Dog bite wound

A owner walked into the surgery this late this afternoon, saying that thier dog had been biten by another dog. The dog was a Sheltie with very long thick hair, I had a quick look and I could see some abdominal fat hanging out, I knew it would need surgery straight away but thought it would be simple stich up. We admited him to hospital and got ready for surgery. After placing the dog on i/v fluids and anesthetizing the dog, we started to clip the hair back to find the spleen was showing through the skin and the wounds where quite intensive. I thought the surgery would be out of my depth, so I spoke to the owner and recomended he go the after hours emergency clinic, but he could not afford that option, Would I please attempt the surgery. So we opened up the dog to find extensive damage to the abdominal muscle and several broken ribs if was very difficult to piece it all back together, I placed two drains into the wounds and gave extensive antibiotics and pain relief. I spoke to Emergency center and they told me cases like this have a poor survival rate, that is 30% will die. After waiting for the dog to wake, we left the surgery at about 8.30pm. Another long 12 hour day in the life of a Vet.