Support Teddy's Urgent Surgery and Recovery

Teddy had not been acting right for a couple of weeks, so I made him a vet appointment. After some testing and scans, we were told on April 2, 2025, that he needed surgery due to a blockage in his urethra. The veterinarian did the surgery on Thursday, April 3rd. That afternoon, he contacted me and said the surgery had gone as expected, but there were no stones in the urethra. He x-rayed Teddy, and the stones still appeared on the scans, but instead of contacting us to make the choice, the vet opened Teddy's bladder. On Friday morning, the vet called, said he would pull his catheter and make sure he was watertight, then he could come home. At 3 pm, the vet called and said Teddy hadn't peed and was going to push fluids. About 40 minutes later, he called back and said Teddy had peed and that we could come get him.

Teddy could hardly walk, but we thought it was due to the surgery, and Teddy fell trying to walk to us. When the vet picked him up, there was blood and urine. He said this is what we would expect. We brought Teddy home, and he was leaking the red fluid, but we could not tell if he was urinating or not.

The next morning, we could not tell if Teddy was peeing or not because of the fluid leaking. I had Chris call the vet and was told it was normal. Throughout the morning, Teddy got worse. His breathing was sharp, and he was shaking from pain. He was vomiting and couldn't use his back legs. I took a video, emailed the vet, and called immediately. The receptionist told me Teddy was having a seizure and put me on hold. I ran outside to get Chris so we could rush Teddy to the vet while on hold. We came inside, and the receptionist said the vet did not believe it was a seizure, but they would see him if I wanted to bring him in.

We grabbed Teddy and started towards the vet. In the vehicle, Teddy was much, much worse, so we made the decision to stop in Wytheville at Community Animal Clinic. They scanned his belly and said he had fluid and that his bladder was leaking. We needed 24/7 vet care and were referred to Town and Country in Christiansburg.

We got Teddy there, and they took him and started getting him stable. The vet came in and said Teddy had urine in his belly and needed emergency surgery. We left, and Teddy went into surgery.

He ended up having some of his bladder wall resected and needed a drain. He had a catheter inserted too. Yesterday, Tuesday, April 8th, he was on the other side of things, and they were going to pull the catheter today, and Teddy might be home in a day or two.

This morning, the vet called and said Teddy had pulled out his catheter, but that was okay. However, when she took him to pee, he had pee shooting out of one of the three incisions he has. The urethra incision had failed. He would need emergency surgery again. I asked the vet if Teddy could overcome this, and she believed he could, so we proceeded. She told me that I needed to contact the old vet and tell them that they needed to make a claim on their malpractice insurance. They have videoed and photographed the surgery, and the incisions were not done correctly, and that is why Teddy got so sick. We are waiting for word now, but we did contact the old vet, and they said they had to submit paperwork to "Senior Leadership" and wouldn't know how long it would take to have an answer.

Teddy is a basset hound mix that showed up at our home 3 years ago. We fostered and adopted him. Teddy has separation anxiety and has not been alone for more than an hour since we got him. Teddy loves holidays; he loves Christmas and birthdays. He is worse than the kids on Christmas morning. This hound muffin has become a huge part of our life.

Not including the first surgery to the old vet or the testing, we have paid $2,762.00 upfront to Town and Country Vet, and before surgery today, our bill was at $5,700.00. So $8,462.00 total, and now we have another surgery and at least two more days of hospital care for Teddy.

We will continue to fight for compensation from the old vet for Teddy's medical bills now. If the old vet's office does do the right thing and pays the full bill at Town and Country, we will donate any extra funding to an animal rescue.

Thank you,

The Pauley Family