I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this? Is is possible for a neutered 1 year old dog to present with a serious clotting disorder that went previously undiagnosed? Would this not have had to be present from birth if it was an inherited condition. Or more likely acquired through ingestion of something that would cause a clotting disorder?

The dog was surgically altered several months ago with no clotting problem. Now a Vet is questioning whether there is an congenital clotting disorder because the dog is "having trouble recovering from a cut he sustained two days ago". I have no other specifics.

I have never dealt with this but can't a simple blood work up tell if the dog has a clotting issue?

And one of the reasons vets do full blood work prior to surgery?

Or am I wrong in that it can't be detected thru blood work?

There is a clotting disorder called Von Willebrand's disease that affects one of the many mechanisms involved in clotting. I have seen it in Labradors, but it is not very common, more common in Rottweilers and Dobermans. I used to work for a vet who tested every Rottie and Dobie for clotting problems by cutting a toenail short under anesthesia, and determining how long it took to clot, before going into any surgery. There are other oddball clotting disorders out there but I have not typically heard of Labradors being affected.
The vast majority of the time, the first it's known a dog has a clotting disorder is when he or she has surgery, and bleeds for an excessive amount of time!
If this dog had his neuter surgery a short time before this and did not sustain any bleeding or clotting problems then, it seems unlikely to be the cause of a non-healing wound now.
As far as the vet saying it may be a congenital clotting problem, that doesn't neccessarily mean it's hereditary.
There are some simple blood tests that can be done, like an ACT (activated clotting time) or PTT (Prothrombin time) that can help to narrow this down. You're correct in wondering if the dog may have gotten into something, like rat bait, to cause this problem now. If it's not a clotting problem, it's something else going on that may need to be looked at more closely. Good luck with this guy!

What part of your dog's body is the cut ? If it's a cut in an area of his body that he flexs alot, it might take a little while longer for it to stop bleeding for good.

Our girl tore off her toe nail a month ago or so and she bled and bled for a few days. She learned to manipulate her front paw so it wouldn't hit the ground on that one toe. I kept it clean on a daily basis but other than that, some wounds are like hot spots, they take time to heal. Good luck !!

Hi,

My male Labs are blood donar dogs at Michigan State. One of the many tests they run is one to test the bloods ability to clot. They have told me that in Labs it is rarely a problem ,but you can imagine if you gave a transfusion to a dog coming out of surgery with blood that didn't clot normally.

Not sure if this will help.. But we lost our first lab to a situation like this. She cut her throat and after surgery,, she wouldn't clot. She didnt' make it through the night.
After test we found out she had gotten into rat poison.

beware of rat poisons. Many utilize 'coumadin' which is basically a human anticoagulant. This anticoagulation is reversed by injectable vitamin k. Usually an intramuscular injection will suffice, but in extreme cases (ie 'bleeding out') it can be given (SLOWLY) intravenously...

We lost our girl last year after a routine spay. She had 3 litters with one being a C-section with no complications. After the spay, she was very sick and they went back in for a second surgery. She was bleeding internally at two spots that were perfectly done by the surgeon. She crashed after that and passed away. Our vet did an autopsy for free as she was so upset and found she had a clotting disorder. The normal pre-surgery blood work doesn't test for this.

We had her sister spayed a few months ago and had the extra test done and she made it just fine. It was one of the saddest day of our lives as she was a therapy dog for our friend who has MS. It's still hard to talk about her!!

A tick-borne disease called ehrlichiosis can cause thrombocytopenia, which is low platelets. Tick borne diseases can also go undiagnosed/untreated and become chronic. Check for antibodies to the ehrlichiosis.