Spaying

Chili was spayed today, and the surgery went well. I brought her in at 7:30 am and took her home at one. She's certainly feeling the pain now, and every time she cries I want to cry too! We gave her some pain medication, but we had to dissolve it in water for her to take it. Is there anything else I can do to help her manage her pain or is she just going to have to tough it out now? She can't move or be moved much without yelling right now. I'm pretty much just keeping her in her kennel so she won't be tempted to move and squirm around. She's having a hard time finding a position that is comfortable.

If you've got an old fashioned hot water bottle, or one of those soft pads you microwave for her to lay on it might help. Sleep is the best thing for her. If she's still in pain in the morning, call the vet first thing and get a professional opinion about it. I'm not much good on the little tiny ones as far as knowing when they should really be in discomfort and when they are doing a very good job of making you feel guilty. Very little phases these monsters of mine. Shiva had a big triangular hole ripped in her side that you could fold the skin right back from and it didn't even phase her. The medication from being stitched back together the next day bothered her more than the injury did. The whole thing just about did me in, though, and I sympathize with you wholeheartedly.

One thing you might check for is to see if the area feels like fluid is accumulating.

Keep us posted. You know we'll be fretting right along with you.

Thanks for the advice! Chili is handling everything surprisingly well. After being understandably uncomfortable last night, she went through the night with no problems or crying. She's eating and drinking well now, and her incision looks great. She seems to want to move around more, and we are restricting her to her kennel a lot of the time so that she doesn't get too active and hurt herself. A night of rest surely helped!
I'm feeling much better, too... : )

Also, when our doxie got spayed, we just put her on the couch wrspped up in a blanket and tried to get her to sleep as much as possible.

it really hurts them that much to get fixed? wow if i ever get another dog then im going to adopt her after she got spayed so i dont have to go through the pain of watching her suffer.

I guess it hurts like any routine surgery would. I guess laser surgery would be a little easier on animals than Chili's actually was. I also read that the older dogs get, the harder the recovery from spaying surgery. Chili just turned two, so she's probably having a harder time than she would have if we had done it earlier. She's not suffering too much, though, so she'd have breezed right through it if we'd had it done earlier. I'm glad we did it now, though, because it's a time when my husband and I are both off work so we can devote time to her 24/7! It's still hard to watch her when I know she's not feeling great. She'll be her active little self in no time, though!

hmmm I'm surprised they had you pick her up at 1:00 the same day. I had all my dogs spayed and it was an all nighter for all of them. Vet's orders. By the time I picked them up the following morning, they did have some discomfort but nothing painful.

Glad she's doing better however. Just remember not to let her lick the area. Don't want those stitches to get loose. Keep an eye on the incision.

I've heard that some vets send dogs home too soon to please the owners. They should keep them overnight to keep an eye on them and if needed supply pain medication, IMO. They sent Maddie home with me very drugged up. It was worse seeing her like that then it would have having her spend the night... With all of the fosters, they go through the shelter vet and they always stay overnight.

I've got mixed feelings on that. Dr. P is good about letting me bring mine home because he knows I'll be watching them all night, as opposed to being alone at the hospital. Plus, they are calmer and less stressed at home without having to be drugged. He does make sure they are out of anesthesia though.

We actually had planned to pick her up at three that afternoon, but we stopped by about one to check on her progress and they said that she was doing well enough to go home at that point. My husband asked if they were sure they wanted us to take her that early, and they said she'd been checked out and was fine to go home. I don't really know if she'd have done any better by staying overnight. She wasn't in a hospital setting; it was a vet's clinic and they closed at five anyway. I think Chili was happier to be in her home where she could feel more comfortable and have all her most comfortable places to rest. They gave me enough pain medication for four days and some directions on what to do through the night and what to look out for. She's really doing great, only she has not had a bowel movement since before the surgery. She didn't eat anything Monday of the surgery, not even that night. She ate a handful of dry food and a treat yesterday, and about 1/4 cup of wet and 1/4 cup of dry food with a treat today. I know it is probably kind of painful for them to have BM's after surgery.

I guess it just depends on the vet. My vet's office is semi small and the vet, herself, lives right next door. It's not so much as a hospital, a little more personal hands on type of thing I guess. When I went to pick up Nora, all the staff was sad to see her go. She was the perfect patient and so sweet. They all said "you have a sweetie there" Made me feel so proud. lol

Commenting on your dog not having a bowel movement, my vet gives the dogs laxatives so that they don't need to .. well, push? They don't want that area working too much LOL, can you tell I know nothing about medical terms? Your dog may just be having a hard time with it.

You can put a little bacon grease or oil on her food to ease things through a bit.

She probably won't want to go until she really feels the need to. Since she is paper trained, we have taken her to newspaper several times and she will pee but nothing else. We've even tried leaving the room for awhile because she likes her privacy when she uses the bathroom...lol. Putting bacon grease on her food is a good idea. It will probably make her dry food easier to eat. She eats sooooo sloooowly.

All of my German Shepherds have prefered privacy too. It really made life easier because they always went behind the bushes in the back yard so there wasn't anything left where you might step in it. Kharma tries to do everything Bimmer does, so she's good about going in out of the way places, but Shiva . . . let's just say I'm careful walking outside after dark!

She's getting better about going off into the bushes though, but she WILL pee right on the walk of the weather's bad!

Yay! Chili finally had a bowel movement this morning! I guess now I can say that she's on the road to a great, complete recovery.
I'm a very happy mommy now! : )

ROFL! Did you ever in your wildest dreams imagine you'd be so happy over a dog pile? Or that you'd be discussing it at some length on the internet?

LOL...you know, I actually said that to my husband. I can't believe that I'm so happy over doggy poo!

LOL, sooo funny! Glad Chili is doing better.

I remember when my male Lhasa was a puppy and I'd take him outside and the first time he lifted his leg to go pee! OMG, I felt like my child was off to his first day of kindergarten. I actually had tears in my eyes and said he's getting sooo big! lol I kept telling him (Spencer ) Your such a big boy!

I really think I need therapy LOL

That's cute, Avenlee! I tell Chili that she's a big girl sometimes! (Even though she will never be BIG) Just like when a child does something correctly, it's always a feeling of satisfaction to see our dog do something correctly that we've been trying to teach her. It lets us know we're doing something right!

The vet I work for will let neuters go home same day if we get them done by 10 am. We release them about 4:30 if they have pottied and are up. We never let cat or dog spays go home same day regardless! I even left mine there over night! My vets live on the property of the clinic and its a father/son deal. They take turns checking on the animals ever 2 hours day and night! We will also send spays home on antibiotics or pain relievers if the surgery was abnormal or something was wrong. Sorry your pouch had that much trouble thats really sad!