Hello fellow lab families! My girl is getting spayed next week and I'm seeking tips from anyone out there who has gone through it before. Anything I can do to make her more comfortable, calm and safe while she heals?
I'm sure others will chip in, with how to make her comfortable (and your vet too). But have you researched whether this is the best time to be spaying your girl? You might want to have a read of some of this research: https://www.avidog.com/research-on-the-effects-of-spaying-and-neutering/
Cooper's spay was a little rough due to being a pretty big dog (18 months) and vomiting during the surgery. She was on a sedative as well a a pain reliever for about a week after her surgery.
Meg pretty much self limited. She had a sleepy first night then pottered around. I didn’t do any big walks for a while but her recovery was unremarkable. I did buy her a t shirt thingy to wear instead of a collar, that was a brilliant piece of advice I read on here years ago
We bought one of the inflatable collars for Cooper, but ended up not needing it. She did not seem to bother her incision.
Update: Surgery was a success. She was groggy the first day, but has been a ball of energy since . She seems unphased by incision (yay no collar!) But she's getting pretty restless... I've kept her physical activity to a minimum... as much as possible, but it's getting harder to keep her occupied - the girl wants just to PLAY! And jump and run. Lord help me with this one.
Mine adjusted to the cone, but I still felt bad about making her wear it for the full two weeks as instructed. I bought a couple of cheap kid size t-shirts and it worked out well. I definitely had to monitor her more closely, especially at first. Thankfully she never showed any interest in the incision site. I would recommend trying to get one tight enough that she won’t chew through the collar or play with any loose, dangling ends. I would also make sure the length is enough to cover the incision site but not too long either. I understand some people tie up the waist end in a bun, too, but I didn’t have to try that. I definitely recommend trying it out to see how your dog takes to it. It made life so much less awkward and unnatural.
