Key-hole vs traditional surgery for spay

[Emily & Wispa]

Just wondering what your views are on this topic.

We've booked Wispa in for a keyhole spay in 10 days.  It's not our normal vet that does it, but one near enough offers the option, and once I'd read up on it a bit I was sold.  The different in price isn't as exorbitant as I thought it would be, and for Wispa to have less pain, not have her whole uterus removed, and a much easier recovery, I was sold on it. 

I'm not sure how many places do it, though.  Anyone have any experience with keyhole?  I'd love to know if it's as good as it sounds!

EDIT: Thought I'd pop back to let you all know how it went.  She went in at 9:00 on the morning of the spay and I had a consultation with the vet, he explained everything they would do.  They would perform blood tests to check for anything that might cause problems with general anesthetic, and she would have the surgery around midday, and I should be able to pick her up after 4pm.

I got a call at around 1:30 saying she'd come out and was recovering well from the anesthetic and the op had gone perfectly.  I picked her up at around 4:30 and she she was bouncing and jumping up to say hello, I would never have guessed she'd just had surgery.  They suggested we feed her a simply dinner of cooked chicken and potato, and only in small amounts  a couple times that evening.  She has 3 tiny incisions - the biggest one is about a centimetre long and the other two about 5-7mm!

The only issue we had was that she developed a reaction to the suture material.  It would have happened if it were a normal spay as well most likely, and probably would have been worse as the incision would have been much larger.  It started on the day of our follow up check at 4 days post-op, but had gotten worse 2 days later, so I took her in for another check and we got a course of antibiotics for her.  4 days later now, she's finished her antibiotics, and the lump has gone down almost entirely, and she's doing well.

She's been a bit more needy since the op, and had a bit of separation anxiety when we leave her alone, but we're hoping she pushes past that as she heals, or else we're going to have some very unhappy neighbours anytime we want to go for dinner (imaging a crying, yelping, and sometimes howling dog - if the neighbour is to be fully believed).

[David Louie]

I had posted our experience previously regarding laparoscopic spay for our puppy Charlie. Research on Internet seems to indicate less pain and faster healing.


We had Charlie spayed at 5 1/2 month. She was dropped of at the vet in the morning for blood work and prep, had her procedure (lap/ keyhole spay) at noon, and we were able to pick her up at 6:00pm (no overnight stay required). We got sent home with metacam once daily for 5 days for pain and inflammation. The first 2 days were kind of hard as she was suffering mostly from razor burn from where she was shaved. We used a cone & tshirt to minimize scratching and licking of the area. By day 4 Charlie was back to normal activity ie playing, walks, etc although we tried to slow her down until a week has past. Day 7 back to the vet to remove stitches & she was given clean bill of health. It's been about 5 weeks now and hair has been growing back and the 2 incision sites are hardly noticeable. I am glad we went with the lap spay vs traditional spay. Cost was about $100.00 more.

[Emily & Wispa]

Sounds good to me.  This vet uses dissolving stitches, so no removal needed.  I hope she won't need the elizabethan collar, we were told it wouldn't be necessary!  I always feel so sorry for puppies with them.

One week to go!

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

I discussed this option with our vet recently, and her opinion is that there is significant pain from the gas that they need to use in order to "inflate" the area.  She also explained that this alternative spay procedure necessitates three incisions.  It is an interesting alternative to the traditional spay surgery.  She also said that she makes a very small incision, unlike some of the teaching veterinary hospitals, where students often perform the surgeries.  Whichever option you choose, I hope the recovery is easy and quick for your Wispa.