Spay stitches

[Holly's mom]

Hello, my girl Holly is 2 years old and we just adopted her 2 months ago. She was not spayed, so we made an appointment and she had her surgery last monday, so it has been about 5 days. It didn't take her long to come back to her normal self and she seems pretty healthy. But when we went to pick her up, the vet was so busy that she did not have time to talk to us. The vet tech only told us what not to let her do (jump, run, stairs, etc). I am wondering what should her incision look like after almost a week? There is some dry blood around the stitches that has been there since Monday and a few red tiny red spots. It doesn't look extremely clean but it doesn't look infected either. She did jump onto my bed once, which won't happen again!!! and she gets super excited when she sees me and has jumped around a bit, before I could make her calm down. I also noticed on Wednesday that she was swallowing a lot and she was whining softly. It was Canada day so the vet's office was closed that day, and she seemed fine the next day.

Should I post pictures of her incision so you guys can see if it looks normal? I will be calling my vet up today if anyone thinks it looks infected or something. They are just extremely busy, so if I do call it needs to be an emergency.

[MicksMom]

Is the area around the stitches hot to the touch? It sounds like maybe she just pulled a stitch a little, but a picture would help. Remember, a spay is major surgery- she might be feeling a little discomfort, which would be why she's whining and swallowing like that. I swear, the recovery time is always hardest as it gets closer to the time the stitches come out!

[Saje]

They worry us so much. Sakari jumped up onto the roof of the car the day after she got spayed. She'd never done that before! Yeesh.

Like Micksmom said you should really be looking for swollen, hot, red, inflamed areas. Feel free to post a pic. My guess is the stitches are starting to irritate her a bit as it's healing. She probably would have had an infection already if she was going to get one. Doesn't mean she can't get one now but it's probably getting itchy as it heals. I think we put something on Sakari's incision as it was closing but I can't remember what. Aloe maybe. Hopefully someone can help more.

[Holly's mom]

Thanks for the fast replies guys!

here is a picture


I wish I clean the blood off, but I'm scared to hurt her and was told not to touch it or clean it or put anything on it.

[Dekka]

Looks really good! that just looks like normal healing to me.

[Pam111]

If I remember correctly, that's how Anna's looked and she was fine

[Holly's mom]

Phew thank god. She isn't liking the whole house rest thing, but she is being extremely patient and calm. Would really suck if something went wrong and she had to stay in longer than 14 days.

[Dekka]

Looks a lot better than Dekka's incision.. Hers was a c section and spay though. But hers was red for a while, she popped a stitch AND the puppies would irritate it when they were nursing!

I am sure your girl will be just fine. If you get worried and think its getting redder or warmer you can always take her temp.

[Saje]

Looks good to me.

[Buddy'sParents]

I think it looks like it is healing nicely! By the way, welcome to the forums!