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

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

I just checked- it was $550 which included lab work ahead of time, laser surgery, laser treatment to the incision after the surgery, pain meds and antibiotics. Well worth it!

[JoAnne Terry]

Hello

I had my F3 mini golden doodle spayed on 2/10/2017. She was 6.5 months old. My vet suggested getting spayed at 6 months and I did not want to deal with a heat cycle. I had my previous golden doodle spayed around the same age and both did fine. Neither dog bothered their incision and neither had cones. Cali, is 24 lbs when she was spayed. The vet doesn't think she'll get much bigger. She had no external stitches and I don't know if it was a laser or regular surgery. She too goes to day care and I was told to let her be low key for 2 weeks. Her incision was healed within a week and she returned to daycare within 10 days and has no ill effects. Her cost (I live in Michigan, near Detroit) was about $175. I also had her microchipped for $40 and bought a month's worth of heartguard and nextguard so my bill ended up being $225. She came home with a liquid pain med that I was to give for 3 to 5 days and did use for the first 3 days. She's back to normal like nothing happened. I've uploaded a picture of her. No poodle in this doodle. LOL

Best of luck with your decision. 

JoAnne and Cali

[Kathy Basso]

OMG...she is the CUTEST

[Dr Karen Hoving]

I also worried about the spay before/after heat. My vet said that chances of breast ca were only high after 3rd heat. But being a PhD when I don't know I research- so I read a LOT of studies, many recent reporting 1 heat was ok, more inc chances of Breast CA. Others had different results.

I have a lot of health issues myself. And I know that studies bounce all over the place. So I guess talk to your vet, talk to ppl here and make your best decision.

As for laser- I couldn't find one here to do that. One vet is doing a laparoscopy to remove ovaries only (which made me nervous re: long term issues/illness w/leaving uterus in) but my vet said it would have been fine -surgery is VERY long. AND having had 5 laps myself I know the pain is much higher bc of the gas they fill the cavity with. But, that is another option (to make you probably throw your hands up screaming TMI!) I had never heard of it to be honest. They say the recoup/incision is super fast-but I opted to do the regular spay with internal stitches (a friend had her dog spayed got staples-they have to be removed).I wanted to do it, get her home, hope she forgets and isn't afraid to see the vet again. BUT that was my deal.Everyone here has to follow their own conscious and research on what they feel is best. It is clear you love your baby so I'm sure you'll make the right decision for the both of you. I'm so glad to have a group where there are many knowledgeable people with differing ideas so you see a panoramic of options.

[Mary]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for great advise. I wanted to give you an update. We had Belfi spayed yesterday. Unfortunately, I could not find a good vet who would do laser surgery close to us. I found one which we made an appointment and everything but on the way to the vet, they gave me their location for surgery and they had many negative reviews online!! So we cancel the appointment and went back home. Her regular vet did the surgery yesterday. She was very sleepy yesterday evening and woke up multiple times during the night moaning. Usually, if she has a problem and a hard time sleeping, I take her to our bed but we could not do it last night and she was very disappointed.

She is doing fine today, I bought few new chew toys/bones for her to keep her busy. Any suggestions and tricks to keep her calm during the next 7-10 days?

And Karen, thanks a lot for the alt e-collar suggestion. It was a great idea. We had her wear it the night before the surgery, she was not very happy about it for the first 1-2 hours but then she got used to it and now she does not even know what has happened and pays no attention to the area of the scar, at least for now. It is super cute too!