hysterectomy half-job

[igloozoo]

my female penelope had a hysterectomy last year after having problems when she became gravid and was unable to pass the eggs even after a course of oxytocin. but a couple of weeks ago she started digging again. i went back into the vets where she had the op to see what they thought but they told me it could just be her hormones making her confused and nothing would come of it... but cleaning out her viv yesterday what do i come across but 29 eggs!!.. obviously i went straight back to the vets to find out what was going on (very confused by this point). unfortunately the guy who did the op wasnt around but another reptile expert explained what had probably happened. apparently when chameleons are gravid they can sometimes be gravid in only half the uterus, so when my female went in for her op, the vet may have seen just one side with eggs in an just removed that, which obviously wouldnt leave much to work with but apparently enough to become gravid again! she said that because the uterus is often only a few cells thick it can be difficult to tell when you have got rid of it all. my female seems okay but just going to keep an eye on her and keep checking her belly for more eggs because we had so much drama with this last year i do not want the same thing happening to my poor girl again!

if anybody has any thoughts on this i'd be grateful.. bit annoyed at how much time money and stress was spent last year and they haven't even done the full job, don't want to go through the same thing all over again as i thought i had peace of mind that she wouldnt get egg bound again, but now shes laid i don't know what to expect!!

 

[squeekz1992]

Wow. They should like give you half the money back or something.
I mean mistakes do happen but wow. I'm sorry I hope everything goes well for your girl.

 

[Mmcbain1]

Wow thats crazy ill be watching this thread to see what others think especially if a vet posts! Glad to hear your cham is ok.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Unfortunately that is one of the risks of that type of procedure. I know it's frustrating to think that the problem was fixed and then to have it recur! But in a little reptile the ovary/uterus can be nearly indistinguishable from other tissue because it's so small. It can literally only take a couple of ovarian cells that remain to regrow an entire ovary. Even in dogs and cats if you remove an ovary and a tiny chunk falls back into the abdomen a whole new ovary can grow itself! They've been found attached to intestines or the muscle wall of the abdomen so not even in the right place but making hormones like normal! Animals are amazing at their ability to adapt. Luckily dogs and cats have much larger ovaries so that type of complication is very rare, but still possible. So it may have been that a whole side of the reproductive tract was missed, or it could have been that only a tiny amount of cells were left and regrew the entire part needed to make more eggs. If there were just a few cells then your vet most likely did everything correctly and just could not see a few cells that were left. Many of these are very successful but unfortunately sometimes things don't go as planned, even to the best of vets.

 

[squeekz1992]

Unfortunately that is one of the risks of that type of procedure. I know it's frustrating to think that the problem was fixed and then to have it recur! But in a little reptile the ovary/uterus can be nearly indistinguishable from other tissue because it's so small. It can literally only take a couple of ovarian cells that remain to regrow an entire ovary. Even in dogs and cats if you remove an ovary and a tiny chunk falls back into the abdomen a whole new ovary can grow itself! They've been found attached to intestines or the muscle wall of the abdomen so not even in the right place but making hormones like normal! Animals are amazing at their ability to adapt. Luckily dogs and cats have much larger ovaries so that type of complication is very rare, but still possible. So it may have been that a whole side of the reproductive tract was missed, or it could have been that only a tiny amount of cells were left and regrew the entire part needed to make more eggs. If there were just a few cells then your vet most likely did everything correctly and just could not see a few cells that were left. Many of these are very successful but unfortunately sometimes things don't go as planned, even to the best of vets.

That's really interesting. And I guess that makes sense that its difficult because they are so small. But that would suck.

BTW! I love when you respond to stuff like this because I always learn something new!!