Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital
Review About the Death Our Best Friend
About Rocky
Rocky was born in 2016 and grew from an adorable Rottie puppy into a handsome Rottweiler adult. He ate smart and stayed active with hiking and running his whole life.
This is Rocky about two weeks before his surgery at WRAH. We found that he had a malignant tumor on his upper right gum. WRAH removed the tumor, but recommended we continue and remove the bone under the tumor and test lymph nodes for spread.
The surgery at WRAH was April 14, 2026. Rocky came home the next day. There was expected post surgery swelling and a scar on the side of his face where the bone was removed, but we knew that was a reality of the procedure. There were no immediate concerns on that day. WRAH did not prescribe any prophylactic antibiotics.
By April 19, Rocky started showing signs of concern about infection. He was moving very lethargically and we could smell a putrid odor coming from Rocky.
There was also increased swelling under Rocky's neck. We returned Rocky to the WRAH ER that day. The swelling not beginning until five days after the surgery was concerning, because typical surgical swelling begins within 48 hours of the surgery.
MacLellan, R. H., Rawlinson, J. E., Rao, S., & Worley, D. R. (2018). Intraoperative and postoperative complications of partial maxillectomy for the treatment of oral tumors in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 252(12), 1538–1547. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.252.12.1538
The lethargy and putrid smell are also signs more unique to infection than normal post surgical presentations when more than a few days have passed.
Weir, M., Williams, K., Llera, R., & Yuill, C. (2025, June 20). Care of surgical incisions in dogs. VCA Animal Hospitals. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/care-of-surgical-incisions-in-dogs
The young vet who saw Rocky that night seemed convinced there was no infection, primarily due to an absence of fever. This is concerning advice, considering that the absence of fever is a common false negative in dog infection, particularly considering that Rocky has been on Carprofen every 12 hours since the 15th. Carprofen is an NSAID that is expected to mitigate fever. The young vet made no mention of this knowledge.
Two recent studies show that MOST infected dogs do not present with elevated temperature.
Burke, J., & Chalifoux, N. (2026). Absence of an elevated temperature at admission is not associated with mortality in dogs with septic peritonitis. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 264(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.25.05.0352
Tang, T. C., Ringwood, B., & Degroot, W. (2023). Retrospective characterisation and outcome of surgical treatment for cervical lymph node abscessation in 15 dogs. New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 71(3), 137–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/00480169.2023.2176938
We were sent home with no action taken by WRAH.
Two days later, April 21, Rocky's condition continued to deteriorate. He was showing more signs of lethargy, he was not eating or drinking normally, and the mass of fluid under his neck continued growing. He was also drooling fluid, suggesting he was having difficulty swallowing. We returned to WRAH ER again that day even more concerned about the risk of infection in Rocky. Yet a different doctor saw Rocky. This vet again was persudaed that ther absence of fever ruled out infection, and administed MORE carprofen and ondansetron, an appetite stimulant. Again, no response to infection concerns, and only medications administered that MASK symptoms of infection.
On April 22, Rocky's condition declined further. Rocky's face grotesquely swelled up on the side of the partial maxillectomy. Now, a full week after the surgery, his face was so swollen, his right eye was swollen closed (Recall MacClellan et al., 2018 documented most normal swelling beging within a couple of days after surgery). He continued to refuse to eat or drink, and was very lethargic. We returned to WRAH ER for the third time in four days, essentially begging them to save our boy. Rocky could barely walk. This time the WRAH ER recommended overnight hospitalization and testing.
On April 23, Rocky was released to me, his face now swollen on BOTH sides and both eyes now nearly swollen closed (see above). No doctor at WRAH even had the respect to meet with me and explain Rocky's worsened condition. He was handed back to me by some assistant, and it was suggested we stop administering carprofen. That's it. No mention of the testing conducted the night before with results indicating positive for infection, and the withholding of antibiotics. See the story below following Rocky's death.
On April 24, Rocky was at home in the evening and the swollen pocket of fluid spontaneously burst open through his skin. It was a putrid pus spurting from his neck.
Rocky was rushed back to WRAH for the fourth time in five days, now with no room for WRAH to get it wrong. Rocky had been infected for days. Some intern vet who saw Rocky couldn't even see that Rocky's neck had burst open, and he was saying the pus was coming from Rocky's mouth. We had to show him ourselves where Rocky had a hole in his neck from where the pus was oozing.
The vet continued talking after it was clear what was happening, and I had to ask him to drain the pocket of fluid from Rocky's neck. The pocket appeared to be at least two cups or more of fluid accumulated in my dog's neck. The young vet responded like, "Oh yeah, that might be a good idea" and took Rocky out of the room to drain the purulent fluid.
WRAH gave one injection of Unasyn and sent Rocky home with oral Augmentin/amoxicillin-clavulanate. My concern is that the record does not show culture, susceptibility testing, repeat CBC, lactate, blood culture, hospitalization recommendation, or documented sepsis assessment despite the prior week of infection symptoms.
Walker, A., Amato, N., Brisson, J., & Stewart, S. (2023). Outcomes of surgical treatment with patterns of bacterial culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing in cases of cervical abscessation in dogs: 82 cases (2018–2021). BMC Research Notes, 16, Article 76. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-023-06332-z
Rocky was released to us to go home.
Rocky collapsed dead in early morning on May 6, 2026.
After a couple of weeks of grieving, we requested an investigation of the repeated inactions of the WRAH staff that we believe contributed to Rocky's death.
WRAH's Medical Director, Dr. Darin Dell was cooperative in providing the requested records. A close review revealed that testing conducted on Rocky on the night of April 22 revealed objective measurements consistent with infection. The attending vet that night ordered antibiotic treatment, however the in-house pharmacy was out of the prescribed antibiotic and no treatment was provided. The records show further that the vets working the next morning chose to withhold treatment to Rocky for infection, in spite of evidence of nearly a week of infection specific symptoms.
As mentioned above, we were not informed of these results or denial of treatment when Rocky was released to us on April 23, and none of these results were volunteered by anyone spoken to since Rocky died.
We went to the Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital, asking them to save Rocky from cancer. Cancer however did not kill my best friend.
This urn of ashes is all we have left of Rocky. He was my sunrise every day I awoke. He loved and trusted us to take care of him as his years advanced. We failed to protect him, and we will have to live with the decisions to keep returning to WRAH over and over again when we could see they were not tending to his deteriorating condition. We kept trusting their incorrect diagnoses when we could see his face distorting with infection. No dog should have to die like this.
FOLLOW UP
My first request for Rocky's full records was presented to Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital on May 27, 2026. By June 18 I had discovered the information about the infection confirmation and the withholding of antibiotic treatment. I requested specific explanation and citations of any medical literature supporting the decision to deny Rocky treatment on April 23. As of July 5, no response from the responsible WRAH vet has been received.