Extreme Reaction to Anesthesia

[2bc4me]

My 2 yr old bc Bard was neutered last Wednesday morning.  He was cryptorchid and the surgery was extensive.  When I got him home, he was whimpering and stumbling around the house.  The vet had only sent me home with rymidol that I was to start the next morning as they had given him a shot for his pain.  After watching him cry for the next three hours, I called the vet and brought him back in to be looked at.  I was given tramadol  and gabapentin.   These, for the most part, seemed to help him.  At least they made him sleep.  All Thursday, in between the doses, in the time just before the next dosage time, he stood in a corner, looked into the corner and cried.   It was not until Friday near afternoon that he finally stopped the whimpering.  

I have not had his hips x-rayed yet and I am now concerned about ever having surgery on him again.  

Does anyone else have experience with this kind of reaction to the anesthesia?

[GentleLake]

Are you sure it was a reaction to anesthesia?

Or could it be that he has a low tolerance for pain and expresses it? Tramadol and gabapentin are pain meds and in themselves (AFAIK) have nothing to do with anesthesia reactions.

[urge to herd]

Tramadol is an opiod used to treat pain. Gabapentin is also a pain med, it's used for nerve pain quite a bit. Both of these drugs can make a dog sleepy.Neither of those have anything to do with sensitivity to anesthesia. Rimadyl is an anti-inflammatory. From your description he was probably in a fair amount of pain and the additional meds allowed him to rest peacefully, which is a good thing.

I'd be concerned more about only being given an anti-inflammatory and no pain meds initially than a sensitivity to anesthesia. Having had abdominal surgery myself, I can tell you there's no way an anti-inflammatory on it's own would have done anything at all for the pain of being cut open and then stitched back together..

Ruth & Gibbs

  

[2bc4me]

I am glad that that I insisted on better pain meds than just the rimadyl.  The stumbling around for a full day after the surgery really had me concerned.  The vet told me that some dogs do that.  

[urge to herd]

4 hours ago, 2bc4me said:

I am glad that that I insisted on better pain meds than just the rimadyl.  The stumbling around for a full day after the surgery really had me concerned.  The vet told me that some dogs do that.  

You definitely did the right thing by your boy. A warning: a lot of dogs will try to return to normal activity in a heartbeat. Be cautious with how much you let him do. Watch him and keep his activity level on the low side for a few days.

Ruth & Gibbs

[Journey]

Have you had him DNA tested for MDR1? It may not be just a reaction..

[GentleLake]

23 hours ago, 2bc4me said:

The stumbling around for a full day after the surgery really had me concerned.  The vet told me that some dogs do that.  

Some dogs -- and many cats -- do. But as has been suggested it might not be normal either. 40 years ago vets were just starting to realize that many border collies didn't do well with (I think; my memory isn't perfect) the standard barbiturate/acepromazine anesthesia commonly used. I nearly lost my first border collie to it and didn't thanks to a very cautious vet who didn't push full doses unless the dog didn't go or stay under. As it turned out he didn't receive the whole dose for his body weight and it still took him over 2 days to fully recover from the anesthesia. A note was put on his (and every dog on mine's since) chart to use sighthound protocol for anesthesia. I believe this is the gas anesthesia that most vets use routinely now and, I think, most vets are aware of the problems border collies can have with the other anesthesias. Still, it might be worth having a conversation about this with your vet.

I don't know if the barbiturate/acepromazine problem has any connection to the MDR1 issue. Another thing that might be worth further investigation.

[2bc4me]

I am going to get him tested for the MDR1 just to see if he has that.   I just never thought about that.  Bard’s litter mate was double cryptorchid and had no reaction like this.   Bard is very lean while his brother is more like a line backer.  I wonder if that made a difference, like his brother was able to better metabolize the drugs used.  I know I will be asking many more questions before the any further surgery!  

 

He is fine now and out of the cone of shame.  He really was pathetic wearing that.

 

[GentleLake]

On 12/1/2019 at 8:35 PM, 2bc4me said:

Bard is very lean while his brother is more like a line backer.  I wonder if that made a difference...

It may have. With the barbiturate/ace combo lack of body fat in sighthounds and many other dogs that had problems with it was believed to be the culprit. My dog who had problems was a very rangy adolescent when he had trouble coming out of it. IIRC, it's apparently stored in body fat and gets released slowly and w/out the body fat to absorb it it hits them like a ton of bricks and can potentially be fatal??? I don't claim perfect memory with this -- far from it; it was nearly 40 years ago -- so someone else may have a better explanation.