the creatinine(spelling?). we even started very short walks a week before his passing. So on Wednesday Jeb is checked for his levels and they are fine. we get home at 6pm, I go out for dinner and he is stumbling and collapses outside. Oh my gosh!!! What is going on, he was in the trash, found throw up and suspected a pretty bad stomach ache. Well with in the hour he's at the emergency clinic with depressed blood pressure and dies in my arms at 130 am. It was suspected that he died from DIC, something to do with blood clotting and just not a good state. Probably an infection(the emergency Vet diagnosis) that happened after surgery and wasn't finished healing when the antibiotics prescribed were finished 20 days after surgery. I got 37 days(24 at home) for over $3000.00. I deeply feel Jeb could have lived for 6 more months with some less invasive procedures.

I guess I want to share this story in the hopes that someone might take some information from Jeb's and my experience.

I think the surgery was unnecessary after the fact. The clot on the spleen was benign, and the Kidney mass was a urine filled sack, not cancer. It could have been drained. The kidney had lost most of its functioning capabilities. I feel the removal of the spleen opened up the increased level of internal infection possibilities that would eventually kill my dog. I believe he had 2 more years of life in him, and definitely regret putting him through that. No one told me about the what the spleens function was(to protect the blood from infections), and the risk of having two major organs removed at the same time. It feels as though it was all about the money for the referred vet, not about what was best for Jeb, I hope she has fun spending my money.

I know that after 13 years we have had a great time together, so I wish I would have had a vet that could have lead me in the direction of not performing the surgery and maybe another option to continue his quality of life he had up until the surgery. I made a really big mistake, I am sorry Jeb and know that you forgive me.

I miss him, and I hope something said here will help someone with their decision someday. Thank you to all the dog lovers that helped me make sense of this.

Take care,

Steve and Jeb(9/13/07)

I am so sorry for your loss. As it happens i had to have my Joey pts the same day. Firstly let me say this-- we can only do as the vets advise us. You did ,what you thought at that time, was the right thing to do for Jeb. My Joey was 161/2 yrs old, he had a problem with a tube in his throat, heart murmur and cushings disease. 6 months ago he was diognosed with renal failure. They told me that i could change his diet to the special food they sold and did I want to. My answer was No, Joey was then 16 why should I start changing his food. Had he been a few years younger i may have done it but my opinion was, let him have what he wants, and i did and he lived another 6 months. Perhaps i did wrong in some peoples eyes but my Joey had the last 6 months having what he wanted and he was happy. He may have lived a bit longer on their food but would he have been happy. I was not prepared to take the chance. Sorry to drag on but what I am saying is When it comes to the nitty gritty some vets are in it more for the money than love. We never find that out normally until it is to late. We are in shock and do what we think is best. Jeb knew you loved him and he loved you. He may have been in pain had you not let him have the surgery, who knows?.We cannot change what happened but we can learn from it. regards ---Aggy

Hi futureplanit,

Thanks for your sharing, and it really helped me.

My dog, Odie, is a 13 yr-old Schnauzer. She had a fever of 40.7 four days ago, and had been hospitalized for 24 hours. The 24 hours emergency hospital suggested us to bring her to Canada West for ultrasound, which we did. She was acting very weak at frist and then she acted very normal in Canada West. We insisted not to have her hospitalized there since she was fine. However, we came back to have an ultrasound and she was found have a spleen nodule. The vet suggested to have the spleen removed.

Here it comes. Odie is 13 years old and she had been doing well till she had the fever. Right now she is acting very very normal and still fond of any kind of food. I really don't want to have a operation on her. She is older and she is always laid back. I have a friend who was a vet assistant and she told me she has seen many dogs die after surgery even they had carried the lump or cancel for a long time.

I respect what vet recommended me, but I don't think that is sooo required for her. Also, I am not super rich to spend tons of money, especially it way more expensive here. I have spend 2,500 CAD and the vet said the operation is about 4k~5k. How about afterwards?

I don't want Odie suffer for this, but...