Hi, I had my 6 years old male dog neutered on Thursday (2 days ago). I just noticed now that he has some serious looking bleeding under his skin below the incision. My vet is unavailable at the moment and they told me this can be normal, but there was no blood under the skin right after the surgery at all and this looks horrific. He also has a small amount of continuous blood spotting. Please tell me is this normal or should we rush to emergency hospital with him? It's 2 am here.
-
Ouch, that looks very uncomfortable for Leo. He could be having an abnormal reaction to the sutures that were used, he may have been able to lick at this site and cause irritation, or he could have a blood clotting disorder. If there is blood actually dripping from the incision or this happened very suddenly (last hour) then you need to go to the emergency clinic right away. If blood is not dripping, you can probably wait until tomorrow to be seen at your regular veterinarian. It definitely wouldn't be wrong to go right away tonight to have Leo checked out and possibly started on antibiotics in addition to the pain medications he should still be on after surgery and that would be the safest way to make sure Leo is ok, but it's probably not going to become life threatening overnight (especially if it's gradually been getting worse over the last 2 days up to this point).
If you don't go to the emergency clinic tonight, make sure he cannot lick the area by having him wear a cone collar, do not give him any human medications because they are toxic to dogs, and continue with any medications that were already prescribed at the time of surgery. You could try to gently wash the area with lukewarm water, rinse, and pat dry, however this is probably a very uncomfortable so exercise great caution or just leave it alone if it's too upsetting to Leo to try to clean it.
I hope Leo is feeling better soon. Good luck!
1 people found this answer helpful
You marked this answer as helpful, we appreciate your feedback
You marked this answer as not helpful, we appreciate your feedback