Cost Of Pyometra Operation In Thailand?

[blakegeee]

Sorry for the double-post but it just occurred to me that I wouldn't likely get many replies in the stupid place I posted this before.

It looks like my Shit Zhu may have Pyometra but they can't say 100% for sure until they cut her open. I am ready to have her spayed anyways, so the timing isn't so bad I guess really.

I was quoted 1200b for a regular spaying, 1700b for special suture. I guess a more beautiful scar???

And if she does have pyometra, than the cost would be roughly 4500-5000b. The list price was 3500-8500 but they gave me a more specific price based on her breed/size. Can anybody, tell me what this type of surgery usually costs in Thailand? I read that its slightly more complicated that a regular spaying, but the price is multiples higher! Does this sound about right or should I look for a new vet?

BTW; the vet told me that they need to do xrays and blood tests to determine if she likely has it. I said that I wanted her spayed anyways so no need. They insisted on blood tests to make sure her liver and kidneys were good enough to go into surgery. They told my wife that her liver/kidneys are fine, but didn't tell about the white cell count indicating the likelihood of her having it. Now reading more about the disease online, I'd say she very likely has it and I need to get this sorted out right away. Her old owner gave her those birth control needles at least once when she was young which could have caused it. So what are the typical costs of this operation in Thailand?

Thanks for any info!

[binnsy]

My dog had this infection and the cost of the op plus the pills afterwards was 2600.

[blakegeee]

My dog had this infection and the cost of the op plus the pills afterwards was 2600.

Thank you very much for the info. Good news for me! What kind/size dog do you have? Surely it couldn't be so much smaller than my shitzhu. By any chance, was the operation done in Chiang Mai? If so, please recommend the vet for me! Most importantly, were you happy with the work and service?

[binnsy]

My dog had this infection and the cost of the op plus the pills afterwards was 2600.

Thank you very much for the info. Good news for me! What kind/size dog do you have? Surely it couldn't be so much smaller than my shitzhu. By any chance, was the operation done in Chiang Mai? If so, please recommend the vet for me! Most importantly, were you happy with the work and service?

My dog is a Rottwiller she is 16 months old still had some discharge when i took her back to have the stitches out but it cleared up when she finished the tablets.The operation was done in Buriram on 2nd of Feb this year.

[blakegeee]

My dog had this infection and the cost of the op plus the pills afterwards was 2600.

Thank you very much for the info. Good news for me! What kind/size dog do you have? Surely it couldn't be so much smaller than my shitzhu. By any chance, was the operation done in Chiang Mai? If so, please recommend the vet for me! Most importantly, were you happy with the work and service?

My dog is a Rottwiller she is 16 months old still had some discharge when i took her back to have the stitches out but it cleared up when she finished the tablets.The operation was done in Buriram on 2nd of Feb this year.

Thanks again! So I can't see why it should cost any more than that especially with her being a much smaller dog since apparently that affects the price. So can anybody else recommend a vet with a descent price in CM for this operation. It was Dr. Nook that gave me this apparently expensive quote. I have been happy with the service till now but I am not willing to pay roughly double the going rate for it.

[bina]

not all pyometras are the same... some are easy to take out, some are about ready to explode and a little more complicated and some have leaked in which case much much more care is needed. the size relavance is, at least here, due to the amount of anasthesia needed and /or breed difficulties (scrunchy faced breeds etc).... blood work is neccesary for the anasthesia (liver/kidney function) and if pyrometra, the course of antibiotics needed after the hysterectomy as its not a regular 'tie the tubes' spay, nor an overectomy.

dont wait too long to decide... the infection keeps developing and the womb (both sides of it) start to look like sausages and will eventually, like appendix, open.

bina

israel

[Nienke]

From several people now I've heard that Dr. Nook has become rather expensive compared to other vets.

For example, spaying a medium sized dog for around 3,500 baht at Dr. Nook's and around 1000 baht at Ban Mha ka Meaw.

Or the Nano spray: 280B at Dr. Nook's and 190B at BMkM.

Also, and I may be mistaken here, when there is case of pyometra the dog should first receive a course of ab's to get the infection down, and then the vet can spay. But, please, vets and vet tech's correct me if I'm wrong here.

I would double check at Ban Mha ka Meaw: 053 204 215

[bina]

nienke, here most vet dont wait and just give antobiotics since many dont work on a closed womb... the immediate response is full hysterectomy with antibiotics to cover septiciemia which is what happens when the infection bursts out in to the abdomen. i did a zillion hysterectomies on pyometras in the one year of vet assistant: several where found while going to perform a regular hysterectomy spay... two were on bitches that were already septic-- both pulled through with iv antibiotics and three weeks of icu expensive care... i actually had pics somehwere of the sausage size womb we took out of one bitch... unbelievable. pyometra is fairly common and we did have one bitch come in after second bout with pyrometra (the first time was indeed antibiotic treated because the owner wanted to breed her so tried this method at the risk of having her die. she got it again, and almost died, so got the full spay...

that's in israel. not sure about other countries although each of the four of my vets were russian/russian/american/french trained... they all handled the pyometras the same way although disagreed on almost every other type of medical treatments in the office

its always my one fear in not spaying lilee yet...

bina

[blakegeee]

Thank you very much for your information everybody! Its much appreciated as this needs to be done right away. My wife just called Baan Mah Ka Meaw at Chiang Mai Land (as recommended above, TY) and it will be about 1500-2000b for a shitzhu. Again, Dr. Nook quoted roughly 4500-5000 plus there will likely be other incidentals as we learned with getting a really sweet soi cat done there. Anyways, we are going there right now. I will come back to let people know how it went for future reference.

[Nienke]

Thanks, Bina, for the explanation.

1,500 - 2,000 baht at BMkM? Did they go up in price as well or is that including bloodwork?

Anyway, recently went with an almost 50 kilo Fila Brasiliero male and the price was about 900 baht. Just FYI.

Hope your Shih Tzu will do fine. Have currently a Shih Tzu in boarding and training and she is such an adorable little creature. Loves her Beagle buddies.

Edited March 3, 2010 by Nienke

[blakegeee]

We just got back from the BMkM and good luck, no Pyometra. This was determined just from the blood test. Her white blood cell count is totally normal although her red blood cell count is at the lowest point of the normal scale which is 38. Apparently 37 is the top of the "low" range. I guess it was just a coincidence of Pyometra symptoms all at one time. Or maybe the lazy little thing was faking it so I wouldn't make her exercise as much.

Nienke, 900b was for the Pyometra or just a sterilization? They said the sterilization would be around 1000b. The blood work was 350b at both Nook and BMkM but this clinic could not believe that Nook quoted me 4500-5000b and that larger dogs cost up to 8500b at Dr. Nooks.

In any case, I am glad that she doesn't have Pyometra but we will get her sterilized anyways. But first, we now have to work out why her red blood cell count was low. They said it could be from a Tick. I am going to stop by Dr. Nooks for the last time just to pick up the results to check what the red blood cell count was a few days prior when I was there.

[Nienke]

Nienke, 900b was for the Pyometra or just a sterilization?

It was an almost 50 kilo Fila Brasiliero male. And neutering is always less than spaying.

1,000 baht for spaying a small dog is about what I've heard.

If your dog have had ticks, even only 1 despite tick prevention such as Frontline, it is always advisable to have SNAP test done.

I'm very glad that your dog didn't had pyometra.

Don't understand why Dr. Nook has become so outrageous with her prices and finding diseases where there aren't any. She used to be quite good.

[blakegeee]

Nienke, 900b was for the Pyometra or just a sterilization?

It was an almost 50 kilo Fila Brasiliero male. And neutering is always less than spaying.

1,000 baht for spaying a small dog is about what I've heard.

If your dog have had ticks, even only 1 despite tick prevention such as Frontline, it is always advisable to have SNAP test done.

I'm very glad that your dog didn't had pyometra.

Don't understand why Dr. Nook has become so outrageous with her prices and finding diseases where there aren't any. She used to be quite good.

In all fairness, Dr. Nook did not say that my dog definitely had Pyometra. She said that it was a possibility and took a blood test and gave me the (very high) prices. She called my wife later with the results but didn't say anything about the white blood cell count so not sure what that indicated yet. She only said that her liver and kidneys were fine and should come in for the operation soon. Which operation, I don't know. I later researched it online and found that she has many of the symptoms, even things that Nook didn't associate with Pyometra like vomiting. Nook thought that she had a cold which caused her to cough and then vomit. Also, she looks more fat or swollen than before which is also a symptom I found online, but maybe she's just getting fat!. She has also been drinking and peeing a bit more than usual and had a fluid leak out 2 times while she was lying down. In the last few days she has been fine though.

As far as ticks, we have pulled them off of her at least twice if not 3 times in the last 6-8 months. We were using frontline as directed (applied after a few days of no shower, then no shower for a few days after application) when we found one or 2 of them, and we also found fleas on occasion. The last few months, we haven't bothered with frontline as it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I give her a thorough flea bath and let the suds soak in for at least 10 minute about twice a month and she gets a shampoo and cut at least once a month too. So I figure that we keep the fleas and ticks in control that way so hopefully they can't get too far.

[blakegeee]

Ok, another update and further question. As I mentioned before, her white blood cell count was fine indicating that she does not have Pyometra. The test indicated that her red blood cells were a bit low though as detailed above. To double-check this, I have gone to Dr.Nook to get the detailed results from the initial blood test that we did nearly a week earlier. On that test, it showed her red blood cells to be 43 which is totally normal.

So overall, what do these different results indicate? Is it possible she could have got a serious blood infection in the few days between tests to already bring her red blood cell count down so quickly? Or is it likely that one of these test were off? Not really sure where to go from here.

[Nienke]

Have you had her tested for E. canis and Anaplasmosis (tick diseases) by means of a SNAP test?

I can imagine that Dr. Nook didn't see the need to do that as her blood results were normal, from what I understand from your posts.

But now, I certainly would have it checked now.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Nienke

[blakegeee]

Ok, I guess that is the next step than. The second vet with the blood test with low red blood count recommended that we do a snap test. I just figured I'd check Dr. Nook's results first since I had also paid for that blood test. But I guess it just complicated and confused things anyways. I guess the only way to figure out what's going on would be the snap test. So any idea why the two results could be different?

[Nienke]

No no no, it's good you went for the test results at Dr. Nook. When testing for the tick disease the vet usually does a blood and snap test. The blood tests are important to understand how the RBC, WBC and platelets develop and how kidney and liver are.

Why the two results differ you can better ask the (a) vet. I think tick disease, because that is so endemic here, I suppose there can be several other reasons and blood results can fluctuate as far as I've understood.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Nienke

[bina]

nienke, correct; the disease has active and dormant style phases-- to bad one of the vets here cant explain better, but there are phases to the tick fever so that could be the difference.

a shame, i forgot to ask my vet today; had foofoo in for getting an eye out and his balls off (one injured because of the other two- he was thinking with his little head, and got zonked by someone /something so has lost an eye)... anyway, operation was a quick one, and succesful except for a rather large heamatoma and enlarged scrotum (minus 'balls') and some trauma bruising which the doc thought was bit wierd. so he advised waiting for recovery and then doing blood test for tick fever (here the snap is imported and expensive so most vets do blood work/symptomatic only), if he is showing for that or the other tick disease, will treat allt hree dogs ... and going to use only collar not drops this year, and both furry ones clipped down...

OT but apropo...

btw, foofoo adjusting nicely to being one eyed... rather amazing really... tough little guy..

bina

israel

[Nienke]

I'm sorry about Foofoo. Although not nice of course, he will be able live a pretty normal life with one eye.

One of my pugs has also one eye and is even blind on that one. It's amazing to see how she finds her way in the house and garden in between all the obstacles. You can clearly see how she uses her nose and ears when moving around.

And when pissed off with my other female pug she knows exactly where to find her.