Puppy was spayed today :(

[Luciferous]

The poor baby got home, plopped in her bed, and hasn't moved since. I've never dealt with this before, so any advice on how to make things easier on her?

[one_voice]

1. I had both my dogs spayed...

and that's pretty much what they did too. They were fine the next day--eating normal, drinking etc. When I had the cat neutured he did the same thing too. One of my girls had surgery a week ago, came home and did nothing but whine and sleep.

What kind of puppy?

[Luciferous]

3. She's a pug/beagle mix. She hasn't been whining at all, but she

was shaking quite a bit when I first got her home.

[one_voice]

9. Aww she's probably cold...

give her a blanket, she'll be ok. The hard part is keeping them calm for a while. They know what to do and not to do for the most part. One of my dogs wanted to play with the other one, and tried to take off running a day or two after. I didn't even had time to stop her, she stop dead in her tracks and didn't try that stunt again for a while.

Dogs heal much faster than we do, she'll be good as new in no time.

on edit: I see I'm late to the game with this advice. Should have read ahead. :blush:

[applegrove]

17. A historectomy in a human takes months to heal. In a dog I don't know but

I would keep her quiet for a week at least. That is a big operation.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I've only ever dealt with cats, but I'd guess the same applies:

She's probably groggy from the anesthetic, so just let her sleep. After she wakes up, try to keep her from running around too much. Little animals bounce back pretty quickly from this kind of surgery, so she'll probably be acting just about normal within a day or two.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. It will be fine. Really. Anesthesia does it to me too, so it is expected.

Groggy, tired, hurting. But they get over it quickly. Just give a little love and leave the puppy to sleep.

You did the right thing.

[Luciferous]

5. Yeah, I expected her to sleep a lot. I'm actually a little more

concerned about how she's going to be tomorrow when she's feeling a little better and how to keep her calmed down until she heals. She's a pretty crazy little puppy :)

[Curmudgeoness]

8. Animals aren't all that dumb. If it hurts, they won't do it.

I know you worry, I know you care, and I suspect that you hate that you are the cause of this ordeal. But remember that this surgery is happening all the time, and the results are good. I went to work the day after I was spayed. Not feeling great, not that bad.

If you think you feel bad about this, you should see how lousy you would feel when she went into heat and was hurting in another way. They can act like they are miserable.

Now go get a blanket and snuggle it up with pup, and let her sleep it all off.

[Crystal Clarity]

6. And the shaking is probably due to being cold

I'm always cold after surgeries. I don't know if it's the anesthesia or the cooler temps they keep in operating rooms, but for whatever reason, I'm usually shivering.

You might want to give her a comfy blanket. She should be fine in the morning. :-)

On edit: she not he... d'oh!

[Luciferous]

7. Gave her a blanket and she wagged her tail a bit, so maybe

she was just cold. Thanks!

[TorchTheWitch]

19. It's the anesthesia and blood loss during surgery that causes being cold

Both lower blood pressure, which makes you more suceptable to feeling cold. I have naturally low blood pressure and get cold much more and much faster than others. It sucks, but that's life I suppose.

[Crystal Clarity]

24. Thanks for the explanation

I've always wondered exactly what caused that. Makes sense now.

[suninvited]

10. I had my puppy spayed Monday

she didnt shiver, but she was so sore when she came home she mostly slept. Wednesday she was moving much better, and today she is acting like nothing ever happened.

She has been crying some in her sleep, but I dont know if she is hurting or having bad dreams about the whole ordeal.

[marzipanni]

11. If your veterinarian didn't tell you, don't let her drink too much water

or eat too much at once. I think it applies mostly to large breed dogs and horses, but my family's standard poodle drank a lot of water when we brought her home after she was spayed. An hour or two later she had a very swollen abdomen, we called the vet and they said to bring her right back. She had emergency surgery for gastric torsion- stomach twisted and bloating with gas.
Whenever someone gets their dog spayed I tell them about this because it was scary, and so easily preventable.

[Luciferous]

16. Yeah, they said she could have a little bit of water, but she hasn't

even been interested in that yet.

[TorchTheWitch]

20. that's why I got my current beast a gastropexy along with being neutered

A gastropexy is a very simple and quick operation that keeps the stomach from flipping like that. My previous dog got a stomach torsion, and thank God that like you I noticed it and was able to get him in for emergency surgery in time. It kills super fast and it's a hideous way to die. So with the current dog I talked to the vet about doing the gastropexy while he was being neutered and he only charged me for the actual surgical time for it. He loved the idea of doing it as preventative surgery. Large breed dogs are really susceptible to gastric torsion, it can happen at any time and for no reason... it's pure luck if you notice in time to help them. So, I only ended up having to pay only a small amount for the gastropexy during his neutering whereas it would have been a lot more if it was a separate surgery. Once a dog gets a gastric torsion, even with the gastropexy they may have trouble keeping food down the rest of their lives. That's what happened to my previous dog... the rest of his life he often got "surprise vomit" right after he ate. He never felt sick or retched, he just would suddenly barf up his meal soon after he ate it. Surprised him every time, too... "What the hell? My food is escaping!" And the booger almost always managed to gobble it back up before I could get him away from it... gross.

Incidentally, a gastropexy is usually part of what the emergency surgery is when a dog gets a gastric torsion. After turning the stomach back around the right way and getting rid of the gas and food in there, they usually do the gastropexy so that it doesn't happen again. Recurrence of a gastric torsion occur in as high as 70% of dogs and 80% of the time it's fatal. Those are really ghastly statistics.

There's a variety of procedures that fall under gastropexy with varying degrees of total reliability, risks, surgical time and recovery time. My dog had the kind where they tack the stomach in place by taking thin strips of the outer stomach lining in two places - at the top and bottom of the stomach on the right side - and attaching it to the abdominal wall except my vet combined it with another procedure in which the one tack is wrapped around the last rib for a more reliable firm hold. This keeps the stomach from ever being able to flip around causing a gastric torsion. It was a really quick and simple procedure, but they do had to make a big belly incision. The vet did such a great job on my beast that try as I might, I can't see any kind of a scar whatsoever. You'd never know in a million years that he had his whole belly opened up. He was right as rain in about 3 or 4 days, but he did have a silly looking bald belly for months... took forever for the hair to all grow back so you couldn't tell he'd had his belly shaved, but he is a thickly furred dude.

I'm soooo glad I had it done. Though he's had some other health issues lately (injury related), he's got the most perfect digestion... always makes perfect poop like clockwork and almost never gets sick or even has a stomach upset. I'm so envious!

[marzipanni]

22. That's interesting. When our dog had that emergency surgery

for stomach torsion the doc told us he had removed her spleen to keep it from being like a weight which could help the stomach flip again since it would be more susceptible. Later someone told me that didn't sound right, more likely her spleen was nicked during surgery and was bleeding, and that's why they had to remove it.

[TorchTheWitch]

27. the spleen is sometimes also involved in a gastric torsion

Removal of the spleen may have been necessary because of blood supply being cut off long enough to effect it's function in the future or it was already diseased in some way requiring removal, but removal as a preventative for a recurrence of a gastric torsion is just plain nuts as well as removal because of an accidental nick during surgery (nicks are just repaired). Though the spleen isn't necessary for survival, it plays a large part in immunity, and without it, the animal may have problems with a wide range of immune issues the rest of their lives.

I'd check with the vet that did the surgery and look over the bill. The bill will say whether or not a gastropexy was done during the surgery and the price for the surgical time. I can't imagine any vet NOT doing a gastropexy as part of the emergency surgery since it's pretty much standard procedure and really quite necessary given the horrible statistics of dogs who have experienced a gastric torsion once.

Find out for certain whether or not your dog had a gastropexy procedure even if it means having a vet explain what everything on the bill means... since there are many various procedures that fall under a "gastropexy" on the bill they may have just used the term for which procedure without using the word "gastropexy" so you'd know that's what it was. Given the terrible statistics of a gastric torsion recurrence, you need to find out for sure whether or not your dog had a gastropexy done during his emergency surgery, and if he didn't, see what you can do about getting it done. Honestly, if the ER vet didn't do a gastropexy during the ER surgery, I'd look into suing him and/or making him do it now for free - it's standard procedure and necessary.

I'm used to my vet explaining everything in detail to me about what is going on, what should be done, and what was done even if they need to spend two hours with diagrams and pantomiming until I understand it... although sometimes the extensive detail makes me go a bit green around the gills. Your vet's explanation sounds really hinky to me, and I have trouble understanding how he didn't explain everything about what he did in surgery. However, I once had to bring my current beast to an after hours vet for an emergency that I didn't know anything about and never used before, and their total lack of any explanation about anything even when I asked questions made me really nervous, so I understand that there are hinky vets out there... and the explanation about the spleen from the vet that did your dog's ER surgery and not telling you anything about whether or not a gastropexy was done sounds really hinky to me.

Just find out for sure. I can't wrap my head around the possibility that he didn't do the gastropexy procedure, but find out to put my mind at easy... ok, and your's too. LOL! I'm really worried that there's even a chance at all that it wasn't done and your dog may very well end up having another gastric torsion out of the blue sometime. Recurrence being 70% with 80% being fatal is fucking scary shit.

[marzipanni]

31. Oops, in my first reply I started to tell more about that dog

including that she was my family's dog in the late '60's, and into the '70's. We didn't have her spayed until she was 7 years old because we didn't live near any male dogs. She died a couple of years after that from cancer in her mouth. :( A neighbor's dog died, also at a rather young age, from the same thing. Later my mom had the house tested for radon because there were reports of high radon levels in the area. It tested pretty high, so I think that probably caused the cancer.
It's good to have this discussion about gatric torsion, others reading this will be more informed and ask the veterinarian questions just to make sure.
Thank you for your concern! I hope your furry boy is recovering well.

[tavalon]

29. I bet that vet is a personal hero to you.

I always worry about my standard poodle getting a gastric torsion.

[TorchTheWitch]

34. same vet that operated on Oogy and treats him for free for life

Ardmore Animal Hospital - best vets in the world and I admit I'm spoiled rotten by them. It's not just the vets there either, it's the whole staff as well. I live in fear of ever having to take my dog somewhere else. http://www.ardmoreah.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8C2yP8X0oM&feature=player_embedded
This is Oogy on Oprah in case you didn't know who I was talking about

I'd look into having a preventative gastropexy done if you have the money, especially if there's any reason your dog needs to have some other surgery done since the dog would already be on the table anyway. It's a very quick and simple procedure and actually fairly inexpensive. It can also be done laproscopically, but I would think that would probably be more expensive but it would also avoid the big belly incision. Even with that big incision I was just amazed at how quickly he was back to his old self. The first day was a bit rough, but the second day he was eating and drinking normally though a bit slow and wanting to sleep more, by the the third day it was hard to tell he'd had anything done at all, and the fourth day he was back to his old self and then some.

Having gone through a gastric torsion with one dog and getting another of the same breed years later I was in terror of such a thing happening again, and I thought I was nuts to ask the vet about doing it on the current beast as a preventative measure but it turned out he loved the idea especially since he was going in for a surgical procedure anyway... although with neutering (which was what he was going in for) he wouldn't have had to have his whole belly opened up like for the gastropexy, but he'd already be on the table and anesthetized and going through pre and post op anyhow). Having a voluntary preventative gastropexy done isn't unheard of especially for really large breed deep chested types of dogs like great danes, etc., so I don't think any vet would be squeamish about doing it as a preventative measure.

A gastric torsion is just a really horrible event that there really is just no way to prevent however hard you try, and it's just pure luck if you notice it in time to do anything about it because death comes so quickly, and it's just a ghastly way of suffering and dying. It's a lucky thing that the symptoms are so blatant and obvious, but it's the being there to notice them in time that matters.

[tavalon]

30. I bet that vet is a personal hero to you.

I always worry about my standard poodle getting a gastric torsion.

[Taverner]

12. I would suggest frozen peas

But I don't think that works the same way on puppies that it does 30 year old men

[Luciferous]

15. :)

[Faygo Kid]

13. She'll be fine. It was the right thing to do.

Ask Bob Barker.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

18. We have had many bitches spayed over the years

Keep her somewhere quiet. Let her rest. She'll be up and about before you know it. :)

We used to get ours spayed at the mobile vet clinic by our old large animal vet. He died recently :(
So anyway, we'd bring them home within moments of them getting spayed and they'd be all floppy with their tongues hanging out.

Whoops...meant to reply to the OP.

[pokerfan]

14. Just make sure she's warm and comfortable

Food and water per your vet's instructions.

[Curmudgeoness]

21. So how is the pup doing now? Better today? nt

[stuntcat]

25. dittos, we need an update

update plz kthnx!!

[Luciferous]

32. Ha, I actually have her crated right now because she's too hyper!

My kids went out the back door to play and she took off outside, so I had to chase her down and bribe her with treats to come back in. She really wants to be outside playing :( I feel bad that she has to be locked up, but I'm worried she's going to hurt herself... I'm thinking of turning on a movie and snuggling with her on the couch.

[Curmudgeoness]

35. Thanks for the update. Snuggling is a great idea.

But don't sweat it if she is active. She is probably doing fine by now.

[old mark]

23. You did the right thing, and she will be bouncing around like before in

a little while...

mark

[joeybee12]

26. She'll be fine tomorrow....

Just rest is all she needs!

[AngryOldDem]

28. Just let her be for a day or so.

And don't be surprised if she acts a little afraid of you when you try to have any kind of contact with her. She's scared, confused, and hurting. Just give her a lot of TLC and don't engage in any kind of strenuous play for awhile.

[DU GrovelBot]

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