Spaying

[Mary]

Hi everyone,

My puppy, Belfi, is becoming 6 months old in a couple of weeks and I am planning to spay her. She is a standard size F1 goldendoodle. I was wondering if anyone can give me some hints on what to look for and how to get prepared for the surgery and what to expect after. How long does the recovery usually take? How hard is the procedure for the dogs? She goes to daycare couple of days a week, one of the reasons I want to spay her sooner rather than later, how many weeks after the surgery she can start going to the daycare again? (She loves the daycare!)

Any info/suggestion is very much appreciated.

Also the range of prices I could find was a bit wild anything between $100 and $500, not sure what is the best way to choose the facility, any suggestion? 

Thanks

[LORRY SWETLAND]

if all the other dogs at daycare are neutered then I would not spay her until she was done with her first heat or 1 yr old. I would also look for a vet that does laser surgery. The recoup time is shorter and no stitches and no cone. I have heard that spaying takes longer to recoup than neutering. Also she would need all her hormones until full maturity. She is a standard doodle so she will be over 50 pounds at full growth so the hormones are needed for her joints. Please check with your vet this is only my opinion and my research. Turbo is 13 months and still hasn't reached full maturity and he is 77.7 pounds and is still growing taller. He now stands 28 1/2 inches to the shoulder. He has not been neutered yet. Take your vets advice and I would definitely ck into laser surgery.

[Mary]

Our vet suggestion is to do it before her first heat as it gets easier for the recovery and also lowers the chance of developing breast cancer later in her life. But as I have done research I know this is very debatable issue. Also the daycare requires spaying around 6-month of age. 

Thanks for the laser surgery idea, I will try to find one around me. 

[Kathy Basso]

I am following this discussion as I have same question. Gemma is F1 standard and expected to be 55 lbs.
Vet suggests 6-7 months.

[LORRY SWETLAND]

How much does she weigh now? Turbo was not supposed to be more than 60/65 pounds at full growth as I said he is still growing and 77 pounds and 28 1/2 in tall. He won't be neutered until he is 18 months old and I will use the vet that does laser surgery. Yes more expensive but no stitches  and no cone and they are very active afterwards and no worries on your part. They just have there normalcy back by the next day. I had my other dogs yrs ago all done by laser and it is so much easier on the dog but harder on your pocket lol.

[Kathy Basso]

I will definitely ask my vet about laser surgery. Gemma is 4.5 months old and weight 33 lbs. I had a coonhound a few years back I spayed at 5 months...no cone, never bothered stitches..but, different dog and different times.

[Glenda & Lizzy Lu]

Lizzy is an F1 golden doodle and is now 2 1/2 yrs old and weighs 52 lbs. As recommended by more than one vet we waited until she was a little more than one year old and had completed her first heat cycle. The worst part was getting through thar heat cycle. We stayed with her every minute when she was out side and of course she could not go to daycare. We did not know anything about laser surgery at the time. Lizzy''s recovery went well but it was very difficult to keep her from running, jumping, etc, and the collar was a nightmare but she would not leave ther incision alone. We hated the experience and so did she but the thought of going through another heat cycle with her was much worse. We were told by the breeder and two vets how important it was for her growth plates to reach full growth as well as her over all health to wait to have her fixed after the full completion of her first heat cycle. I would strongly recommend you wait and give your baby the best chance at a full and healthy life. The surgery cost $320 although we got other quotes of up to $600. Do your homework, ask lots of questions and get other peoples' recommendations. We were totally pleased with her care and there were no surprises. Hope all goes well.

[LORRY SWETLAND]

My first dog as a young teenager was a female and a small female. At 9 months she had her first heat cycle and she didn't know what was happening to her and what she had to do as far as keeping herself clean and she had cramps and moaned around it was pitiful. After that we never knew when she was in heat. She took care of it herself. We never did have her spayed...Back then no one spayed or neutered their dogs. But I never had a female dog again until I got a Chihuahua and she was already spayed. Neutering is so much easier on the dog.

[Mary]

Yeah that is my nightmare, she is constantly jumping around when she is not sleeping, how can I keep her from that ?

[Dr Karen Hoving]

HI!

I have a 7 month Sheepadoodle. I had her spayed almost right at 6 months.

1.IMHO the "cone of shame" is a nightmare. Go to AMAZON and look for a post op "sweater" I used this one with GREAT success. You need to measure your girl (I order M-L and it was perfect). 

https://www.amazon.com/Alternative-Abdominal-Recommended-Veterinari...

When ordering (IF you decide to) make note that you chose 1)Size and 2)Color- there are lots of choices so be careful. ALSO I brought it into my vet (Bella HATES any kind of sweater) so I asked them to put it on her BEFORE she was fully alert, in pain and unhappy.Well they didn't realize this sweater doesn't need to be removed  to pee or poop (didn't wash it the whole time). SO they walked her then it took 4 to get it on! BUT that's bella!

If you don't like the style- there are many others of "e-collar alternatives"

The incision was tiny- maybe 1" long! My last dog-standard poodle, had a much larger incision (5"?) but that was 13 yrs ago.

Now I am neurotic. With that in mind, after we dropped her off in am, I moved her things downstairs and then planned on sleeping on the couch in case she needed anything. Also I bought some puddle pads bc I wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it outside. 

The pads were not necessary. If you have some from potty training days maybe put one out "in case" but if she's like Bella it won't be necessary.

I think the sleeping downstairs was so I could watch so she didn't go up the stairs.

She seemed a tad anxious and loopy when we brought her home .The biggest problem for me was getting her out of the car (she was 39 lbs-but I have Lupus and RA so she was much too heavy).She wouldn't eat for hours (and the only prob with that was she seemed uncomfortable and I couldn't give her the puppy pain meds until she ate. She would walk. Sit. Whine. Try to rest. Readjust. Rinse-repeat.

When she ate and got her pill she was great.

By the next day it was a nightmare trying to keep her from running jumping etc.

The only issue we had (and I took her in 1 week shy of 6 months-we would have done it earlier but she got a nasty case of giardia and the vet and I agreed that we needed her in good shape before anesthesia )so when she called right after she informed me Bella had gone into "silent heat" (totally missed that -thus the word SILENT) I had never heard of this. And back in the day, vets didn't like to spay dogs in heat so I was pissed that they did it. BUT when she explained (AND I researched) she told me her nipples were a bit enlarged on examination before surgery. When she cut her uterus et all were "immature" so it was all good. This surgeon also works at clinics-so she wasn't concerned.She spays anything that will sit still (JOKE). We had no problem- the only anxiety was my mis-knowledge about what was "allowed".

By day 3 she was insane- I couldn't keep her off the stairs, I was terrified she'd rip her internal stitches. But all was great. BY a week she decided the sweater was a no-go and started rubbing a chair to get it off. Her incision looked good so (despite being told we needed 2 weeks) I took it off bc she was learning how to untie or chew it off. NOW that is Bella- if you can get your dog to wear a sweater or jacket in the snow or rain, it won't be a problem. The sweater was MUCH better than the cone. She could lay down, eat, see, MUCH better!

I was nervous- but that's me- I'm sure she'll be fine. If you would rather do the cone of shame (price is not that diff depending on your vet) it's fine, I just have found none of my dogs or cats would have it and I'd end up taking it off day 1 and watching them to make sure no licking was going on. Bella didn't seem to be interested in the incision or the shaved leg where the IV went. (the advised we watched licked to avoid hot spots).

ALSO bc she was in "silent heat" she couldn't go out for any walk (they told us only out to pee/poop no long walks for 2 weeks and we adheared to that) bc of the hormones. She used the back yard, but was "jonesing" to run around by the time 2 weeks hit. 

Good luck! If you need any emotional support yelp- but I'm sure these ladies know more than I could ever do (sorry so long but I would have appreciated if someone had walked me through everything...I would have been less nervous. OH the pain meds are an anti-inflammatory -not a "puppy percocet" type drug.We gave it to her 2x a day for 5 days. The last day she almost didn't need it but I wasn't sure if it was bc of meds or healing so I gave her the whole amount.  

Also I didn't have the vet chip her bc it was $50 - and I could get it for $15 at a store here called Chuck and Dons(They bring a vet in 3 x a month- so check and see if anyone is doing something similar-unless money is not an object). 

Total cost of spay ran around $250-300.IT was $115 for pre op blood work then I owed maybe 180? At time of surgery.

Good luck! OH used the greenies pill pockets to put the pain pills in.

Dr karen and Bella

[Mary]

Thanks a lot for very long and detail response. The e-collar  alternative looks much better than the cone. 

Yeah, that is my nightmare too, how to prevent her from jumping around.

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

There are some differing opinions on the timing of the surgery... we went with our vet's recommendation of 6 months. Winnie had the laser surgery and it was phenomenal! I literally had to search for the incision afterward- it was so tiny and the edges started healing together right away. 

Winnie woke up right after surgery and acted like nothing ever happened to her. She was not one bit drowsy or in any kind of distress. She never needed a cone, either. She had it done on a Friday, and I felt very confident leaving her at home unsupervised when we went back to work on Monday. 

She was supposed to stay home from daycare 2 weeks, and I have to admit that those were 2 very long weeks as she had so much energy to burn! The biggest problem we had was trying to keep her from jumping up. 

[Mary]

Yeah, I have to find out about the laser surgery for sure. Do you remember how much you paid for it? 

Without the daycare we cannot burn out her energy by ourselves ever! The funny thing is that more than half of the dogs in her daycare are some kind of doodle or poodle!