Swiss Lick Swissies

GDV occurs when a dogs’ stomach becomes twisted inside the abdomen, blocking the flow of food and blood to the stomach. Dogs with untreated torsion will die in just a few hours. GDV is the number one cause of death for larger breed dogs. From what I have read, researchers have not found a specific cause or genetic factor that would cause one dog to bloat and not another. Gastropexy is a surgical procedure that tacks the outer lining of the stomach to the abdomen wall. After fully healing the strong bond prevents the stomach from twisting.

While doing my research I have come to believe that this procedure is not 100% effective, a dog can bloat bad enough to break the bond between the stomach and abdomen. However, we decided that since both the gastropexy and spay can be performed at the same time, we would do both.

We take Vasey to Dr. Holly Hayna at the Village Veterinary Practice in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. During our annual check up Dr. Hayna discussed our options for the two procedures. Dr. Hayna said they could do both, but would recommend us to talk to Dr. Lisa Mikol-Doering at Westgate Veterinary Center in Bartlett, Illinois. Dr. Hayna said that although it is a little further away Dr. Mikol-Doering is one of the few vets that are licensed to do Laparoscopic Spaying and Gastropexy. A laparoscopic surgery is designed to be gentler and provides a shorter recovery time than the more conventional spay. The procedure uses a combination of a small incision and special instrumentation to reduce the trauma to the internal organs and reduce the post-operative pain and swelling.

After talking with both doctors we decided to give the Laparoscopic surgery a try since the cost was virtually the same. The Laparoscopic surgery was about $500 for each procedure. We were told that we would need to keep her activity to an absolute minimum for 10 days after the surgery until the stitches came out. After 10 days the spay was completely healed, but the gastropexy would take another 2 -3 weeks to heal and we would still need to keep her activity limited.

The two outpatient procedures went very well. She looked so pathetic coming out of the back area all shaved and her cone on her head. I read a t-shirt once that said “All is fun and games until someone ends up in a cone,” I now understand that completely. Vasey had two sets of stitches both about the size of a dime. This is one of the other differences between laparoscopic and traditional surgeries, Dr. Hayna told us that it would be one cut for the two procedures with the traditional surgery and Vasey would have had about a 6 of 7 inch incision that would take longer to heal and have a greater chance for problems or infection.

The first few days were very easy as the medication made her very sleepy. Vasey was very good about leaving her stitches alone so everything healed nicely. In fact, her stitches for the spay healed to well that the skin started to grow around them. When they were removed, the skin was cut open slightly so we needed to put some Neosporin for a few days. After she was done with her medicine and was feeling back to herself, (about 5 days after the surgery) we had a hard time keeping her from running around the house and jumping on and off the furniture trying to get rid of her energy. This did not cause too much of a problem.

She did get a little swelling due to inflammation where the stitches were starting to dissolve in her abdomen. This took about three weeks to finally completely disappear. Dr. Mikol-Doering said that this would probably happen and we should only be concerned if it felt like there was fluid in it or it was irritating Vasey. After that was done all that was left was growing back her coat. As of September, the fur was almost back. In the daylight you can still see a small difference where they shaved her.

I would recommend the laparoscopic surgery to any one that has decided to do the Gastropexy. Dr. Mikol-Doering was a very nice young vet with a modern practice and a very helpful and pleasant staff. My only complaint was that she did not see Vasey when we came in to get the stitches out. The two procedures were not cheap and I thought she should have at least stuck her head in the door to make sure everything was going well. She did, however, call the day after the surgery to make sure everything was going well at home.

The only thing I would change was the day we choose for the surgery. We had a choice between Tuesday and Thursday. We chose Thursday but Tuesday would have been a better choice. That way the stitches could have come out on Friday and Vasey would have only had one weekend of VERY limited activity.

I would also like to say that Dr. Hayna was very nice to offer this option to us. If surgeries go well they can be good money makers for the business. The fact that she would refer us to another practice shows that she truly wants what is best for your pet. She was also nice enough to call us a couple of time to see how everything was going. I would recommend Village Veterinary Practice in Clarendon Hills, IL to anyone in the area.