Ovarian remnant syndrome

Dr. Marie replied:

This is a tough situation!

First of all, thank you for your positive attitude towards your vet. This makes situations like this easier for everyone to handle.

What we are concerned about here is ovarian remnant syndrome. It is not common but it can happen. There are a couple of possible reasons for it to happen. One is if part of an ovary was not fully removed during the spay. It is really uncommon for this to happen as usually it is quite clear whether the whole ovary has been removed.

The next possibility is if there was some extra ovarian tissue in her body. Sometimes we will do this surgery and find a small piece of ovary stuck to the spleen. When this happens we never know if this was a defect that was always present in the cat, or if somehow the vet doing the surgery had cut part of the ovary off.

So, here are my comments regarding the costs of this surgery. If the vet goes back in and finds that there is part of an ovary that had been obviously left in there, then it means that the original surgery had not been done correctly. If this is the case then they will likely not charge. If there is some ovary found on the spleen then it will be up to the vet's discretion whether to charge or not, but my guess would be that they would do it for no charge.

However, if nothing is found then it means that the symptoms she is showing are not related to her being in heat. If this is the case, then the vet has done surgery but has not been negligent on the first surgery. So, yes, it would need to be paid for.

The cost of a spay is usually greatly reduced (usually because of competition and also so that more people will have their animals spayed) compared to a normal abdominal surgery. Also, when they are looking for a piece of ovary they will have to make a much larger incision than a regular spay and it will be a longer surgery.

In my office the cost for an abdominal surgery like this would usually be between $800-$1500.

I hope everything goes ok!

Dr. Marie.

---This question was asked in our Ask A Vet For Free section.---


Do you have a pet website? Interested in learning more about SEO for Wix?

---

Check out our dog age calculator and cat age calculator.