Dog getting spayed next week

[ashmts]

My dog is getting spayed next Tuesday and I'm looking for tips from people who've been through this. She's my first dog so it's all new. I'm going to phone the vet later in the week to double check aftercare instructions. My partner booked her in and said all they told him was fast the night before, 5 days crate rest, 5 days lead walks, and the stitches will dissolve so don't need removed. I just wondered what else I need to know.

I assume she'll be sleepy and not feeling great for a couple of days so crate rest should be fine, but after that we'll need to keep her entertained. Any ideas for boredom busters? We have some Nina Ottoson toys but they're quite energetic ones. What about ways to stop her licking her stitches? Will she be up to eating normally? How do we manage toilet trips, is she able to potter about the garden?

Thanks in advance. I'm so worried about her. I know the vets must do this all the time though.

5 days crate rest? That seems excessive...

Agree that 5 days crate rest seems a bit much. When ours was spayed we just kept her strictly on lead and avoided jumping on sofas etc. She was absolutely fine and recovered quickly.

Didn't use a cone as she hated it, but just put an old tshirt on her for 1-2 days. It's a routine operation so hopefully yours will bounce back quickly.

The post op suits are brilliant, so much easier than the dreaded cones. Definitely try to keep her quite still and rested for the recommended time, one of our dogs had to have antibiotics as her stitches became infected.
We’ve never had any of our dogs be sleepy after spaying/neutering, mostly they’ve wanted to play as normal. 😬 One of our dogs was quite upset ad seemed in a lot of pain when he came home. He needed extra pain relief for a couple of days but he was fine after that.
In general they seem to recover really quickly.

Posted too soon.

Ours have always ate normally afterwards but I think we probably gave them chicken and rice as it’s gentle on their stomachs after the anaesthetic. We've always used a lead for toilet trips to the garden for a few days which none have particularly liked but they managed and got used to it quickly.

Good luck.

Mine was done 2 weeks ago - she was sleepy that evening but ate as normal although vet said that was unusual. Her energy levels were back within about 36 hours so the challenge was keeping her occupied/calm whilst she wasn’t allowed to exercise much. She pottered in my (small) garden after doing her business, and after a couple of days was doing short 5-10 min walks just to try to tire her out. No way would she have done 5 days crate rest!

I second pp above about the bodysuits rather than the cones - it was great and she healed very quickly.

Thanks everyone, you've put my mind at rest slightly. I did wonder if DP had got mixed up about 5 days crate rest but I got some information through email today and it does say 7-10 days of reduced movement. I'll double check when I take her in.

I love the look of those post surgery suits. The vet info said not to remove the lampshade collar and do so at your own risk so doesn't sound like they'd advocate it, but I might get one in case she can't tolerate the cone. We do let her on the couch so sounds like I need to get the room divider back out to stop her jumping on and off.

We had the suits on our sproodle. We bought a spare to swap them over to stop her smelling. She could slightly get to the site but was with us 24/7 so could stop her if we saw her/heard her. We carried her up/down stairs for the 10 days as as her lead work wasn't brilliant at the time and we didn't want her hurting herself pulling we waited the 10 days til she went out for a walk. We used sniff mats to keep her entertained and hiding food in paper. We couldn't really stop her jumping on the sofa though.

First night she was really tired and grumpy/sad but within less than 24 hours she was full of life! 3 days of painkillers seemed to be fine. So glad we did it but it was a LONG 10 days! x

Yeah I think the 5 days crate rest is actually just no walks / no running in the garden. My dogs have always been sleepy for a couple of hours and then completely normal.
Being collies they found other ways to scratch their stitches despite the cone, such as rubbing on the bottom step. One of them even managed to lie on her back and scratch the stitches with her front paws - made her look super dirty! Tackle this problem if it happens though; if your dog is a scratcher chances are that the cone will be enough.
Lots of chew toys if they're into those? You'll have to tie them down in some way as the dog won't be able to hold them down with paws to chew because of the cone. Other than that just go out in the garden with them and encourage sniffing etc, nothing too exciting. It's really not that bad, you'll be fine

I did key hole spay. Just 2 tiny incisions and I don't think she even noticed a thing.