News


2010-03-28
ANAESTHETIC AND YORKIES.............


The anaesthetic story below has caused quite a commotion - please understand, a normal sized yorkie should be at no risk, I would only be concerned if the yorkie is a small one, and then starving for a lengthy period of time is not adviseable............

A letter from Caren.....  anaesthetic???

----- Original Message -----
From: Caren
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:44 AM
Subject: ????

Hi Joyce
 
Ek is so stukkend - ek het 'n tydtjie terug vir jou fotos van my swanger tefie en reuntjie gestuur (Caren Upington) - wel my reuntjie is gister namiddag oorlede.
Hy was soos 'n kind, altyd sulke spesiale dinge gedoen.  Hy was net anders as my ander yorkies.  Verskriklik liefdevol en soos 'n regte baba.  Ook soos 'n mens
op sy ruggie geslaap.
 
Ek het hom gisteroggend na die veearts gevat om sy tandjies en ore skoon te maak. Hy het my verseker dat die narkose veilig is en niks sal gebeur nie en
dat hy ook al baie yorkies die spesifieke narkose gegee het.  Hulle het hom 10uur by my gevat - hy was baie bang en ek voel so skuldig, ek moes hom nie gelos
het nie maar hulle het my verseker dat hulle hom iets gaan gee om rustig te raak en dat hulle hom dan na 10 min gaan doen.  Ek het gery - my senuwee was op.  Ek het 12uur gebel en hulle het hom toe nog nie gedoen nie.  Dit was baie vreemd.  Ek het weer 13H30 gebel en hulle het verseker dat ou Pixie nog rustig was en dat hulle hom 14H00 gaan doen.  Ek was verskriklik onrustig en my 2ling het gese ons moet hom gaan haal.  Ai ek wens ek het dit gedoen.  Die veearts het my 15H00 gebel en gese dat Pixie nie meer lewe nie want sy hartjie het onder narkose gaan staan.  Ek was histeries -  ek het hom geskud en mooi gevra maar hy was weg.  Ek voel so leeg - my kinders is gedaan.  Een van die 2ling het in die nag vir my gevra ek moet net se dis 'n droom.  Ek weet nie hoe gaan hierdie seer ooit weggaan nie. Dink jy daar was dalk iets fout met hom?  Hy het sy koppie die laaste tyd so agteroor gegaai en dit het gelyk of hy so heen en weer in die lug ruik.  Ek het gedink sy oortjies is dalk fout want die veearts het gese dis normaal.  Ek het hom dat net gekrap.  Ek weet ook nie of die middel wat hulle hom gegee het om rustig te raak
nie dalk ook iets kon doen nie.  Dan wonder ek ook - hulle het gese hy mag nie eet en drink van 10uur die vorige aand nie - was dit nie dalk die probleem nie want hy was sonder kos en water tot 14H00.  Ek weet ook nie is dit wel die narkose, maar ander yorkies het ook al dieselfde narkose gekry en niks oorgekom nie.
 
Dit voel dis alles my skuld, ek moes hom nie gevat het nie en moes hom ook nie gelos het nie.  Dalk was dit omdat hy so lank daar moes wag - maar hulle het aanhoudend vir my gese hy is rustig en hy slaap.  Ek voel ek kannie meer nie - ek is stukkend.  Ek was verskriklik baie lief vir hom, hy was ons almal se liefling.
Die tefies mis hom ook verskriklik.  Ag dis verskriklik aaklig.  Ek weet net nie waar gaan ek krag kry om aan te gaan nie.
 
Mooi dag
Caren

IOur sympathies go to Caren and her family over the loss of PIXIE.  Anaesthetic is dangerous to everyone, even to humans.  There is always a risk attached when one goes under anaesthetic.

HOWEVER,this should not stop us from having our animals and our tiny Yorkies sterilized. A safe anaesthetic should be used, and a tiny yorkie should NOT be starved.  The dog  as in this case, its blood sugar level will drop and this alone, could cause death.  If your vet suggests starving from the previous night from 10 which is the norm, for most dogs and cats,. DO NOT ALLOW THIS. Please ensure your vet has the experience and knowledge to work with the smaller sized dogs. (I myself had a similar experience - it will appear further down on this page)

My own vet who has worked on my tinies for many years, will sedate the really small Yorkies when doing a dental – no anaesthetic is used.

Another vitally important thing to be aware of, DO NOT allow your small yorkie to have two anaesthetics in close proximity. This happened to someone I know. Their yorkie pup swallowed a foreign object, and underwent lengthy surgery to have it removed. A month later, the yorkie went in to be sterilized and died on the table.

The throwing back of the head could very well indicate a problem, especially if this is something that the dog has just started doing.  

 I have to agree I also find it most strange as to why the dog was not operated on as it was supposed to be, within ten minutes of being taken in to the clinic.  I think what may very well have happened, the dog had a problem with the anaesthetic and the vet was buying time to see if the dog recovered. 

In cases like this I would have an autopsy carried out, to find out exactly what the cause of death was, was it the anaesthetic or could there have been an under lying problem, that had not been diagnosed?

OUR thoughts are with you Caren and your family. Time is the only healer.....


My own experience with anaesthetic and Yorkies............

 

Seven years ago I answered an ad in the paper for a yorkie male and female for sale.  I was interested in purchasing the male, but the female had to be sold with him.  He arrived from Bloemfontein, and was VERY underweight. Terrible teeth and the dog was 18 months old. When I say terrible teeth, needed scaling badly, but he was major underweight.  So we did what we could to get those teeth clean, but I realised there was nothing I could do he would have to have a dental. I did everything to sort out his weight. Fed him special additional food, but the weight only improved slightly.  I mated him with three girls shortly thereafter all in close proximity to each other.  As a result, we had three litters born, and some exceptional Yorkies were in those litters.  They are now 6 years old, the one’s I kept back, all of them are pretty small Yorkies. The father, was not particularly small, sold to me as a 1.2kg dog, when in actual fact he should have weighed around 2kg easily. He did give me these stunning babies however.  IT was not that long after he sired these litters, that I felt he needed his teeth seen to, I could not leave it any longer, no matter what I tried he just never gained weight, otherwise he was a very healthy little chap.

I booked him in for the dental, and then got a call from the receptionist at the vet to tell me my vet was on leave a locum would do the procedure. I cancelled immediately.  The locum then got the receptionist to call me, and she came on the phone – why did I cancel???? BECAUSE my own vet was not going to be doing the dental. She had done hundreds what was my problem? Bring the dog in the following day.

Against my better judgment I took the dog in.  He lost a lot of his teeth and the remainder were cleaned up. He was still a three year old dog, pretty young. I never dreamt for one moment, he would never be the same again.  I fetched him that afternoon, he did not seem normal. I thought nothing of it, and offered him some food, he refused to eat. I put that down to painful jaw and offered him pain killer in a tiny bit of mincemeat. He refused that. I then mixed the pill with a little water and syringed  it into his mouth.  The following day, he still refused to eat, I thought nothing of it, and the vet  Locum concerned told me to bring him back. I took him back she could find nothing wrong.  He continued and refused food completely.  I wanted to know what had happened – had he died on the table and was revived???? She avoided the answer to that question and then said he possibly had a liver shunt which had been undetected and with having anaesthetic it had now come to light.????????? Well I was not falling for that. The dog did not have liver shunt.  I had no option but to force feed, and that resulted in a messy situation, so I resorted to tube feeding him.  He was tube fed two to three times a day, his weight never fluctuated it remained the same as it was prior to all this. I felt this was not acceptable, this dog being tube fed for days on end.  I always thought one day he will eat again.  He never ever ate again.  I kept discussing this with my own vet. Three months down the line, I took him into my own vet and explained that the only nutrition he took was what was put into him via a tube. He said and I had to agree that, that was no way for any dog to survive. I felt eventually the tube may cause damage to his insides.   We tried everything possible to make this dog take the first bite of anything.

My vet eventually said to me I would have to make a decision what was best for the dog, he could not continue to be fed for months on end via a tube.  The decision was taken out of my hands, when one very cold winter morning, we awoke to find our little chap, dead on our bed, he had passed away in his sleep.

MY personal opinion on this situation, whether it be correct or not, the dog died on the table, the dog was revived, and the dog suffered brain damage, that part of the brain which motivated him to eat, had been damaged. It is the only logical explanation.  I fed this Yorkie for four months with a tube, the only feeding he had in that time.  If anyone out there has had a similar experience, or can offer an explanation as to what this was or what could have caused this, please mail me.