My puppy's spay: catheter piece stuck in her shoulder, advice?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Unfortunately, there is nothing that you can do at home to retrieve this. This is something that will require at least heavy sedation to be able to access that and retrieve it. This will be challenging and advised to be done by a veterinarian. I recommend that you have her evaluated as soon as possible to get this corrected. Good luck and have a good night!

This is a pustule probably from a buried suture knot. The suture is absorbable but it takes several months to dissolve and sometimes the knot can cause irritation and a small infected pustule. I recommend taking Patti to your veterinarian and they can feel if there is suture left in the incision. It can be removed now that the incision is healed. Generally when the pustule is opened the knot is exposed and can be cut off and removed with suture scissors. Then the skin will be cleaned and it should heal up quickly once the knot is gone. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Patti Mayonnaise.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your puppy. I am sorry to hear of her recent experience. Injections prior to surgery can be given under the skin, in the muscle or directly into the vein. So the location of her injection is not as worrisome as the bleeding afterwards. I am glad the her clotting times were ok. She should have a CBC checked as well and potentially be screened for a disorder known as Von Willebrand disease. If these tests are all normal, then you can proceed with her spay. As far as being groggy, different drug doses may be recommended prior to her next procedure. Some dogs are more sensitive to others to drugs and that cannot be predicted ahead of time. A note in her file can be made though. I hope this information helps! I do not suspect she will have any longterm damage from the incident.

It does look like there could be some irritation and possibly infection here based on the discharge I am seeing. There appears to be mild inflammation of the area. I would recommend putting an e-collar (the cone shaped collar) on Piper and calling her vet in the morning. The vet may need to prescribe antibiotics, give you an e-collar if you don't already have one, and may be able to prescribe a sedative if you are having trouble keeping Piper calm. In the meantime, confine her to a small room or kennel if you have one available. Best of luck to you and Piper!

Given that Mocha was spayed in February and it's now April, her internal incision will be long healed by now. The internal sutures are dissolvable, but sometimes they don't dissolve properly. You likely didn't do any damage at all by tugging on it, and Mocha will be ok to wait until she sees the vet tomorrow. I would not tug on it anymore tonight, and tomorrow the vet can safely remove it. Good on you for reaching out for help when you were concerned, and I hope this was helpful to you :-)

Keeping puppies "quiet" after surgery is certainly not an easy undertaking! The good news is that I think her incision is healing beautifully. There is very mild inflammation right around the incision, but the incision appears to be closed and does not appear to have any discharge. Continue doing your best to keep her as quiet as possible for the next week, but I know it's not possible to turn a 5 month old GSP puppy into a couch potato! If she's really out of control, you can ask your vet about prescribing mild sedative medications (like trazodone) to help her to stay a bit more mellow while healing. Keeping an e-collar (cone) on her is the best thing you can do to promote healing, as this prevents her from licking at the incision at all. Hope that everything continues to go well!

This looks like a reaction to the stitches that were used under the skin from the spay surgery. There is a type of suture that your vet may have used that takes months and months to completely dissolve. That is my best guess as to what is going on. I don't think you need to rush her to an ER but I do think you need to get her an exam with your vet sometime in the next 24 hours. Try to keep her as calm and quiet as possible in the meantime. Watch it carefully, if it starts to look swollen she needs to see an ER vet.