Greyhound post-op bleeding

Hi fellow foster folks - some of you will be aware of Spider, a lovely 4 1/2 year old ex-racer who came into foster in October. He is a really lovely boy and now doing very well, but I wanted to share our recent experiences of the challenges he faced soon after his neuter surgery. I want to share with fellow foster folks because we all have in common putting our fosters through surgery as a first step in their journey to finding their forever home:

Spider's op initially went smoothly, no immediate complications and he was discharged as per normal later on same day. He was a model convalescent and initially gave us no cause for concern. But soon after he suffered extensive internal bleeding, and as well as being a cause for concern in its own right, created additional complications. Some of these could probably have been avoided if we had known sooner that he had a bleeding disorder. The disorder is sometimes called hyper-fibrinolysis, sometimes greyhound fibrinolysis syndrome. It is a syndrome where clots are formed normally but are broken down too quickly. So although there is no excessive blood loss at first, bleeding starts 6-72 hours after the clot was first formed, before the opening the clot was blocking off has had a chance to repair. The bad news is that it is thought to be more common in our beloved hound breed than in other breeds, but until very recently under-recognised. The good news is that now it is understood treatment with a drug called tranexamic acid has been identified as helping to slow (but not fully halt) the clot breakdown. The drug is a human medicine treatment, but vets can prescribe and it is not expensive. I have attached a leaflet for those who want to learn more. Another explanation for bleeding problems in dogs is untreated lung worm infestation. It often shows no symptoms until a dog suffers a health problem and by then although very treatable with 5 days of Panacur, a vet drama is likely to have been the clue. like a bleeding disorder. Bleeding disorders are one possible adverse effects of lung worm infection, but some dogs have other problems instead or even as well. Lung worm is not very common in Scotland yet, but is now quite prevalent in southern England and is thought to be making its way up the country..... . Hope this information isn't needed by any of you reading it ever, but if it ever is, then hope its helpful and do know I am happy to be contacted. Spider was quite a poorly boy for a while and as well as the emotional roller coaster this took us on, it has also been a journey of learning and insight .....