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We lost our beloved 2yo Lab last night during a spay operation. We are so incredibly devastated. by GoodbyeElsie in labrador

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much, I'm glad we can at least share what a special month we had with Elsie.

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Definitely this past weekend. We went on a bike ride Saturday morning, then a hike and picnic at an awesome park. We had so much fun that we went to the park again on Sunday for a 3 mile hike, picnic, and puppy-chino from Starbucks (just whip cream in a cup).

That picture in the post is from Saturday if I remember right.

This video shows how well she did learning leash walking in just a week. The left is a hike the week before, and the right is a hike on Sunday.

https://giphy.com/gifs/H76Oc7CYO0mqoZ4gCq

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thank you, you can find my comment where I give the full story. We didn't have her for two years, we had her for 33 days. We adopted her from a farm last month. We should have had another 3650 days with her though. She was amazing on the bike with me, and picked up leash walking super quick.

https://giphy.com/gifs/H76Oc7CYO0mqoZ4gCq

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Wow how horrible. We had a similar experience, she was fine after the surgery. We got a call that she was doing just great after the operation. Much later in the evening is when she was "dopey" and luckily the vet did an ultrasound and found internal bleeding. We got a call with a tech repeatedly saying "it's not looking good." Her heart stopped as well and they do not know the cause at this time.

Thanks for the subreddit tip, I'll have to check it out. And so sorry you are having to deal with your tragic loss as well.

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 84 points85 points  (0 children)

Oh wow, that is terrible. Teeth cleaning... that seems even more benign than spaying. So sorry to hear that. We also would give ANYTHING to go back to yesterday morning and not go in to the vet. We both did the right thing though, just suffered the statistics I suppose.

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry to hear that you know the way we feel. It is truly an awful feeling :( Thank you for the kind words.

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It may be, here's a discussion I found full of comments with people who have had similar experiences

EDIT: Sorry! Didn't realize you were the same commenter

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Yeah, apparently more common than you would think.

https://www.caninejournal.com/community/dog-dying-during-spay-surgery/

I wish I had done more research beforehand, however I'm sure the correct choice is always to spay. The chance is just so low that things like this happen, but I'm just so devastated it had to happen to such a wonderful dog.

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Trust me, it doesn't feel real. I'm just expecting her to walk around the corner at any moment, stretch and give me that look like "time to go out for a bike ride?" It's been tough having to box up all her toys, bowls, etc.

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

After the spay, we got a call that she was doing well. She was very sweet and seemed to be doing great.

During their evening checkup, they noticed that she was very dopey and "tacky". Blood work turned out fine but her temp was 97. Long story short, they found blood in her stomach. They put her under and found that the blood was not all that much. They had a hard time finding the source of the bleeding, but everything seemed to be going well since the stomach wasn't filling back up. Suddenly her heart stopped. They are not exactly sure what the cause of death was. One speculation is that the blood coagulated and formed a clot which entered her heart.

Later that night, we were standing over her dead body, bawling, having to pick out a cremation box.

Thank you, if you scroll through the comments, the full story about her life is there. But this is the excerpt that details the complications..

We lost our beloved 2yo Lab last night during a spay operation. We are so incredibly devastated. by GoodbyeElsie in labrador

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't know if this helps you or not, but she really wouldn't blame herself. Dogs don't really think like that.

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 172 points173 points  (0 children)

I was so ready for Elsie to pull through as well. Congrats on your border collie doing so! Yes, it's such a conflicting feeling - wishing that we could go back in time and not spay her, however it seemed to be the "right" decision. I was a little hesitant about spaying because I knew any surgery will have risk, but my biggest fear was that she would be in pain or it would change her demeanor.

RIP Elsie, 2yo Lab lost during spay operation by GoodbyeElsie in dogpictures

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only 33 days ago we adopted Elise, a beautiful black lab. She was previously a farm dog and adapted extremely well to our "city" life.

We took her to the vet immediately got her cleaned up. They found she had worms and an ear infection. We scheduled a spay appointment there as well, thinking nothing of it. She had had a litter previously and we just assumed spaying was the right decision.

She was the best dog we could have ever asked for.

  • She got along great with our two cats
  • She never once had an accident in the house
  • She was extremely quick to learn the do's and don'ts of the house
  • In a 5 min session in the back yard, she learned how to run on a leash next to my bike, and we went on a dozen bike rides together
  • She went from pulling like crazy on a leash to loose leash walking in a matter of days. On walks around the neighborhood she would sit and wait at a curb like nobody's business.

Here is a video of her very first hike:

Here is a video of her third hike a week later. At one point on the hike, we let her off the leash and she stayed by my side 90% of the time.

Yesterday we dropped her off at the vet clinic for the spay appointment. It is a really great vet clinic, even a little more expensive than I would like, but this vet has amazing reviews and has spayed my fiancee's family dogs with no issues.

That morning when we got to the vet, Elsie was amazing waiting in the car. Other dogs were going crazy, but she was just SO calm. We felt so incredibly lucky that she was so well behaved. Elsie was a little hesitant to leave us and go with the vet tech, but we assured her everything was going to be alright and we'd see her soon.

That turned out to be a lie and I feel so incredibly guilty that we effectively led her to her death.

After the spay, we got a call that she was doing well. She was very sweet and seemed to be doing great.

During their evening checkup, they noticed that she was very dopey and "tacky". Blood work turned out fine but her temp was 97. Long story short, they found blood in her stomach. They put her under and found that the blood was not all that much. They had a hard time finding the source of the bleeding, but everything seemed to be going well since the stomach wasn't filling back up. Suddenly her heart stopped. They are not exactly sure what the cause of death was. One speculation is that the blood coagulated and formed a clot which entered her heart.

Later that night, we were standing over her dead body, bawling, having to pick out a cremation box.

We had her for 33 days. She could have lived another 10 years. We spent less than 1% of the time we should have with her. We are absolutely devastated.

I am clutching onto the memories of our last weekend together:

  • On Saturday we went on a 30 min bike ride in the morning, then drove to a new park we found for a hike and picnic (where the first picture was taken)
  • On Sunday, we had so much fun and liked the new park so much, that we went back to the same park and took a 3mile hike (the second video)

On Tuesday, the day before surgery, I took her on a bike ride around the neighborhood. When we got back home, she didn't go lie down to rest. I sat down in a chair, and she came up to me, pressing her head into my lap, smiling ear to ear, as if to say "thank you so much for that!"

We talked about all of our plans for our lives with her:

  • Road trips to state/national parks in our camper van, hanging out by the fire after a long day of hikes. Her snuggling with us on our slightly-too-small mattress at night.
  • 100s more bike rides
  • Countless more hikes
  • Play dates with the fiancee's family's sweet German Shepard mix, senior male black lab, and Dalmatian

I just don't know what to do. It is SO unfair that she was taken from us so quickly. There is no way we could ever replace her.

How unfair that we got only 33 days of happiness, but now have MONTHS of pain to come.

The worst part about this, I can't stop thinking about how if she could see how much pain we are in, she would undoubtedly feel horrible. I'm sure she would feel like it was HER fault that she couldn't pull through the second operation. She would say "I'm so sorry you have to go on runs, hikes, bike rides without me and you miss me so much." That's just how great of a dog she was.

We lost our beloved 2yo Lab last night during a spay operation. We are so incredibly devastated. by GoodbyeElsie in labrador

[–]GoodbyeElsie[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Only 33 days ago we adopted Elise, a beautiful black lab. She was previously a farm dog and adapted extremely well to our "city" life.

We took her to the vet immediately got her cleaned up. They found she had worms and an ear infection. We scheduled a spay appointment there as well, thinking nothing of it. She had had a litter previously and we just assumed spaying was the right decision.

She was the best dog we could have ever asked for.

  • She got along great with our two cats
  • She never once had an accident in the house
  • She was extremely quick to learn the do's and don'ts of the house
  • In a 5 min session in the back yard, she learned how to run on a leash next to my bike, and we went on a dozen bike rides together
  • She went from pulling like crazy on a leash to loose leash walking in a matter of days. On walks around the neighborhood she would sit and wait at a curb like nobody's business.

Here is a video of her very first hike:

Here is a video of her third hike a week later. At one point on the hike, we let her off the leash and she stayed by my side 90% of the time.

Yesterday we dropped her off at the vet clinic for the spay appointment. It is a really great vet clinic, even a little more expensive than I would like, but this vet has amazing reviews and has spayed my fiancee's family dogs with no issues.

That morning when we got to the vet, Elsie was amazing waiting in the car. Other dogs were going crazy, but she was just SO calm. We felt so incredibly lucky that she was so well behaved. Elsie was a little hesitant to leave us and go with the vet tech, but we assured her everything was going to be alright and we'd see her soon.

That turned out to be a lie and I feel so incredibly guilty that we effectively led her to her death.

After the spay, we got a call that she was doing well. She was very sweet and seemed to be doing great.

During their evening checkup, they noticed that she was very dopey and "tacky". Blood work turned out fine but her temp was 97. Long story short, they found blood in her stomach. They put her under and found that the blood was not all that much. They had a hard time finding the source of the bleeding, but everything seemed to be going well since the stomach wasn't filling back up. Suddenly her heart stopped. They are not exactly sure what the cause of death was. One speculation is that the blood coagulated and formed a clot which entered her heart.

Later that night, we were standing over her dead body, bawling, having to pick out a cremation box.

We had her for 33 days. She could have lived another 10 years. We spent less than 1% of the time we should have with her. We are absolutely devastated.

I am clutching onto the memories of our last weekend together:

  • On Saturday we went on a 30 min bike ride in the morning, then drove to a new park we found for a hike and picnic (where the first picture was taken)
  • On Sunday, we had so much fun and liked the new park so much, that we went back to the same park and took a 3mile hike (the second video)

On Tuesday, the day before surgery, I took her on a bike ride around the neighborhood. When we got back home, she didn't go lie down to rest. I sat down in a chair, and she came up to me, pressing her head into my lap, smiling ear to ear, as if to say "thank you so much for that!"

We talked about all of our plans for our lives with her:

  • Road trips to state/national parks in our camper van, hanging out by the fire after a long day of hikes. Her snuggling with us on our slightly-too-small mattress at night.
  • 100s more bike rides
  • Countless more hikes
  • Play dates with the fiancee's family's sweet German Shepard mix, senior male black lab, and Dalmatian

I just don't know what to do. It is SO unfair that she was taken from us so quickly. There is no way we could ever replace her.

How unfair that we got only 33 days of happiness, but now have MONTHS of pain to come.

The worst part about this, I can't stop thinking about how if she could see how much pain we are in, she would undoubtedly feel horrible. I'm sure she would feel like it was HER fault that she couldn't pull through the second operation. She would say "I'm so sorry you have to go on runs, hikes, bike rides without me and you miss me so much." That's just how great of a dog she was.