Spaying tomorrow.

[absolutmum]

Demon dog is being spayed tomorrow. Just wondered what I should expect post-operatively? She is an incredibly lively Labrador cross and I'm a bit worried about keeping her calm when she has stitches.
Any experiences please?

I found this a struggle, especially as vet said no stairs - our house is full of them and the kids kept opening doors. After the first day pup seemed totally herself and wanted to tear around as usual, tripping over her collar, so it was doubly hard. On the plus side, I was very impressed by how neat and clean her incision was, no visible stitches at all, and she didn't really try to get at it. We had a brilliant soft padded collar (like an elizabethan ruff instead of a cone) which seemed quite comfy.
I actually posted here anxious that the scar became lumpy but it was totally fine when she was checked - though the vet did say she formed some extra scar tissue around the internal stitches that may have been due to being over-active.
none of this may be very helpful but possibly it is reassuring that she came to no harm despite our having struggled to restrict movement..
I tried loads of short training sessions to wear her out mentally, and kongs and chews to distract from the scar. good luck!

Our Norty Minx (8 year old foster greyhound bitch) was spayed in October and we had this problem too. Several short lead walks each day to break the day up, and we did our best to entertain her at home (though with highly questionable success!). She was very quiet the first night and stayed downstairs then after that was up and down stairs as she wanted to. We lifted her into and out of the car for the first few days but she was soon jumping up on to the bed and into the car by herself. Since all our dogs go up and down stairs at will, we felt comfortable about letting her do this - keeping her downstairs and segregated would have been a nightmare.

She went back for her post op checkup and the lovely vet said she was fine (I was v worried like you that she had done too much). Now it's November her scar is barely visible, she is running with DH again, and we are going to skool shortly.

She'll be zonked the day you get her back and possibly for 24 hours, she might also throw up a bit too, it can be quite a shock seeing how poorly they look but while she's sleeping she's healing.

When any of ours have been done we've bought the mattress down and slept in the lounge with them for a few nights and put cushions on the floor so they have something to step on if they try and get on the settee.

I also put them on their lead when they go down the garden for a pee as they like to sprint out of the house.

It is difficult keeping them calm once they are feeling better and it's amazing how quickly they want to race around, it's just a case of watching them like a hawk and being ready to stop them suddenly jumping, when I collected my gsd from being done I put her in the back seat and she'd jumped onto the passenger seat before I could get in!

i think it really depends on your dogs personality- i got my bitch & my dog (now no longer with us :( ) done on the same day- she moped around feeling sorry for herself for about 3 weeks whereas he was zoned out for a few hours then was fine (although he was epileptic & his meds knocked him loopy anyway)

Thank you for the replies!
Demon dog has had her surgery, and it all went well. She is now lying on the floor with the demon child, looking very sad. Nice dinner of fish and rice is waiting for her when she perks up a bit. I think the challenge, over the next few days, will be stopping her from running up and down the stairs, time for the stair gate.