[LWalks]

Well it’s official, my baby won’t be having any of her own! To be clear, we never would have bred her, but now it’s physically impossible.

We picked up a VERY stoned and VERY unhappy little girl from the vet this evening. It’s so funny how different they are… Charlie has always been so stoical about physical pain (though lots of drama for his emotional woes) Jo seems to be the opposite. They have her extra pain meds because she screamed when the tech took her out of the crate, and screamed again when I carried her into the house even though I was so careful. It’s so hard seeing them hurting and confused— I just wish we could explain!

But hopefully we’re through the worst of it and our biggest worry will be how on earth we keep our wild woman quiet for two weeks! Here’s my stony little girl in her onesie 😊

 

[LWalks]

Thank you for all the well wishes. She is definitely feeling a little better this morning, not so disoriented, but poor girl definitely seems pretty miserable. She is eating and drinking a little, so that’s good, but it’s so weird how tiny she seems. As anyone who has met her can attest, she has SO much personality packed into that tiny body that she doesn’t seem tiny. But she seems soooo small and delicate right now. Of course we colloquially think about it not as ‘spay’ which seems so simple, but technically, it’s an ovariohysterectomy. That’s a big deal! And I do think probably harder on littler dogs in some ways— just less room for the surgeon to do their thing.

Charlie is being the sweetest big brother and is clearly very worried about her. He’s not one for cuddling with her usually and really likes his personal space, but snuggled right up next to her in bed this morning 🥹

 

[LWalks]

Probably better for her in the long run to feel sluggish. Finn acted completely normal after her spay, and although we tried so hard to keep her calm and inactive, she managed to tear her inside stitches and had to go back to the vet to get them re-done. After that she was on trazadone for several days to keep her calm, which she clearly hated. Every time it started to wear off, we could tell because she started acting like her happy, energetic self, and we would have to dose her again. Good luck, and I hope Jolene feels like her old self again soon!

Yeah we have trazodone for when she starts feeling better! They said usually after a couple of days they start feeling more themselves and then you need it to avoid what happened to Finn with the stitches.

 

[LWalks]

How old is she? Our Lexi is approaching six months and we’re trying to decide whether to spay at six months or wait until after the first heat. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on that. Glad your baby is feeling better.

Agree with krandall on waiting!! Jo is 16 months old. We decided to wait until after her first heat or a year, whichever came later, based on the research about the importance of getting those hormones for their development. Her first heat came a week after her first birthday. They say to wait a couple months after the heat has ended, and this timing worked for us (but we still felt pretty confident that it would be be well before her second heat)

I’m not going to lie, it was not the easiest to deal with— she went into heat right before she was supposed to travel cross country with me, so she couldn’t come at the last minute. She also couldn’t go on her group walks for a few weeks to be safe. And she was a bit of a drama queen about the whole thing 😊 But, they say every dog is different and for some, heat is really no big deal. Regardless ,dealing with a few weeks of annoyance is totally worth it to us if it means she is overall healthier, so I’d do it again.

I’ll also add (something I hadn’t thought about) is that I’m so thankful that she’s 100% potty trained. I feel like at 6 months she was still very much learning, and we probably would have seen some regression. She’s been great about it, despite clearly having some pain and being heavily medicated— she goes quickly on command which makes this much easier.

 

[LWalks]

Not for a spay/ neuter but in general to keep them calm after surgery, I found the combo of gabapentin and trazadone to work wonders for Perry - when he had his surgeries and was on crate rest for soooooo long, it's the only thing that kept him chilled out AND kept me sane!

That is the combo we started her on yesterday, when she woke up ready to take on the world! We just gave her another dose of just trazodone, as her morning dose had worn off and she was trying to play with Charlie again, and it knocked her out pretty well. I hate to have her so doped up but the vet said the #1 most important thing is that she heals well, and there’s no way that’s going to happen without the help of drugs. Thankfully she is being SUCH a good girl with the meds, I was worried about it given how tiny her mouth is and how opinionated she is, but she’s been great.

Also, a tip for anyone whose dog is getting surgery— for Charlie’s spring surgery, and for this one, I asked them to shave as little as possible bc their skin gets irritated. Previously, whenever Charlie had an IV, they shaved a huge band on his wrist, which I always just assumed was necessary. And it took MONTHS to grow out. But then @krandall showed us the tiny little spot they shaved for Panda’s emergency c-section, so I learned it was possible to do with very little shaving! And the request worked… it looks so much better, and there’s also one less thing for them to worry.

 

[LWalks]

I've always been on the side of less meds, but realized during the last year that Perry's comfort is the most important thing -and both the trazadone and gabapentin (as long as they tolerate them well) are safe for them - and are much safer than torn sutures or complications from surgery because they were too active. Plus, at least for Perry, he seemed much less distressed on trazadone than without it since he didn't understand why I wasn't letting him run around and was keeping him in his crate.

After trying to keep the meds at their lowest dose and then seeing him in such pain (during his leg surgery) I realized that upping the meds when needed was better all around.

VERY good point. I know you’ve mentioned Perry gets cold very easily… I’ve noticed the same w Jo the last few days, though we also cut her hair the shortest it’s been so it could just be that. Did you notice anything about getting cold more easily when on the meds?

This is where she needed to be this morning after being forced to go outside in the frigid weather by her mean, mean mom (it’s 56 degrees….). And she had a onesie and a fleece on too!

 

[LWalks]

Curious— has anyone seen an increase in appetite after spay? She ate terribly for the first few weeks, but since about week 3 after the surgery she’s been eating voraciously. I’m not complaining— she barely ate as a puppy and was borderline underweight for a while. It got better around her first birthday but she was still pretty unenthusiastic about meals, so I never would have thought that this dog would gobble her food the way she has been. I’ve read that spay can increase appetite, but wondering if others have seen this change in Havs? I know they can also gain more easily after being spayed, so I am keeping a careful eye on her body fat, especially bc she’s so small so I think the food amounts are probably tiny to make a difference (if you’d told me this would be a concern for her a year ago, I would have laughed in your face!)

 

[LWalks]

Oh, man!!! My vet and I both had our girls spayed after their (only) litters at about the same time. Her girl is a Border Collie. We have been commiserating about their “spay coats” and their incredible appetites! Panda has always been a good eater… I have often called her the “Labrador Retriever of Havanese”. I have always needed to watch her weight. But now? After every meal, she goes around and licks every molecule out of every one else’s dishes. She waits like a vulture outside Ducky’s crate HOPING he’ll spill something. She knows better than to beg at the human table, but she is always lurking, just HOPING something hits the floor! She acts as if she is being starved to death!

It’s so fascinating! Like I said, I’m not complaining that she finally eats, but we currently have two other dogs in the house and she definitely tried to get to both of their dinners after polishing hers off. Another reason to delay spaying if you can— I feel like it would have been harder to manage with a growing puppy and not over feeding.

 

[LWalks]

WELL... IMO, overfeeding is a human problem. And completely under the human's control. Dogs don't have thumbs and can't feed themselves. They can't eat more than they are fed. I feel a bit bad for Panda, but she doesn't weigh an ounce more than she should.

And I believe that all dogs should be able to eat in peace. So all my dogs eat in crates. They all happily run and wait in their crates for their food, and come out again as soon as everyone is finished eating. But I don't want ANYONE worrying about someone grabbing their food.

Oh yes I totally agree— I just meant dialing in the right amount might be trickier w a growing puppy! They definitely aren’t at fault when they’re over fed….