How long to starve prior to spaying - URGENT.

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Hi.
Dd going for spaying tomorrow. She is nearly 7 but was never done.
Vet said to starve prior to Op.
I've lost the info and Vets have no helpline open.

Is it no food after 8pm (taking her in at 8am)???

(she weighs 30kilos in case it's relevant).

What about water?

No water after 6am if to the vets at 8am was the advice I got.

Yep starve from 8pm / for 12 hours. Usually ok to have water until an hour or two before the GA.

www.hollyhousevets.co.uk/dogs/neutering-your-pet

^^ This says no food from midnight, water ok till morning, as per Missgraeme.

Ah, thanks!

She can have her supper then.

She LOVES her food so I was a bit worried about a 6pm on starvation.

I've walked her wee legs off today to help tire her out so she is less likely to howl for her 3am 'snack' ( a legacy of her last owner!).

Yes, as above. My dog had a GA last week, dinner as normal the day before, walk in the morning and water removed at 7am.

We got our girl done in June. Food no later than 8 pm then water removed first thing in the morning. Then a walk to ensure a pee and poo before dropping her off. She is a lab (ish) / collie so i cut up a pair of my pyjama bottoms to cover her over night the next few days to keep her away from the stitches. Good luck!

Having a wobble now and wondering if it is worth putting us all through this at her age?

Yes, it is worth it. Google pyometra if you're having doubts. That's not something you want your dog to suffer.
The advice our vet gives is to starve for at least 12 hours before admittance and no water for two hours before.
Try not to worry about her.

Ours was fine with spaying, one of my friends has lost two dogs recently to whatever the cancer is that is more common if you don't spay, is it mammary? I am not sure, abdominal wounds anyway (multiple wounds per dog).

She had two old lady external fatty nodules removed last week because she had caught one of them a few times. The wounds were bigger than when she was spayed and the lumps were tiny. When she came back I wondered what on earth we had done, 5 days on healing is going well.

Catz - thanks - she is a re-homing rather than a rescue centre dog.

I was not going to take her but the conditions she was being kept in were such that I just couldn't leave her. I thought she had been spayed so it is a cost I hadn't figured on.

She has recently had a small phantom pg and the vet said that pyometra might be more likely as she is a very low down dog?

We've just had our bitch spayed. The first appointment was buggered by breakfast. She wore a lampshade for about a week and was supposed to have a quiet time. She was signed off last week by the vet after her check up. It is a big operation and not risk-free. No operation ever is. But they do this so often that the risk should be minimal. An MN handhold for you. You are doing the right thing. Pyometra is dreadful. I hope it all goes well, and hopefully when she wakes up from the anaesthetic she won't behave like a lunatic being that little bit older. Well done, you kind, responsible dog owner!

Definitely worth having done left unspayed there is a 25% chance of developing pyometra every year after they are over 8 years of age.

Tiger

thank you! that is just what I needed to hear.

Lonecat you too.

I was wondering if it was 'kind' to her at her age if it was worth it but it sounds like I am doing both.

You're definitely doing the right thing. Hope all goes well tomorrow. If you need a distraction, go shopping and get her some nice light food for coming home - plain cooked chicken or some scrambled eggs. Let us know how she gets on.

She's home!

also minus 3 teeth that needed out (2 back ones decayed under the tartar and one fractured one, poor love).

very sad and sleepy hound atm.

Good news OP, all this will be forgotten in a week or so, trust me.

Yes, I do trust that, thanks.

Only thing is, she hasn't eaten yet, not a morsel.

She has metacam and antibiotic tabs to get in her this am and I'm not sure how if she wont take food?

she's peed' and poo'd and looks brighter (has got on sofa!)

but I've tried tuna, egg, chicken and no interest?

What about hiding them in a piece of cheese?

No idea really as my dog ate her food afterwards including an antibiotic broken in half and a syringe full of painkiller of some sort.

nope, tried cheese too.

so she's been starved since 8pm Sunday :(

She is a rescue and when we got her she refused food for 2 days (then didn't stop for 18m! :)

Just worried it's her teeth still numb?

if no joy by lunch will call vet I think.

Has she drunk? If so I wouldn't worry too much - one of our labs was miserable for about three days and would lie in bed and could only manage to eat hand fed roast chicken on day 3, with a very reproachful "how could you do this to me" look in her eyes.

Her daughter, who was spayed at age 6 was back on her feet, eating & drinking and doing too much in about 12 hours, we had to restrain her a bit because she was too enthusiastic..

I'm sure she will start perking up soon. The first time one of our dogs was in a lampshade, he was so horrified by it that he went and hid and refused anything however delicious. It didn't take long for him to realise how much he could crash around lampshade or not. So we had relentless lampshade crashing around.

Poor dog. If only they understood it was to help them.

I have never had a dog that didn't eat.

No lampshade.

Just exhausted and v sad.

I managed to get a dessertspoon of canned tuna into her just now. Hurrah!

It is horrible to see them sad Daily. No lampshade here either last week.

Let's hope she feels happier and eats properly soon.

Ah ha! 2 small slices of ham and a couple of slices of emmental seem to have helped.
oh, and 2 rashers of bacon