Good Morning All,
I was off the last few days helping my female get through her spay recovery. I wanted to share some of what we went through with her since as much as I thought I was prepared... I was not.
We have a male and female who are very bonded. Months ago we started separate training and time alone with them. They were fine being away from each other as long as we were with them. We thought we had done everything we could to prepare for this time when they would be separated for Choncheese to get spayed.
We decided to get our female spayed now because our male is already very active with her and we do not want puppies. We waited till she was 7 months and her vulva progressed enough to where she wouldn't have any long term issues (she had an outie). We did not want to risk her going into heat and them mating.
The 1st night we brought her home we had her in the hallway, gated off and away from our male. She was still under anesthesia and had on the cone of shame. I woke up at 1am to find her in the living room on the couch. She had climbed/jumped her 4' high gate and made her way on top of the couch. None of which she should have done... So I spent the rest of the night with her in my step daughters room. She was calm in there. During the day she would sleep in our bathroom, which was nice and cold while I tried to work.
The 2nd night we set her up, what we thought was safe and secure, back in my step daughters bedroom. I woke up at midnight to check on her to find her screaming in panic. Jumping/bouncing off the walls and door. She had figured out a way to boost herself up to the window where our male had ripped the screen off on the other side and they were trying to get it open for her to escape. It took me over an hour to calm her down, she had ripped a lot of her glued sutures open which I had to go back to the vet the next morning to get cleaned and re-glue.
The vet told me she would need to be crated as much as possible for her to stay calm, rest and recover. She also gave us sedatives because she had done so much damage she did not want to risk her doing anything else to delay recovery. So sad to say but she is now crated during the day when I am not with her and at night next to me when we sleep. I take her outside to go to the bathroom, walk around and get some movement but then she is back in the crate. She seems to understand that is where she needs to be but her stress comes when she is left alone. She needs to be with 1 of us or with our male. Its been a very hard process … I just want to stress to anyone the importance of crating your dog when they need to be. We never used crates because the dogs were amazing in the backyard but this has been a huge eye opener.
Here are some pics from the process so far... Saturday is the day the 2 lovers get to reunite 100% and WE ALL can not wait for it
Side Note: we used the Suitical with her and she loved it. She didn't have to use the cone after the 1st few days where we knew she wouldn't go after her incision.
I was off the last few days helping my female get through her spay recovery. I wanted to share some of what we went through with her since as much as I thought I was prepared... I was not.
We have a male and female who are very bonded. Months ago we started separate training and time alone with them. They were fine being away from each other as long as we were with them. We thought we had done everything we could to prepare for this time when they would be separated for Choncheese to get spayed.
We decided to get our female spayed now because our male is already very active with her and we do not want puppies. We waited till she was 7 months and her vulva progressed enough to where she wouldn't have any long term issues (she had an outie). We did not want to risk her going into heat and them mating.
The 1st night we brought her home we had her in the hallway, gated off and away from our male. She was still under anesthesia and had on the cone of shame. I woke up at 1am to find her in the living room on the couch. She had climbed/jumped her 4' high gate and made her way on top of the couch. None of which she should have done... So I spent the rest of the night with her in my step daughters room. She was calm in there. During the day she would sleep in our bathroom, which was nice and cold while I tried to work.
The 2nd night we set her up, what we thought was safe and secure, back in my step daughters bedroom. I woke up at midnight to check on her to find her screaming in panic. Jumping/bouncing off the walls and door. She had figured out a way to boost herself up to the window where our male had ripped the screen off on the other side and they were trying to get it open for her to escape. It took me over an hour to calm her down, she had ripped a lot of her glued sutures open which I had to go back to the vet the next morning to get cleaned and re-glue.
The vet told me she would need to be crated as much as possible for her to stay calm, rest and recover. She also gave us sedatives because she had done so much damage she did not want to risk her doing anything else to delay recovery. So sad to say but she is now crated during the day when I am not with her and at night next to me when we sleep. I take her outside to go to the bathroom, walk around and get some movement but then she is back in the crate. She seems to understand that is where she needs to be but her stress comes when she is left alone. She needs to be with 1 of us or with our male. Its been a very hard process … I just want to stress to anyone the importance of crating your dog when they need to be. We never used crates because the dogs were amazing in the backyard but this has been a huge eye opener.
Here are some pics from the process so far... Saturday is the day the 2 lovers get to reunite 100% and WE ALL can not wait for it
Side Note: we used the Suitical with her and she loved it. She didn't have to use the cone after the 1st few days where we knew she wouldn't go after her incision.