puppy is getting spayed tomorrow- any advice?

[Julie Billingsley]

My sweet little Maisie is getting spayed tomorrow and I'm a little nervous about it. Any ideas on how to make her recovery easier? Things to avoid, look out for, etc. Some random lady told me to do without the cone of shame, so I was also wanting thoughts on that too.

[mummytothree]

No advise but for you and Maisie!!! Hope she has an easy recovery!!!!

[Laura_A]

I'm interested to see what people have to say here...my Heidi is going in on the 2nd.

[DawnMarch]

You should probably just play it by ear on the "cone of shame" -- some need it, some don't. Our guy was a little tentative and sleepy afterward but other than that, fine.

[maryinaz]

We've already had Henry neutered at 12 weeks. It was part of the deal with the shelter. I had to leave him overnight there. When I picked him up the next day he was just super sleepy. The shelter lady said he accidentally got to a water dish right after surgery so he threw up. He then threw up on the way home also. Thankfully I had his crate in the car and he was in that.

He did not have a cone and we didn't have a big problem keeping him away from the stitches. Because he threw up, we waited quite a while before we offered him water. He was sleeping anyway. And then when he was able to keep the water down, we offered him some food. But not much.

The next day he was up and around and you wouldn't have known he just had surgery.

Oh, and when we took him back, his brother was being neutered too. He is tiny compared to Henry and he was jumping all over the place - I couldn't believe he had just had surgery!

The instructions were to keep him quiet and inactive for a week - yeah, right. He's a puppy! But we did refrain from taking him on walks for that long.

Good luck! I'm sure it will all go smoothly Julie!

[FireWolf]

If you don't want to do the cone of shame then and she wants to lick her stitches anyway then try putting a t-shirt on her and then tie a knot in it above her hips. Like in this layout below. It's what our vet recommended last year when Nikita had to have emergency surgery and he was pretty sure she would be able to get the cone off.

[Julie Billingsley]

oh thqt tshirt idea is good! I don't know if Maisie would like that either though, but I'd give it a try!

Mary, you are right, how do you keep a puppy quiet and inactive?! She is very active and I'm hoping I can keep her mellow enough during her recovery. yikes!

I dropped her off at the vets at 7am. I'll get her back around 3pm. Until then I'm going to be a little worried.

[marlathrall]

When I had my dog spayed, I was really careful to keep her clean and tried to keep her relaxed... Well, she was a Border Collie so that was almost impossible. lol.

Anyway, she had an alergic reaction to the stitches that disolve and ended up having an infection. Watch the stitches and if they start stinking (totally gross, I know), be sure to take her back. That was probably a pretty random occurance, but it still freaked me out.

[ayaandjudah]

ABSOLUTELY 100% get the cone of shame. Lily had it but would have a hard time eating with it so we took it off after 5 days and she started going at her scar, which now seems to be growing from her going at it and she needs to see the vet.

We left her there over night and I'm so glad we did. Even getting her the next day, she was so pitiful. She couldn't really walk, she basically just sat there in an akward position. She barely ate. It was so sad.

But by day three we started to see the old lily coming back out and that made us so happy!

best of luck to maisie. let us know how it goes.

[Julie Billingsley]

She is out of surgery and is going okay according to the vet! We might go with a soft cone if she starts licking it. So far the vet said she was disinterested in licking it. They asked me if I wanted to take some sedative home for the weekend. And I'm just not sure. She is a pretty active dog so I don't want her to hurt herself as she runs around, but keeping her on a low dose of sedative doesn't seem awesome either.

[Julie Billingsley]

oh Alisa, that sounds awful! Poor Lily!

[BrattyMeg]

I'd go with the sedative for the weekend. She is going to be groggy and calm today but with it being the weekend you will want something stronger than benadryl to keep her calm in case she gets too active.

Our pup bounced back pretty quick but she was a tad over a year old. Our vet suggested letting ours go thru a heat cycle before spaying. Guess it's easier on the dog and uterus is more mature and easier to get out.