How To Care For your Dog After Spay Surgery
By: Taylor Brione (the human)
Sparkle was spayed 18 days ago. At first I felt this was in the best interest of the dog, she will benefit from this in the long run but when I picked her up from surgery and she was quiet and lethargic, I immediately felt a sense of regret. When I tried to pick her up she yelped, and when we got home she just slept. When she was awake, her eyes were rolling in her head like she just couldn’t stay awake. I felt so bad for days about making the choice to have her spayed. I babied her. She slept next to me, I carried her (because I didn’t want her walking), and I fed her because she didn’t really want to eat. I was doing a lot. Now that Sparkle is completely healed and back to her playful ways, I want to share some tips on providing the best care for your pet after surgery.
1. Let your pet rest. Everyone kept telling me how much of a routine surgery this was, however, it is still a major surgery, in which your dog will be under anesthesia. For all dogs, especially smaller ones, the anesthesia really does a number them. Expect your dog to not be as responsive; Sparkle slept for 18 hours after her surgery, but it’s not unheard of for dogs to sleep for a whole day. Let them rest.
2. Introduce food and water back to your pet slowly. Dogs can resume drinking water later in the day after receiving surgery and resume eating food the following day. Depending on how small your dog is, the anesthesia may make them nauseous and not want to eat. When you do feed them, do so in small amounts. I could tell Sparkle was thirsty after surgery, so I gave her a cup of water. She proceeded to drink very fast, 30 seconds later she threw up everywhere! I found it easier to put a very small amount of water in a bowl with ice chips so that she is able to rehydrate without taking so much in at once.
3. Don’t let your dog go outside if you can help it. There are so many gross things outside along with other dogs (which yours should stay away from for 10 days.) You don’t want your dog to get into something get into the incision site and hurt him or her.. If you do have to let your dog outside (I did once Sparkle started eating again,)walk them by leash, and don’t allow them to run around or jump on anything while you are walking him or her either.
4. Don’t let your dog lick or bite the incision site. Sparkle was doing well at first but it will start to itch or hurt and the dogs will want to bother it. An e-collar aka the cone of shame works to make sure that your doggie doesn’t make the incision worse.
5. Follow doctors orders! I know we love our pets, and we hate to have them confined in their kennel or struggling with an e-collar, but it’s only temporary. I didn’t immediately use Sparkle’s e-collar, and I was sure she had licked her incision open, but after rushing her back to the vet, I was glad (and so was my wallet) that she was totally fine. I left her collar on for the remainder of the ten days after that though!
Has your dog been spayed or neutered? How did you care for them afterward?
Very good information – it’s important to spay and neuter your pup and now we all have great reference info on how to care for da fuzzy ones post surgery. You are right, just like humans, while doggies ‘appear’ to be pretty good within a short time – it’s important to take it slow and easy and create a happy and calm post-surgery type of environment! Thanks for thinking of sharing this with us!
Before my current dog Laika I had always had male dogs – and I know the guys won’t like this but seriously their surgery is so much easier to care for. I had no idea how bad my dog was going to feel after her spay; it really was surprising. Luckily she healed fine and everything went well but those first few weeks were really stressful for the both of us. Hopefully Sparkle is starting to feel back to normal now; and thanks for the great tips.
Great information! Sparkle is a beauty, too. *s*
Thanks for the great info!!
Good info. Sharing…best wishes for the speediest of recoveries, Sparkle!
Great tips! Recovery time goes much faster when you follow the vets instructions.
Excellent post and advice. My dog’s spay surgery was years ago but I remember giving her lots of TLC the days following.
These are great tips! Sparkle is very cute, and I’m glad she’s all healed up.
I was fortunate that my kitty, Milita, left her incision alone after her spay surgery. She, too, slept a lot when she got home, but that’s totally normal. 🙂
Spaying and neutering has a lot of benefits for pets. I’m glad you got Sparkle spayed.
Twitter: caluvsdogs
on June 14, 2015 at 9:28 PM
Such a great post, shared. It was so nice meeting you at the BlogPaws conference in Nashville, Sparkle! You are so sweet & I loved all your adorable outfits!
Love & Biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them