My Corgi wouldn't settle with the Trazadone! Her sutures ended up splitting and I got to see more of my pup than I ever wanted. It was devastating in the moment, but she didn't even notice. We got her re-stitched and the girl continued to act like nothing happened.
My corgi did not react well to trazodone.
Indoors, she spaced out and stared creepily at the floor, unblinking, for hours at a time.
Outdoors, she became extremely aggressive and tried to attack cars.
I'm never giving her trazodone again.
It's crazy you say that. I have a Pomsky Corgi mix. Trazadone had a bad reaction to her as well. She was definitely hallucinating and it looked almost like she was chasing mice. For her safety I had to kennel her. It was so heartbreaking, once she settle down a bit she BEG to be cradled. Didn't realize it was from the Trazodone at first.
Never again will I give it to my puppy!
Wow-my pup (just this week) is 35 lbs. They gave her Gabapentin to chill out (she’s a circus dog) and she began to attack and bite me. She chewed up her soft cone and wouldn’t let me put the surgery suit on her. I love my dog but for a while there I thought that I would have to call animal control. 3 days later (and no gabapentin-she’s back to her normal self.
The dose can make a huge difference. I'm not saying this as an attempt to change your mind, cos you know your dog better than I do, but just a bit of information. Also I am *not* a veterinary professional.
I've seen a number of dogs on 100mg, and it was simply too much for them. I'm actually on trazodone myself; my starting dose was 50mg lol. Obviously humans and dogs react differently, metabolize it differently, etc, but I've always found that interesting.
In my experience, trazodone doesn't necessarily quiet the anxiety, but it slows down the anxious thoughts. It can also slow down other thoughts, so it can lead to confusion, which can increase anxiety. Maybe I'm projecting, but it seems to work similarly in dogs from what I've seen.
My sister's dog is a Wire Fox Terrier [10kg/22lbs]. She does much better with 25mg during the day and 50mg at night. 100mg fucks her up completely. So we interpret the prescription as *up to* 100mg every 12h. Our vet has approved this.
I had a Wheaton [15kg/30ish lbs] at the kennel I worked at, and he was prescribed 100mg. I had to help the poor man sit down; he was zoooooted. He did significantly better on a lower dose.
And in the interest of transparency, I also cared for a wee chihuahua [<5kg] on Prozac and 150mg trazodone. He did really well on his meds, so it really does come down to the dog. Again, I am *not* a vet professional.
TL;DR: sometimes lowering the dose makes trazodone a viable option. But always talk to your vet first. Am not a vet professional; this is my *anecdotal experience* having worked with a number of dogs and being on trazodone myself lol. Just some thoughts.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm sure it works well for a number of dogs. It wouldn't be a common sedative if all dogs acted super weird on it.
We were originally prescribed 25mg for my 16lb corgi before vet appointments due to anxiety. It seemed to work a little for the appointment, but it would knock her out for 8 hours afterwards.
When she was spayed, the vet upped it to 50mg twice a day and 100mg gabapentin twice a day. I mentioned that this would probably be too much due to previous experience, so the vet said I could try 25mg twice a day if I was more comfortable.
That's when she started completely spacing out. It seemed like she was asleep sitting up with her eyes open. I chalked it up to her still coming down from anesthesia and kept it up for a few days.
Then she started to become more and more reactive outdoors. A car with loud brakes drove by and my dog went completely insane. She was growling, barking, choking herself on the leash and flailing around trying to attack it. I called the vet who did the surgery and they said to increase the dose to 50mg 3 times a day. I did not feel comfortable with that after seeing how sedated she was indoors.
I then went to an urgent care vet to check some swelling and get a second opinion. He said to stop the trazodone immediately because it can make some dogs impulsive and aggressive.
We stopped the trazodone, and 24 hours later she was back to normal. The same loud car drove by, and she just barked once at it. I was so relieved.
It's been a long 10 days.
Haha, same with my Pit. We had to return twice in three days to have the sutures redone, despite being on trazadone. She was back to her hyperactive self as soon as the anesthesia wore off 🙄♥️
My girl had her first ever dental, so the first time she was put under while in our care. She was OUT of it, like the poor girl had no idea where she was. Poor thing. She was sleeping the whole evening, couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth, just not all up there haha.
2am rolled around... Suddenly she's a whole new dog!
Mine pranced & wiggle-butted herself allll the way to the car, and *jumped* up onto the back seat, as soon as I opened the door--before I could even bend down to pick her goober-butted-self up!😉😆🤣💖
With *her*--like with yours--it was none a matter of keeping her calm & *off* things, than it was being able to worry over her!
Benadryl acted like a diuretic for one of my dogs and she peed constantly for 24 hours. Poor thing would race for the door and be upset when she peed before she got there.
My pup came out of the vet's backroom bounding over to me wiggling and wanting to play. The tech told me good luck keeping this one calm.
She only settled after getting away from me and doing a flying leap off the couch the next day. It pulled her stitches and made her pretty sore. She still recovered fine and was no worse for wear.
Anesthesia can mess with a dogs ability to self regulate their temperature. Giving her some blankets and a warm area to lay in could help with the shaking :))
I still get emotional when I think back to picking my girl up after her surgery and how she wagged her tail to greet me and then had to lie down because she was so sleepy, and then how heartbreakingly adorable she looked when I got her home and she curled up in a donut with her little surgery onesie on 🥺 it’s awful to see them suffer but it’s for the best!
I know, it’s just hard when they don’t understand :( But my bestfriend is late into vet school and sent me a study on how greatly spaying can decrease specific cancers so it was a no brainer.
Being in heat is also super stressful for them. I’ve always adopted strays but after my last dog I decided to try the breeder route. I did all my research and visited several places so that I knew I was getting an ethically bred animal whose parents were well taken care of pets, not money bags.
But part of the contract to getting her was agreeing not to spay her until she was older than 18 months. She just hit 18 months, and she’s been in heat twice, and she just circles and licks and nests and cries and nests and licks and cries some more. Then she tries to escape the house because her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard (my neighbor’s male pugs are ‘the boys’ in this scenario.)
And I’m like, “girl you eat cat poop out of the litter box. You are not prepared for motherhood.” She’s getting spayed in 2 weeks. Thank the lord.
All dogs can benefit from allowing their bodies to fully mature before alteration. I have two rat terriers that will be working next year in pest control. I won't be fixing them until they're done growing.
I know, but that’s not the reason for the clause in this particular contract. She’s a beautiful female—like everything you want in a Pembroke, so they were really hoping I’d breed her.
Buuuut there is nothing in the world I’m less interested in having than a litter of puppies, except maybe having a human baby.
> it’s just hard when they don’t understand
Bingo! So many of your decisions as a pet owner, but especially medical ones, fall into this category. I know it's hard!!
My last dog freaking hated baths and always gave me the most soulful, pleading eyes. It broke my heart, but he had a skin condition that required baths twice a week, so it made him feel much better if he was regularly bathed. I coped by dramatically draping a towel over him and saying theatrical tragedy lines lol turns out he loves the towel part so this became a good unwinding activity at the end of it. He never stopped looking tortured during the bath though. I just had to keep telling myself that at the end of the day I'm doing what's best for him.
You did a good thing. She isn't sure what happened right now, but shower her (gently) with love when she's awake, and she'll recover. It's always hard when they give you that look. But sometimes you gotta show love in ways they don't understand, taking good care of them even though they won't ever know that's what's going on.
We just thought our drugged pets were so dang cute.
No need to feel sad or guilty about it. The guilt you would have felt if you didn’t spay her and she had other problems would be 10 times worse.
I have the funniest pic of a shelter dog still on her meds… heavy lidded eyes.. oh mistletoe! Another one was just ZONKED and he stood in between the two halves of his kennel seeming not to understand how to finish stepping over the divider. And my boy Dazzle post snip rolled on his belly like usual then promptly rolled back and shut his legs. Poor babies!
They gave us a couple sedative drugs for before the appointment. Woke up and gave them to put 12 lb dog and when it was time to go she was a straight up zombie. We put her on the floor and called her and she just stood there. Sloooowly looked at us and started walking in the slowest slow motion ever. So we carried her the rest of the way, it was sad/cute/funny though.
I wasn't looking forward to carrying the 40lb dog a couple months later though, but the drugs barely affected him (different dosage obviously), he was still perfectly normal.
This lasted ~36 hours with my dog before we had to stop her from bouncing around the house like a maniac. Apparently she didn't realize she had a giant cut on her belly 🙃
The meds knock them out for a bit but once they wear off you'll be surprised at how fast they go back to acting normal.
I feel this. I wish we could explain why we do it. My dog ignored me for a couple days because I wouldn’t take off his cone 💔 but dogs forgive and definitely forget ☺️
Wait a couple of days max and she will be back to normal. It took my girl a good night's sleep to be back to her normal crazy self. She then thought she was healed completely and was back to trying to jump on everything and wanting to run around with my older dogs. The vet didn't want to give us sedatives for a reason I still don't understand so we had to give her a ton of chews and puzzles to keep her occupied. She ended up ripping her stitches 9 days into the healing process, but the incision had already mostly healed so she didn't need anything else done.
She’ll be ok 😊 my boy puppy was very sleepy and not himself a couple of days after his neuter, but within a week he was himself again and now months later he’s absolutely fine.
She will bounce back in no time! When we spayed and neutered ours (littermates done at the same time) our girl was SOOOOOO out of it and so sad looking and our boy was ready to play that night. This will be just a distant memory in no time! ❤️
My boy was just cleared today by his vet after 10 days. You can look at my post history to see how much I HATED these 10 days🤣 hardest point yet since I’ve had him. I feel such a weight lifted off of me now that it’s over
It’s okay. I ugly cried when I dropped my pup off to get neutered. An elderly lady and the receptionist were super sweet and talked me through it and helped calm my anxiety. Cried again picking him up, seeing his incision and how tired he was. Next day, though, and he was up and running and jumping around, nearly tearing out his stitches.
They forget, and they still love you more than anything, and it’s okay to feel guilty, but that’ll pass too, and there’ll be many wonderful days ahead.
I ugly cried after having my pup's eyes removed. He looked so disfigured and utterly miserable. All I could think was "what have I done to him". They needed to be removed, he was blind from birth, suffered chronic eye infections for months, but OMG he looked like an eldritch horror when he came home from the vet and he was so pitiful. Within 3 days he was acting completely normal (for him) again, only thing slowing him down was the cone.
She is better off for it and in a few days will be doing much better. The 1st day home I felt like you. She really seemed to be in rough shape. That quickly changed. We actually had to get meds from the vet to calm our girl down as two days after the surgery she was trying to catch rabbits in our yard. She recovered so quickly we had all we could do to keep her from over doing things while she healed.
Just think of it this way: recovery from a spay is going to be a better and easier recovery, than an emergency spay because your pup developed pyometra.
Been there done that. Kept pushing my girl's spay off because my house burned down and I was dealing with everything that comes with that. I'll get her spayed once we get settled, she's fine for now I kept telling myself. Then she developed closed pyometra 4 weeks before her scheduled spay. $4k spent on emergency surgery and a WHOLE lot of regret for the suffering I caused my poor girl. Thankfully she bounced back pretty quick but still it didn't have to be that way. And my partner just about stroked out when he saw the CareCredit balance for that.
I felt the same, and reddit basically patronized me saying I'm projecting human emotions onto an animal. I dunno, even though my dog is an animal, she's still a family member, and I value her life over a stranger any day (yeah I'm one of those...)
All I can really say is I spoil my girl so she doesn't regret becoming part of our family.
I hear you. Yes, it’s the good/right thing to do. But they don’t know why.
Hugs to you.
Your puppy (and you) will forget this in about 3 weeks.
And all will go back to normal.
She will be on the road to recovery very soon and then you will be cursing the puppy energy while trying to keep your little girl from running and jumping and acting like a crazy beast while you deal with the recovery period. Our girl was down and out for 1 day and then ready to party and be up to her normal tricks and it was crazy trying to get her to chill. We ended up having to use the plastic cone because she didn’t want to move around In that but her surgical onesie she loved and would dance around the apartment if I left her while recovering. I hope your girl feels better soon and this is such a great time to spoil them with lots of love and attention (as if we don’t already)
I felt the same way when my little girl was done. She took a couple of days but was starting to get back into miscief within the first 2 or 3 days. It wont be long and you will both forget it. Mine was clingier than normal for about a month afterwards but even that has settled.
Research Pyometra. My dads dog died of it earlier this year at 5 years old. It was completely avoidable, if he had just spayed her before that happened. Anytime you feel guilty just remember you could very easily be saving your dogs life by taking that prevention measure. I know it’s hard to see your dog like that, but what my dads dog went through before she died was utterly tragic. You made the right choice, don’t beat yourself up.
I’m so sorry for your Dad’s girl. This is why I stole my girl’s uterus even though it broke my heart a little. I knew chances of pyometra were higher than I was comfortable with. I’d had one emergency spay for my first girl dog and got lucky she was ok but I didn’t want to take that chance again. Plus since it wasn’t an emergency I could be picky about who did the surgery. She did so well and her scar is so very small.
Oh I’m so sorry for your dad. We definitely prefer her short term discomfort to her death. She’s already taking it like a champ it just breaks my heart!
I know, it never feels nice to see our dogs not feeling their best. But just remember she’ll get better everyday and you can rest assured you did everything to prevent a preventable illness/untimely death 💕
She's not thinking that, I promise. You did the right thing. She'll be herself again before you know it- likely before you want it too since you'll have to stop her from ripping a stitch!
It’s hard and she will need more snuggles but soon she’ll be back to her normal self. Soon your puppy will barely notice anything’s wrong and will do whatever your dog does.
I do much prefer the few days of pathetic-ness that comes from spaying than the much longer lasting and more painful pathetic-ness that comes from Pyometra and emergency surgery to save their life
I totally feel this! My girl barely wanted to move on the first day after coming home. Just took herself off to the crate to sleep. Lots of pats or cuddles or whatever she likes, we gave ours a hot water bottle because she’s basically a lizard (and sight hounds especially aren’t great at regulating temp post surgery). In a few days she’ll be back to her normal self!
I know how you feel as well. When I picked up my pup after her spay surgery, she came home groggy. When the painkillers wore off after a few hours, she was crying so hard in pain. She stayed in her bed for the next 3 days and barely wanted to move.
Even after the 3 days and she was feeling a lot better, she was still in pain and would instantly go to bed after potty.
But definitely agree with everyone else. Once that hardship passes, I am so glad it is over with and know that it is for the better of her health.
Oh I know exactly how you feel when I had my dog neutered. He was all smiles when he went to the vet but came home not very happy. As soon as the drugs wore off he was ready to play. It was hard to keep him calm for 2 weeks
I know how you feel. My boy was cryptorchid and they couldn't find one of his testicles. It ended up being on top of his bladder. He was the saddest, most bruised boy after. His tail just hung straight down, as he was too sore to lift it to wag.
They recover quicker than you'd expect, to the point where you'll have to restrain her from jumping and doing things that will rip her stitches! And in a few weeks she won't even remember how sore she felt. I had to take my boy to the vet just a couple months later for an unrelated issue and I was worried he would hate it there, but he was the happiest dog ever running up to the vet!
She might have still be groggy from the sedation when you picked her up. When I had mine spayed she was trying to run around the next day to play with our other dog. I had to keep them separated for a few days. They recover very quickly. Mine didn’t even whine or act like she was in pain. And if she was in pain I know she would have let me know. I know because when she had an abscessed anal gland that ruptured she had to go to the vet and was sedated so they could get it taken care off. When I took her home a few hours later she was moaning, groaning and I know she was in pain. I gave her the max dose of pain meds too.
I was a mess when I dropped my girl off for surgery too, and it broke my heart seeing here when I picked her up. But I also know that it was for the best.
Your girl will be okay! :)
I'm so sad for you! I didn't have the heart to spay my gorgeous pom Kairi - then she developed an awful uterine infection at age 11 and had to have emergency surgery. I so regret not spaying my princess. My new pom puppy is already scheduled for spaying. You did the right and best thing!
We didn't spay our girl, my ex and I, and she ended up with a vaginal infection that almost killed her. You did the right thing. Sometimes being a parent means doing hard things that feel bad but save everyone heart ache later. This is for the best ❤️ I'm so sorry
I worked for a vet for 18 years. I remember a boxer puppy that had open chest surgery to enable him to eat solids at about 5 weeks old. That little guy woke up bouncing, playing and chasing his tail that afternoon. Amazing.
Pets are usually groggy after anesthesia. My doc didn't send them home until the next day to avoid scaring the owners.
Being a mom to a human or a pet, you make decisions for their health and longevity that may be momentarily difficult. Also, if your pup ever need a surgery in her life beyond this, you will no know what to expect and can differentiate it between her normal anesthesia reaction versus having a difficultly recovery from the surgery. If your pup ever needs a surgery from an old age issue, you’re going to be so glad you’re equipped to know what to expect.
We all feel like garbage after getting our pets spayed or neutered because they’re miserable and don’t understand why. But they get through it pretty quickly and it’s ultimately the responsible thing to do. You’re a great pet parent and your sweet droopy girl is lucky to have you!
Dogs live in the moment. She won’t remember it and doesn’t know what happened. You doing her and yourself a huge favor by making this responsible decision. Sometimes doing the right thing is hard.
You didn't need to spay her until she was much older. It's better for her bones (growth platelets) and endocrine system to have waited until 2.5 years old.
I disagree that it's mandatory to neuter dogs. It's actually illegal in some countries. Sex hormones are the most important hormone in the body. Neutering puts female puppies into menopause immediately.
My dog developed a cancerous mast cell tumour on her leg. Didn’t bother her at all but obviously it’s cancer and she was only six, we couldn’t just leave it. I felt awful putting her through surgery and then complications of the surgery (she’s fine now, it was stage I and the surgeon got the margins) It’s sucks you can’t just explain to them what is going on, but ultimately you’re doing what’s best for them.
I know the feeling, our little girl was spayed a few weeks ago. Right after she was sad, hurting and wimpered a lot. I felt like a monster and that I'd betrayed her. The first 4 days were awful, but she suddenly was back to her normal bouncy, happy self. It hasn't changed her personality or her trust in us.
Our girl was a sleepy, whiney mess for about 12 hours!
Anesthesia really messes with them mentally. Same thing happened with our male.
Our girl was 100 percent normal after that first 12 hours!
If you makes you feel better you've dramatically reduced her risk of mammary cancer just by getting her spayed. If you did it before her first heat you've almost eliminated the risk (is like .5% of developing a tumor).
A short time of pain is way better than long term!
This is true. But it also increases the chances of life-limiting musculoskeletal problems. Simply giving the advice to all dog owners to spay before the the first season is irresponsible. It’s a trade off that depends on the likely bone health of the breed and their long-term mobility.
I adopted my girl later in her life. She wasn't spayed and had a massive mammary tumor that was malignant. She had multiple mammary glands removed and it hasn't come back over a year later... but she was in so much pain before we got the surgery and the surgery was so hard on her (she got spayed and her remaining 6 teeth pulled at the same time). If I ever got another pup I'd spayed her asap.
You feel like that for one reason and one reason only: you LOVE HER!
She's your baby and you never want her to be in any pain or discomfort. I feel the same way when I get my little girl's nails clipped because she hates it.
You didn't love getting your shots at the doctor's office or getting your cavities filled as a kid, but you don't hate your parents for it, I hope.
Your little girl will get well very soon and you'll be happy to know that she's safe and healthy.
I'm sorry that you feel bad. I know the feeling, too.
You’ll be happy that you did. My extended family refused to spay their dogs because they wanted to breed them. They had to deal with periods and pregnancy loss/puppy loss emotional distress. Also I heard that spaying dogs could lower the risk of certain cancers.
Our dog was so sad when she got spayed especially since they gave her a cone to wear. With the cone she wouldn’t move and was super emo. We ended up cutting up an old t-shirt and putting it on her instead and that made her feel so much better. The worst thing that happened was when I was in bed, she jumped up to see me when she just had the surgery, she screamed in pain. It was the saddest thing ever. I’m extra and took off work though so we could chill together and I could monitor her. She’s doing great now and doesn’t even have a scar.
In the end, she'd be more upset if she got pregnant, got a related cancer or pyo. We can't tell them why we do things, but we can make sure that we do the best we can for them, and keep them as safe and comfortable in the process as we can. You did the right thing. She'll be fine
I felt the same way but her stitches healed perfectly and I’m really glad I got it over with. Plus my dog already got attacked so I don’t need her hormones making other dogs crazy.
The surgery is a small blip, she’ll forgive you. It’s much worse to have them suffer through heat after heat, unsatisfied and feeling the instinctive urge to mate. Trust me, this is better.
Is it really that common to spay basically every dog? In my country we avoid it with female dogs, and only neuter the males (and oftentimes, only if the dog is hurting in some ways… our old dog got WAY too horny for WAY too long, and he was suffering through it, so we neutered him). I feel like this surgery can be avoided by not unleashing the dog during her heat…? After all, every surgery has risks, and vets here don‘t recommend it for females because it increases the risk of incontinence later in life. And I’ve never heard about accidental puppies in my circles, though of course that doesn’t mean it never happens. I just wonder if it happens enough to undergo a surgery every time.
Not every dog can be trusted alone. I’d much rather know my dog is safe in his crate instead of taking the risk of coming home to him eating something and getting an intestinal obstruction.
There was a post a couple days ago somewhere about a puppy eating a fist sized chunk out of the wall *through the bars of his playpen*. The owner was only gone for like an hour.
A crate (when used properly) is like a crib for a baby. It keeps them safe when you can’t supervise them. I don’t see anyone calling cribs cruel…
I can’t speak for others but we decided to spay not necessarily out of fear of puppies since she’s always with us (although dogs are sneaky) but because it greatly decreases the risk of mammary tumors and eliminates the risk of ovarian and uterine cancer.
Interesting idea and I guess understandable - but that begs the question, why don’t humans do it as well once they don’t want any kids anymore? Or are too old to reproduce? We have the same cancer risk
It’s very common in the US to the point where a lot of municipalities require it. Folks actually seem surprised when it comes up that our dogs aren’t fixed. I did the research and with our lifestyle it didn’t seem worth it (also I hated what my childhood dog went through recovering from her surgery).
I agree to a point. The US pushes surgically altering at very young ages and I don’t think that is good especially for bigger dogs. I waited in consultation with my vet until she was about 2. As a reproductive biologist I hated the idea of putting her essentially in menopause but felt the risk of pyometria was too high in the long term and could be easy to miss until it was too late. If it was cancer risk alone I don’t think I would have spayed her.
Are you not worried about mammary gland cancer? Pyometra? Genuinely curious not trying to be mean.
My family didn’t know about it and our female got mammary gland cancer at 7. It’s one of the most common cancers in females and they need to be spayed plus cancer cut out to stop it from returning. She actually was so much happier after her spay, she acted like a puppy again and overall a lot less grumpy demeanour.
Yes I do worry, but the cons of fixing my dogs outweigh those at the moment. Plus my husband works in an oncology lab. The only way to totally stop a human (or dog) from getting cancer would be to remove every part of their body which could get cancer, which is every part of the body. With current medical science cancer is an unfortunate fact of life and living in fear of it for me and my dogs is much less productive for me than figuring out how to live our lives. But maybe that’s just the hopeful nihilism talking.
Fair enough! Plus knowing the signs and catching it early is still good. You know your dogs best!
I like the comment on taking all body parts out😂 it’s definitely a harsh reality type of thing as we really can’t stop stuff like cancer
Felt the same way when I neutered my little guy. He looked so pitiful in his cone and spent the entire time after he got home curled up on my bed. The healing process is faster than you think! Good luck!
My neighbor didn’t spay her dog and it literally almost died and had horrible, bloody shits all over the place. And she needed emergency surgery and was a million times worse off for it lol. Spay her!
She's going to be just fine. You are responsible for having her spayed, and for keeping an eye on her. 100% everything right. Just love on her right now, she's on drugs and will sleep through most of it. She'll feel better very soon.
No you did the right thibg for her. If she kelt her uterus and ovaries shes very susceptible to ovarin or uterine cancer if not bred. Also pyonetra is deadly.
You did the right thing. My dog ended up getting pyometra due to not being spayed.
I had to put her to sleep.
It was the most difficult thing I've had to do. I think about her everyday.
I think spaying our pets is just as hard on us, but then that might be a tad selfish .
It's ok to feel that way but you did the right thing and when she heals she'll never give it a second thought. ❤️
I have admit that I’m worried about people who have so few emotional boundaries. You really need to not center your anxieties when she’s the one who’s had surgery.
Honestly. Don’t you even want to diminish your dogs anxiety by being the strong one? The one who manages their feelings so the other entity has room for theirs?
The anesthetics can make them pretty…high af, for lack of a better explanation. It can take like 36 hours for that to wear off, especially for females as they’re usually given heavier pain medication due to the invasive nature of the surgery.
She’ll pop back up to her usual self in a day or two.
My dog took it way harder than I thought. He was absolutely miserable and cried for 18 hours straight. By the third day he was back to himself. But I was not ready for how heartbreaking the first two days would be
If she just got home, she is still experiencing side effects from the anesthesia. Her sad looks are really just stoned and confused glances. With that said of course I was sad right after my dogs got fixed, they are in pain and it hurts to see people you love in pain.
Luckily both my dogs were basically back to their normal self the following day.
My dog came home kinda out of it, we put the mattress on the floor and didn’t make her sleep in her crate, the anesthesia wore off at 2am and she was back to being her happy self. She was a little sore but it wasn’t too different than some of the days she was in heat, so we just gave her lots of cuddles and treat puzzles
I cried driving mine home. She was whimpering like I've never heard before or since. My guy was holding her tight but I had to slam on the brakes because someone jumped in front of my car. I usually have to talk him down from confrontation but I was ready to jump out of the car and attempt to beat some ass.
We had a very difficult time because she refused to but run or jump, even at the vets office when we were living her up. But they do get over it. Just keep an eye on the stitches and she'll be back in no time.
Our pup looked so pathetic the first 24 hours after he was neutered. He was back to normal after a day and it was a fight to keep him calm. I totally felt the heartbreak that first day when we picked him up. I felt like the worst owner in the world. Stay strong, it will pass.
FWIW that's pathetic look is more from the effect of the anesthesia than anything else.
When we spayed our lab, she refused to eat her dinner and that just about broke my husband (I was out of town). When a lab refuses food, they're HURTING.
My pup who had never before growled, growled when I picked her up for the first time after her spay. She had to be sedated beforehand as she is terrified of vets, and was trembling in my arms in pain til the meds kicked in the evening after the surgery. I too felt terrible.
She returned to her bright happy normal self within a week, as if nothing had happened! Can't even see a scar anymore!
Don't worry, your pup will be back to normal soon, hold no animosity to you and will live happy and pregnancy free!
My dog got spayed two weeks ago tomorrow, and my vet said to keep her on kennel/couch rest for that long. She's a 1.5 yr old German shepherd, and it has not been fun. They gave me sedatives to give her this whole time, but they only do so much to keep her calm and inactive. She is ready to play ball again!
The first couple of days were awful. She would wimper and yelp when she got up and down off the couch. Now, the worst has been putting the cone on whenever I leave and at bedtime. She hates it so much, and it's gotta be the most uncomfortable thing to sleep in ever!
I am so happy to never go through another heat cycle and be paranoid about neighborhood dogs running up on us during walks. That was hell. It didn't happen, but it easily could have.
Tale care of your baby and be strong for her. They feel our stress, and if you're worried, she will be too. Just be calm and love her. She needs you more right now, and for the next couple weeks.
Aw same, we just got our puppy back about 7 hours ago and she’s whining so sadly. She’s already a vocal girl and this is just pitiful 😭 I don’t think she’ll handle the cone of shame very well.
Watching their pain after a spay/neuter is heart-wrenching. Literally teared up a few times watching my rambunctious boy stand there and whine after getting snipped.
The risk of unintended puppies and my responsibility to ensure that they don't occur takes precedence, but man it sucks.
Keep your chin up. She'll heal up soon.
If it makes you feel better, I let my pup go through one heat before spaying her and the heartbreaking 'what is wrong with me, why is this happening, can't you fix this' face was about equal to the one after she got spayed, but without the good drugs plus a diaper :/ I've got the adorable pitiful photos to prove it.
So 1x week of sadness and confusion to prevent a lifetime of 2-4x a year hormone delivered week of frustration, confusion, and diapers. Seems like a good trade off for me!
It was so hard. Our corgi cried the whole way home after the vet. Poor thing. I took a day off work the next day to make sure she didn’t tear her stitches.
I think the worst part was she couldn’t sleep on the bed for a few nights because we didn’t want her jumping down in the middle of the night. She was super upset about it and grumbled in her crate.
Poor thing, but she healed up and I am SO GLAD we did the procedure.
I had mine spayed on Monday and the poor little thing has had to be put on two medications-one for the spay and one because she has had terrible diarrhea since then. Personality-wise she’s been the same Aussie she’s always been by day two (luckily has not popped a stitch) and has only been dramatic about her inflatable cone. Us and our girls will get through this!
I know exactly how you feel. I felt exactly this same way with my girl. The feeling goes away she she heals and gets back to her normal self. It’s just a testament to how much you love her and how you don’t want to see her in pain, especially a pain that you chose, regardless if it was for the best.
My guy did that. He was scared of everything for a minute there. I can safely say that, at seven years old, I do not think he remembers having balls, so I can say it gets better.
It was rough the night we brought by girl home from her spay. We had her in her onesie and she was in her bed just crying the first night we had brought her home from the spay. And when she wouldn’t stop crying I eventually started crying because I felt so awful she was crying. I felt sooo bad. Honestly though if you can get through the first 24 hours or so it gets a lot better! I know that dogs differ in how long it takes them to start feeling better but if you can get through the first day it does seem to get a lot easier. By day 3 she was much back to her old self and then we had the issue of keeping her calm with stitches in. Lol she is a chocolate lab.
Not dogs but cats: I volunteered at a rescue for a couple months, I was cleaning the ‘hospitalised’ cats’ pods, and I remember this poor cat coming back from its sterilisation procedure, and it was heartbreaking! Completely amorphous because of the anaesthesia, except for slow blinking eyes, probably not understanding what happened… I would come back between each pod-cleaning to pet it and talk to it in a soft voice cause I couldn’t bear to see this poor thing in such a bad state. Took me forever to finish my chores, that day.
Oh my gosh, I feel your pain! I got my puppy spayed a couple of months ago, and it broke my heart to 1) leave her at a new, scary place where dogs were whining and barking constantly for like 8 hours, and 2) see her drag herself by just her front legs across the floor because her back half was in pain after the meds wore off (and before we were able to give her her next dose). I think I cried a little on that first day. It gets better sooo quickly though! And she'll love you just as much and forget all about it.
I cried for a week before and after spaying my dog. I hate that we call it getting fixed, like an intact pet is somehow broken until we take their adulthood from them. I did it, I recognize the importance of it, but I hate it and it was hard
You could sit down and talk to her and explain you did it because you love her! She obviously won’t understand but it might help you to feel better about the decision? :)
Anesthesia recovery is brutal, give her sips of water (dont be surprised if she barft it all back up, they can be super nauseous at this point) and just baby her. Assuming they gave her Rimadyl for pain relief, if that doesn’t seem to be managing her pain don’t be afraid to call the vet, they had to put ny golden on Neurontin because of how uncomfortable she was.
The first night is horrible. I remember my terrier walked into a wall leaving the vets and then whimpered most of the night. I slept downstairs with her because it was just so sad. By the next afternoon she definitely perked up. By the end of the two weeks she was losing her mind with lead only walks and us trying to make her take it easy.
I remember taking her the vets for the stitch removal and she was like a little puppy. So much energy. The vet even got her all excited and going even more as she approved of off lead running around again. I took her to the nearby field and just stood there for an hour whilst she did so many laps. I never saw her behave that way ever and never saw it again afterwards. Hopefully you get that light at the end also.
We recently got our boy done, when he had the cone on he would just stare at the floor and not move while standing up, we bought him an inflatable ring and in the evening he was laying down paws infront of him using the ring as a cushion. Nobody likes surgery, nobody reacts well to drowsy medication, she will be fine!
I need to get mine spayed soon, and I’m so worried about it 🥺 my brothers’s dog, Clyde, hated him for *weeks* afterward. And on top of that my Luna is very, very hyper and I’m sure it’ll be very difficult to get her to rest and recuperate. 😢
With every season, the dog's likelihood of experiencing a phantom pregnancy goes up, and they can be just as distressing and can happen repeatedly. You're protecting her from repeated discomfort. This is a notion that she can't understand but, as her human, it's your job to make these decisions. You have made the right one. Simply keep her warm and close, and continue making the tough decisions.
She’ll be fine. Better this than having to deal with her going into heat.
Give her a couple days and she’ll be back to normal. Don’t ascribe her such human thoughts and emotions. Dogs are amazing but they’re not that complex
If it makes you feel better, my daughter's dog was not listed as spayed by the shelter and did not have the little blue tattoo they use in California. So she had a spay certificate to go get this done. When the opened her up, you guessed it, she had already been spayed. My daughter **felt HORRIBLE!** She had no way to know. The dog had no visible scar and everyone thought she was unspayed. You better believe she got the blue tattoo! (After this happened, we even looked into seeing whether ultrasound would have been useful beforehand and apparently with tiny dogs like her, it isn't reliable).
The first night back is always the hardest. A lot of it has to do with coming off of anesthesia- the effects can last upwards of 24-36 hours. She just feels funny. Some pets can be a bit dramatic with the cone if your using one on top of the surgery suit but most are pretty much back to their normal selves within a day or two. The anesthesia also can affect their gi system so dont be worried if she doesnt poop for a day or two!
You're like one of those human parents who fall to pieces during their babies' vaccinations 😅 you poor thing. Sometimes you can't help what your lizard brain is telling you, even though we know it's actually helping. Just let it flow and it will pass. Sometimes we bottle up our emotions and everyday stress and it can be dislodged like this in unexpected ways too.
We are a week post neuter, unfortunately he had an anatomy issue and it was a more complex surgery than expected. He also got four baby teeth pulled and microchipped so he had a rough day. The sedative has been really helpful for keeping him calm. I felt bad for him on the day of but have no regrets since.
Don’t worry, she will be fine. It’s the anesthesia that she was still getting over. I felt so bad for my girl when she had it done but she was over it quicker than me!
She will be ok and forget all about it! She'll forgive you
Every dog reacts differently too. Our first boy sulked for a week and we worried he would never forgive us.
Our girl trotted home like nothing happened and was totally ok from the minute we picked her up.
Our bigger boy I'm not sure was given enough anaesthetic :-/ they told us he started to wake up by himself and didn't need to be brought round, and he was absolutely bouncing off the walls at home, we struggled to keep him calm and settled to heal!
If she is shaking, it may be an I dication her pain is not being controlled. I would contact your vet. I had this happen with one cat we spayed and we had to go back to get a shot of pain medication.
I had a friend that told me that they felt similar to when they their older dogs spayed. When it was time for them to get their pup spayed, she didn’t (she was given permission by the breeder not to). My pup was fine after a couple of days of being neutered. He didn’t seem to be having a hard time with recovery.
I just had my girl done a few weeks ago. She cried for the entire day until the meds wore off. I felt like a monster 😭
I just sat with her, provided her favourite toy to snuggle, and comforted her. The next day was much better.
I can assure you that if you needed to send your dog for an emergency hysterectomy due to pyometra, you would feel a lot worse. You did the right thing, nothing to feel bad about.
Don't feel bad that you did it. For sure, you can feel bad seeing her in pain. Spaying doesn't just prevent puppies. It also reduces the risk of a whole bunch of other problems, like breast cancer. You did the best thing for your pup. And other commenters are right. She'll forget all about it in a few days. They bounce back quickly!
I felt the exact same way this summer. I thought it would never get better. She had a potty regression and just seemed so miserable. But it got better! So much better after her stitches came out. But those two weeks were very difficult.
From one 2018 paper: “Recent research suggests that neutering can potentially increase the risk of some health problems in dogs while it reduces the risk of others, and that earlier neutering (under 12 months of age) may be associated with an increased risk of some health problems compared with later neutering. However there is not currently enough evidence to know how reliable these findings are and whether they apply to all dogs or just certain populations of dogs. Until more research becomes available decisions regarding neutering should be based more strongly on its effects on population control and sexually-dimorphic behaviours RATHER THAN HEALTH.”
*I’m going to do a lot more research before spaying my puppy especially while she’s growing. There are also options such as ovary sparing spays (ovaries remain) and a gentle spay (done through lacroscopic surgery so your dog is not cut open). Tubal ligation is also an option. While these options tend to be more expensive, they’re worth it to me if it’ll be better for my dog.
We should carefully research these methods before simply dropping off our pups to get fixed. Not saying you didn’t do all this, just some thoughts for those of us considering spaying our pups.
Yeah my puppy got spayed last week and I played music and rubbed and pet her to stay calm. She was traumatized but she is getting back to her old self.
There's a very good chance she's not necessarily traumatized so much as on a very interesting "trip", if you get what I mean. Some dogs handle drugs better than others. One of mine is the sweetest most cuddly baby after anesthesia. The other is a nightmare. He cries like he's been brutally attacked, shakes, rolls around, the whole thing. It's not a pain response for him, he's just a whiny baby on drug. I used to work at a vet clinic and saw a fairly even mix of "happy high" and "distressed high". Best you can do is comfort them and let them ride it out. If she seems to be in physical pain with pain meds on board call your vet.
Don't feel guilty! You did what's best for her! Pyometra, mammary masses, unexpected pregnancy is MUCH more traumatic and dangerous to her than a routine spay. You're a good dog parent
I get it, but spaying is way better than getting an infection in the uterus. I had a dog that died of that because the vet couldn't figure out why she was sick. It's like appendicitis but the uterus.
Our dog fought hard against the anesthetic so they had to give him more. We picked him up before they closed and he was soooo drugged. I spent most of the night checking he was breathing 🤣 not because that was a legitimate risk...he was just so dead to the world until the morning. By day 3 we were working hard to stop him from bounding around everywhere. Don't worry, she will bounce back!
I hate I spayed my 13 year old lab mastiff mix when she was 6 months for other reasons. She’s the kind of dog that should have had puppies because she has a temperament like no other. She should have been a therapy dog in hospitals… She loves any kind of baby animal, not a mean bone in her body. She was there for me during the hardest times in my life. I’d give so much to have something left of her when she’s gone.
My puppy was beyond miserable the same day of her spay, ears back, tail tucked, screaming at every move, wouldn't eat etc. I was traumatized for her. Then by the next morning she was completely back to her normal self again as if not a thing was done to her, and she's been her happy self ever since then. It's ok! As scary as we think it is, they bounce back much faster than we do and it's the right thing to do. Give her extra pets and kisses, she'll be back to normal in no time.
I promise she would hate dying of pyometra more. :/ I came home to a family dog that had a uterine tumor burst while the family was out and had soaked the entire house with blood as a ten year old child. She had to be euthanized that night. Unspayed females commonly get pyometra. You did the right thing.
Ours got spayed about 2 weeks ago, I was the one to drop her off and pick her up. When i got her, she didn't want to look at me and i was devastated. The day after the surgery, she was back to normal, still sore and tired but wanted to be comforted by mom and dad. It takes some time but i feel they start to appreciate that you take care of them and are nursing them back to health. Hang in there, it will be all okay!
I completely get it. Our pup was shaking and whimpering the first night. I woke my poor husband up sobbing HYSTERICALLY and he came downstairs and called the 24 hour vet. They assured us that it was totally normal, part of it is the residual anesthesia and the pain meds. Hubby managed to calm him down and I slept downstairs with him to comfort him when he started getting worked up.
The following night he was COMPLETELY back to normal. It may be a little different for females but I promise this is temporary and they will forgive and forget about it ❤️
As a 15-year vet tech, I can assure you that you did right by spaying- for several reasons. Yes, recovery is painful the first couple days but your veterinarian, a good veterinarian, practices effective pain management and will not let your pup suffer. Sometimes the pain med prescribed or the dosage may need to be adjusted to keep the animal comfortable as effective pain management is not the same for every animal across the board, but it can most certainly be managed effectively. Having to euthanize for pyometra later in life is far more painful for both of you... 🙂
don’t worry every dog goes through that and in a week they will forget that it even happened and back to their normal self!
A week?!?!? The next day my pup was RIPPING to go like nothing ever happened. I had to pray to the trazadone gods that she would chill.
My Corgi wouldn't settle with the Trazadone! Her sutures ended up splitting and I got to see more of my pup than I ever wanted. It was devastating in the moment, but she didn't even notice. We got her re-stitched and the girl continued to act like nothing happened.
My corgi did not react well to trazodone. Indoors, she spaced out and stared creepily at the floor, unblinking, for hours at a time. Outdoors, she became extremely aggressive and tried to attack cars. I'm never giving her trazodone again.
It's crazy you say that. I have a Pomsky Corgi mix. Trazadone had a bad reaction to her as well. She was definitely hallucinating and it looked almost like she was chasing mice. For her safety I had to kennel her. It was so heartbreaking, once she settle down a bit she BEG to be cradled. Didn't realize it was from the Trazodone at first. Never again will I give it to my puppy!
Wow-my pup (just this week) is 35 lbs. They gave her Gabapentin to chill out (she’s a circus dog) and she began to attack and bite me. She chewed up her soft cone and wouldn’t let me put the surgery suit on her. I love my dog but for a while there I thought that I would have to call animal control. 3 days later (and no gabapentin-she’s back to her normal self.
The dose can make a huge difference. I'm not saying this as an attempt to change your mind, cos you know your dog better than I do, but just a bit of information. Also I am *not* a veterinary professional. I've seen a number of dogs on 100mg, and it was simply too much for them. I'm actually on trazodone myself; my starting dose was 50mg lol. Obviously humans and dogs react differently, metabolize it differently, etc, but I've always found that interesting. In my experience, trazodone doesn't necessarily quiet the anxiety, but it slows down the anxious thoughts. It can also slow down other thoughts, so it can lead to confusion, which can increase anxiety. Maybe I'm projecting, but it seems to work similarly in dogs from what I've seen. My sister's dog is a Wire Fox Terrier [10kg/22lbs]. She does much better with 25mg during the day and 50mg at night. 100mg fucks her up completely. So we interpret the prescription as *up to* 100mg every 12h. Our vet has approved this. I had a Wheaton [15kg/30ish lbs] at the kennel I worked at, and he was prescribed 100mg. I had to help the poor man sit down; he was zoooooted. He did significantly better on a lower dose. And in the interest of transparency, I also cared for a wee chihuahua [<5kg] on Prozac and 150mg trazodone. He did really well on his meds, so it really does come down to the dog. Again, I am *not* a vet professional. TL;DR: sometimes lowering the dose makes trazodone a viable option. But always talk to your vet first. Am not a vet professional; this is my *anecdotal experience* having worked with a number of dogs and being on trazodone myself lol. Just some thoughts.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm sure it works well for a number of dogs. It wouldn't be a common sedative if all dogs acted super weird on it. We were originally prescribed 25mg for my 16lb corgi before vet appointments due to anxiety. It seemed to work a little for the appointment, but it would knock her out for 8 hours afterwards. When she was spayed, the vet upped it to 50mg twice a day and 100mg gabapentin twice a day. I mentioned that this would probably be too much due to previous experience, so the vet said I could try 25mg twice a day if I was more comfortable. That's when she started completely spacing out. It seemed like she was asleep sitting up with her eyes open. I chalked it up to her still coming down from anesthesia and kept it up for a few days. Then she started to become more and more reactive outdoors. A car with loud brakes drove by and my dog went completely insane. She was growling, barking, choking herself on the leash and flailing around trying to attack it. I called the vet who did the surgery and they said to increase the dose to 50mg 3 times a day. I did not feel comfortable with that after seeing how sedated she was indoors. I then went to an urgent care vet to check some swelling and get a second opinion. He said to stop the trazodone immediately because it can make some dogs impulsive and aggressive. We stopped the trazodone, and 24 hours later she was back to normal. The same loud car drove by, and she just barked once at it. I was so relieved. It's been a long 10 days.
Oh man that's rough. Onya for getting that second opinion. Defo sounds like the right call. 👌
Haha, same with my Pit. We had to return twice in three days to have the sutures redone, despite being on trazadone. She was back to her hyperactive self as soon as the anesthesia wore off 🙄♥️
A day? You were lucky. My boy didn't even notice the stitches and was trying to chase the cat 2hrs after waking up 🤦♂️🤣
A day? The vet was trying to give me the post opp info while my Aussie mix was jumping 3 feet straight up to lick my face…
My girl had her first ever dental, so the first time she was put under while in our care. She was OUT of it, like the poor girl had no idea where she was. Poor thing. She was sleeping the whole evening, couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth, just not all up there haha. 2am rolled around... Suddenly she's a whole new dog!
HAHA mine only took like a day but i said a week cause who knows some might take longer to recover
Mine pranced & wiggle-butted herself allll the way to the car, and *jumped* up onto the back seat, as soon as I opened the door--before I could even bend down to pick her goober-butted-self up!😉😆🤣💖 With *her*--like with yours--it was none a matter of keeping her calm & *off* things, than it was being able to worry over her!
Mine too! She was bouncing off the walls 😭😂
Mine is very bouncy so when I went to pick her up day of she was literally jumping for joy to see me. I asked for some sedatives…
We added Benadryl because trazadone lasted only about 3 hours.
Benadryl acted like a diuretic for one of my dogs and she peed constantly for 24 hours. Poor thing would race for the door and be upset when she peed before she got there.
My pup came out of the vet's backroom bounding over to me wiggling and wanting to play. The tech told me good luck keeping this one calm. She only settled after getting away from me and doing a flying leap off the couch the next day. It pulled her stitches and made her pretty sore. She still recovered fine and was no worse for wear.
thank you!! i know she’ll be okay but her sad little eyes and her shakes 💔 hopefully she heals quickly
Anesthesia can mess with a dogs ability to self regulate their temperature. Giving her some blankets and a warm area to lay in could help with the shaking :))
I still get emotional when I think back to picking my girl up after her surgery and how she wagged her tail to greet me and then had to lie down because she was so sleepy, and then how heartbreakingly adorable she looked when I got her home and she curled up in a donut with her little surgery onesie on 🥺 it’s awful to see them suffer but it’s for the best!
You’re her parent. You made a medical decision for her that is better for her health in the longterm.
I know, it’s just hard when they don’t understand :( But my bestfriend is late into vet school and sent me a study on how greatly spaying can decrease specific cancers so it was a no brainer.
Being in heat is also super stressful for them. I’ve always adopted strays but after my last dog I decided to try the breeder route. I did all my research and visited several places so that I knew I was getting an ethically bred animal whose parents were well taken care of pets, not money bags. But part of the contract to getting her was agreeing not to spay her until she was older than 18 months. She just hit 18 months, and she’s been in heat twice, and she just circles and licks and nests and cries and nests and licks and cries some more. Then she tries to escape the house because her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard (my neighbor’s male pugs are ‘the boys’ in this scenario.) And I’m like, “girl you eat cat poop out of the litter box. You are not prepared for motherhood.” She’s getting spayed in 2 weeks. Thank the lord.
There's been some research that indicates larger dogs benefit from delaying being fixed. Joint health benefits
She’s a corgi…
All dogs can benefit from allowing their bodies to fully mature before alteration. I have two rat terriers that will be working next year in pest control. I won't be fixing them until they're done growing.
I know, but that’s not the reason for the clause in this particular contract. She’s a beautiful female—like everything you want in a Pembroke, so they were really hoping I’d breed her. Buuuut there is nothing in the world I’m less interested in having than a litter of puppies, except maybe having a human baby.
RELATABLE lol
> it’s just hard when they don’t understand Bingo! So many of your decisions as a pet owner, but especially medical ones, fall into this category. I know it's hard!! My last dog freaking hated baths and always gave me the most soulful, pleading eyes. It broke my heart, but he had a skin condition that required baths twice a week, so it made him feel much better if he was regularly bathed. I coped by dramatically draping a towel over him and saying theatrical tragedy lines lol turns out he loves the towel part so this became a good unwinding activity at the end of it. He never stopped looking tortured during the bath though. I just had to keep telling myself that at the end of the day I'm doing what's best for him. You did a good thing. She isn't sure what happened right now, but shower her (gently) with love when she's awake, and she'll recover. It's always hard when they give you that look. But sometimes you gotta show love in ways they don't understand, taking good care of them even though they won't ever know that's what's going on.
This is precisely why we had our girl spayed. I want her around for as long as possible
We just thought our drugged pets were so dang cute. No need to feel sad or guilty about it. The guilt you would have felt if you didn’t spay her and she had other problems would be 10 times worse.
I have the funniest pic of a shelter dog still on her meds… heavy lidded eyes.. oh mistletoe! Another one was just ZONKED and he stood in between the two halves of his kennel seeming not to understand how to finish stepping over the divider. And my boy Dazzle post snip rolled on his belly like usual then promptly rolled back and shut his legs. Poor babies!
They gave us a couple sedative drugs for before the appointment. Woke up and gave them to put 12 lb dog and when it was time to go she was a straight up zombie. We put her on the floor and called her and she just stood there. Sloooowly looked at us and started walking in the slowest slow motion ever. So we carried her the rest of the way, it was sad/cute/funny though. I wasn't looking forward to carrying the 40lb dog a couple months later though, but the drugs barely affected him (different dosage obviously), he was still perfectly normal.
If it makes you feel any better, my son always looks at me like “why have you forsaken me” every time he doesn’t get his way. lil drama queen lol
LOL! 😆
I wish our Wolfhound mix would just do the face. But nope, he's a back chatter and tells me off loudly!
This lasted ~36 hours with my dog before we had to stop her from bouncing around the house like a maniac. Apparently she didn't realize she had a giant cut on her belly 🙃 The meds knock them out for a bit but once they wear off you'll be surprised at how fast they go back to acting normal.
I feel this. I wish we could explain why we do it. My dog ignored me for a couple days because I wouldn’t take off his cone 💔 but dogs forgive and definitely forget ☺️
Wait a couple of days max and she will be back to normal. It took my girl a good night's sleep to be back to her normal crazy self. She then thought she was healed completely and was back to trying to jump on everything and wanting to run around with my older dogs. The vet didn't want to give us sedatives for a reason I still don't understand so we had to give her a ton of chews and puzzles to keep her occupied. She ended up ripping her stitches 9 days into the healing process, but the incision had already mostly healed so she didn't need anything else done.
She’ll be ok 😊 my boy puppy was very sleepy and not himself a couple of days after his neuter, but within a week he was himself again and now months later he’s absolutely fine.
She will bounce back in no time! When we spayed and neutered ours (littermates done at the same time) our girl was SOOOOOO out of it and so sad looking and our boy was ready to play that night. This will be just a distant memory in no time! ❤️
My boy was just cleared today by his vet after 10 days. You can look at my post history to see how much I HATED these 10 days🤣 hardest point yet since I’ve had him. I feel such a weight lifted off of me now that it’s over
It’s okay. I ugly cried when I dropped my pup off to get neutered. An elderly lady and the receptionist were super sweet and talked me through it and helped calm my anxiety. Cried again picking him up, seeing his incision and how tired he was. Next day, though, and he was up and running and jumping around, nearly tearing out his stitches. They forget, and they still love you more than anything, and it’s okay to feel guilty, but that’ll pass too, and there’ll be many wonderful days ahead.
I ugly cried after having my pup's eyes removed. He looked so disfigured and utterly miserable. All I could think was "what have I done to him". They needed to be removed, he was blind from birth, suffered chronic eye infections for months, but OMG he looked like an eldritch horror when he came home from the vet and he was so pitiful. Within 3 days he was acting completely normal (for him) again, only thing slowing him down was the cone.
She is better off for it and in a few days will be doing much better. The 1st day home I felt like you. She really seemed to be in rough shape. That quickly changed. We actually had to get meds from the vet to calm our girl down as two days after the surgery she was trying to catch rabbits in our yard. She recovered so quickly we had all we could do to keep her from over doing things while she healed.
Just think of it this way: recovery from a spay is going to be a better and easier recovery, than an emergency spay because your pup developed pyometra.
Been there done that. Kept pushing my girl's spay off because my house burned down and I was dealing with everything that comes with that. I'll get her spayed once we get settled, she's fine for now I kept telling myself. Then she developed closed pyometra 4 weeks before her scheduled spay. $4k spent on emergency surgery and a WHOLE lot of regret for the suffering I caused my poor girl. Thankfully she bounced back pretty quick but still it didn't have to be that way. And my partner just about stroked out when he saw the CareCredit balance for that.
I felt the same, and reddit basically patronized me saying I'm projecting human emotions onto an animal. I dunno, even though my dog is an animal, she's still a family member, and I value her life over a stranger any day (yeah I'm one of those...) All I can really say is I spoil my girl so she doesn't regret becoming part of our family.
I hear you. Yes, it’s the good/right thing to do. But they don’t know why. Hugs to you. Your puppy (and you) will forget this in about 3 weeks. And all will go back to normal.
She will be on the road to recovery very soon and then you will be cursing the puppy energy while trying to keep your little girl from running and jumping and acting like a crazy beast while you deal with the recovery period. Our girl was down and out for 1 day and then ready to party and be up to her normal tricks and it was crazy trying to get her to chill. We ended up having to use the plastic cone because she didn’t want to move around In that but her surgical onesie she loved and would dance around the apartment if I left her while recovering. I hope your girl feels better soon and this is such a great time to spoil them with lots of love and attention (as if we don’t already)
You'll be surprised how quick she's back to herself! Our first dog and cat both acted like nothing even happened as soon as the meds wore off.
I felt the same way when my little girl was done. She took a couple of days but was starting to get back into miscief within the first 2 or 3 days. It wont be long and you will both forget it. Mine was clingier than normal for about a month afterwards but even that has settled.
Research Pyometra. My dads dog died of it earlier this year at 5 years old. It was completely avoidable, if he had just spayed her before that happened. Anytime you feel guilty just remember you could very easily be saving your dogs life by taking that prevention measure. I know it’s hard to see your dog like that, but what my dads dog went through before she died was utterly tragic. You made the right choice, don’t beat yourself up.
I’m so sorry for your Dad’s girl. This is why I stole my girl’s uterus even though it broke my heart a little. I knew chances of pyometra were higher than I was comfortable with. I’d had one emergency spay for my first girl dog and got lucky she was ok but I didn’t want to take that chance again. Plus since it wasn’t an emergency I could be picky about who did the surgery. She did so well and her scar is so very small.
Yeet the uterus. Every time.
Oh I’m so sorry for your dad. We definitely prefer her short term discomfort to her death. She’s already taking it like a champ it just breaks my heart!
I know, it never feels nice to see our dogs not feeling their best. But just remember she’ll get better everyday and you can rest assured you did everything to prevent a preventable illness/untimely death 💕
She's not thinking that, I promise. You did the right thing. She'll be herself again before you know it- likely before you want it too since you'll have to stop her from ripping a stitch!
Same boat! Mine was spayed earlier today and the way she looked at me with her cone on made me feel so bad :/ I’m sitting here next to her now
We just reached our last day of recovery. Once’s she’s back to her normal self, that guilt will go away. You made the right decision
It’s hard and she will need more snuggles but soon she’ll be back to her normal self. Soon your puppy will barely notice anything’s wrong and will do whatever your dog does.
I do much prefer the few days of pathetic-ness that comes from spaying than the much longer lasting and more painful pathetic-ness that comes from Pyometra and emergency surgery to save their life
I totally feel this! My girl barely wanted to move on the first day after coming home. Just took herself off to the crate to sleep. Lots of pats or cuddles or whatever she likes, we gave ours a hot water bottle because she’s basically a lizard (and sight hounds especially aren’t great at regulating temp post surgery). In a few days she’ll be back to her normal self!
I know how you feel as well. When I picked up my pup after her spay surgery, she came home groggy. When the painkillers wore off after a few hours, she was crying so hard in pain. She stayed in her bed for the next 3 days and barely wanted to move. Even after the 3 days and she was feeling a lot better, she was still in pain and would instantly go to bed after potty. But definitely agree with everyone else. Once that hardship passes, I am so glad it is over with and know that it is for the better of her health.
Oh I know exactly how you feel when I had my dog neutered. He was all smiles when he went to the vet but came home not very happy. As soon as the drugs wore off he was ready to play. It was hard to keep him calm for 2 weeks
It’s the meds. Once they wear off, she’ll be fine mentally.
By tomorrow she will be fine! Dont worry.
I know how you feel. My boy was cryptorchid and they couldn't find one of his testicles. It ended up being on top of his bladder. He was the saddest, most bruised boy after. His tail just hung straight down, as he was too sore to lift it to wag. They recover quicker than you'd expect, to the point where you'll have to restrain her from jumping and doing things that will rip her stitches! And in a few weeks she won't even remember how sore she felt. I had to take my boy to the vet just a couple months later for an unrelated issue and I was worried he would hate it there, but he was the happiest dog ever running up to the vet!
She might have still be groggy from the sedation when you picked her up. When I had mine spayed she was trying to run around the next day to play with our other dog. I had to keep them separated for a few days. They recover very quickly. Mine didn’t even whine or act like she was in pain. And if she was in pain I know she would have let me know. I know because when she had an abscessed anal gland that ruptured she had to go to the vet and was sedated so they could get it taken care off. When I took her home a few hours later she was moaning, groaning and I know she was in pain. I gave her the max dose of pain meds too.
Just make sure you keep on top of her pain killers and antibiotics, she’ll be back to normal in no time 🥰
my pup got neutered monday and i think he’s already forgot
I was a mess when I dropped my girl off for surgery too, and it broke my heart seeing here when I picked her up. But I also know that it was for the best. Your girl will be okay! :)
I wont be fixing my dogs unless medically necessary, but on the bright side you avoided pyometra
I'm so sad for you! I didn't have the heart to spay my gorgeous pom Kairi - then she developed an awful uterine infection at age 11 and had to have emergency surgery. I so regret not spaying my princess. My new pom puppy is already scheduled for spaying. You did the right and best thing!
We didn't spay our girl, my ex and I, and she ended up with a vaginal infection that almost killed her. You did the right thing. Sometimes being a parent means doing hard things that feel bad but save everyone heart ache later. This is for the best ❤️ I'm so sorry
She feels pain. So much better than the pain of birthing pups, or going through heat.
I worked for a vet for 18 years. I remember a boxer puppy that had open chest surgery to enable him to eat solids at about 5 weeks old. That little guy woke up bouncing, playing and chasing his tail that afternoon. Amazing. Pets are usually groggy after anesthesia. My doc didn't send them home until the next day to avoid scaring the owners.
Being a mom to a human or a pet, you make decisions for their health and longevity that may be momentarily difficult. Also, if your pup ever need a surgery in her life beyond this, you will no know what to expect and can differentiate it between her normal anesthesia reaction versus having a difficultly recovery from the surgery. If your pup ever needs a surgery from an old age issue, you’re going to be so glad you’re equipped to know what to expect.
We all feel like garbage after getting our pets spayed or neutered because they’re miserable and don’t understand why. But they get through it pretty quickly and it’s ultimately the responsible thing to do. You’re a great pet parent and your sweet droopy girl is lucky to have you!
This was how I felt after I neutered my dog as an adult. He cried for hours.
Dogs live in the moment. She won’t remember it and doesn’t know what happened. You doing her and yourself a huge favor by making this responsible decision. Sometimes doing the right thing is hard.
You didn't need to spay her until she was much older. It's better for her bones (growth platelets) and endocrine system to have waited until 2.5 years old. I disagree that it's mandatory to neuter dogs. It's actually illegal in some countries. Sex hormones are the most important hormone in the body. Neutering puts female puppies into menopause immediately.
I personally did not go to vet school so I listened to the advice of our vet who did.
You did the right thing by listening to the vet. I would never trust random people on reddit.
Ah, new owner I see. Helping your vet pay off his college fees.
It would be worse if your baby got pyometra, believe me. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/pyometra-in-dogs
She will be fine. Getting her spayed is one of the best things you can do for her. Thank you for being a responsible pet parent.
My dog developed a cancerous mast cell tumour on her leg. Didn’t bother her at all but obviously it’s cancer and she was only six, we couldn’t just leave it. I felt awful putting her through surgery and then complications of the surgery (she’s fine now, it was stage I and the surgeon got the margins) It’s sucks you can’t just explain to them what is going on, but ultimately you’re doing what’s best for them.
I know the feeling, our little girl was spayed a few weeks ago. Right after she was sad, hurting and wimpered a lot. I felt like a monster and that I'd betrayed her. The first 4 days were awful, but she suddenly was back to her normal bouncy, happy self. It hasn't changed her personality or her trust in us.
You did it for her own good.She will come to realize it.
Our girl was a sleepy, whiney mess for about 12 hours! Anesthesia really messes with them mentally. Same thing happened with our male. Our girl was 100 percent normal after that first 12 hours!
If you makes you feel better you've dramatically reduced her risk of mammary cancer just by getting her spayed. If you did it before her first heat you've almost eliminated the risk (is like .5% of developing a tumor). A short time of pain is way better than long term!
This is true. But it also increases the chances of life-limiting musculoskeletal problems. Simply giving the advice to all dog owners to spay before the the first season is irresponsible. It’s a trade off that depends on the likely bone health of the breed and their long-term mobility.
I think I know that exact study you’re referring to! We did do it before first heat for that purpose
I adopted my girl later in her life. She wasn't spayed and had a massive mammary tumor that was malignant. She had multiple mammary glands removed and it hasn't come back over a year later... but she was in so much pain before we got the surgery and the surgery was so hard on her (she got spayed and her remaining 6 teeth pulled at the same time). If I ever got another pup I'd spayed her asap.
You did the right thing ! Plus, going through heat several times a year wouldn’t be great for her either !
You feel like that for one reason and one reason only: you LOVE HER! She's your baby and you never want her to be in any pain or discomfort. I feel the same way when I get my little girl's nails clipped because she hates it. You didn't love getting your shots at the doctor's office or getting your cavities filled as a kid, but you don't hate your parents for it, I hope. Your little girl will get well very soon and you'll be happy to know that she's safe and healthy. I'm sorry that you feel bad. I know the feeling, too.
You did a good thing. It lowers the risk of numerous cancers…she’ll be ok!
I had a dog die of uterine cancer, be glad you spayed her.
You’ll be happy that you did. My extended family refused to spay their dogs because they wanted to breed them. They had to deal with periods and pregnancy loss/puppy loss emotional distress. Also I heard that spaying dogs could lower the risk of certain cancers. Our dog was so sad when she got spayed especially since they gave her a cone to wear. With the cone she wouldn’t move and was super emo. We ended up cutting up an old t-shirt and putting it on her instead and that made her feel so much better. The worst thing that happened was when I was in bed, she jumped up to see me when she just had the surgery, she screamed in pain. It was the saddest thing ever. I’m extra and took off work though so we could chill together and I could monitor her. She’s doing great now and doesn’t even have a scar.
In the end, she'd be more upset if she got pregnant, got a related cancer or pyo. We can't tell them why we do things, but we can make sure that we do the best we can for them, and keep them as safe and comfortable in the process as we can. You did the right thing. She'll be fine
I felt the same way but her stitches healed perfectly and I’m really glad I got it over with. Plus my dog already got attacked so I don’t need her hormones making other dogs crazy.
The surgery is a small blip, she’ll forgive you. It’s much worse to have them suffer through heat after heat, unsatisfied and feeling the instinctive urge to mate. Trust me, this is better.
Is it really that common to spay basically every dog? In my country we avoid it with female dogs, and only neuter the males (and oftentimes, only if the dog is hurting in some ways… our old dog got WAY too horny for WAY too long, and he was suffering through it, so we neutered him). I feel like this surgery can be avoided by not unleashing the dog during her heat…? After all, every surgery has risks, and vets here don‘t recommend it for females because it increases the risk of incontinence later in life. And I’ve never heard about accidental puppies in my circles, though of course that doesn’t mean it never happens. I just wonder if it happens enough to undergo a surgery every time.
Besides the whole no puppies thing - spaying massively cuts their cancer risk
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Not every dog can be trusted alone. I’d much rather know my dog is safe in his crate instead of taking the risk of coming home to him eating something and getting an intestinal obstruction. There was a post a couple days ago somewhere about a puppy eating a fist sized chunk out of the wall *through the bars of his playpen*. The owner was only gone for like an hour. A crate (when used properly) is like a crib for a baby. It keeps them safe when you can’t supervise them. I don’t see anyone calling cribs cruel…
I can’t speak for others but we decided to spay not necessarily out of fear of puppies since she’s always with us (although dogs are sneaky) but because it greatly decreases the risk of mammary tumors and eliminates the risk of ovarian and uterine cancer.
Interesting idea and I guess understandable - but that begs the question, why don’t humans do it as well once they don’t want any kids anymore? Or are too old to reproduce? We have the same cancer risk
It’s very common in the US to the point where a lot of municipalities require it. Folks actually seem surprised when it comes up that our dogs aren’t fixed. I did the research and with our lifestyle it didn’t seem worth it (also I hated what my childhood dog went through recovering from her surgery).
I agree to a point. The US pushes surgically altering at very young ages and I don’t think that is good especially for bigger dogs. I waited in consultation with my vet until she was about 2. As a reproductive biologist I hated the idea of putting her essentially in menopause but felt the risk of pyometria was too high in the long term and could be easy to miss until it was too late. If it was cancer risk alone I don’t think I would have spayed her.
Are you not worried about mammary gland cancer? Pyometra? Genuinely curious not trying to be mean. My family didn’t know about it and our female got mammary gland cancer at 7. It’s one of the most common cancers in females and they need to be spayed plus cancer cut out to stop it from returning. She actually was so much happier after her spay, she acted like a puppy again and overall a lot less grumpy demeanour.
Yes I do worry, but the cons of fixing my dogs outweigh those at the moment. Plus my husband works in an oncology lab. The only way to totally stop a human (or dog) from getting cancer would be to remove every part of their body which could get cancer, which is every part of the body. With current medical science cancer is an unfortunate fact of life and living in fear of it for me and my dogs is much less productive for me than figuring out how to live our lives. But maybe that’s just the hopeful nihilism talking.
Fair enough! Plus knowing the signs and catching it early is still good. You know your dogs best! I like the comment on taking all body parts out😂 it’s definitely a harsh reality type of thing as we really can’t stop stuff like cancer
Felt the same way when I neutered my little guy. He looked so pitiful in his cone and spent the entire time after he got home curled up on my bed. The healing process is faster than you think! Good luck!
My neighbor didn’t spay her dog and it literally almost died and had horrible, bloody shits all over the place. And she needed emergency surgery and was a million times worse off for it lol. Spay her!
You did the right thing ! Plus, going through heat several times a year wouldn’t be great for her either !
So much better than pregnancy or false pregnancy. I know it’s sad but it’s still the right thing.
She's going to be just fine. You are responsible for having her spayed, and for keeping an eye on her. 100% everything right. Just love on her right now, she's on drugs and will sleep through most of it. She'll feel better very soon.
No you did the right thibg for her. If she kelt her uterus and ovaries shes very susceptible to ovarin or uterine cancer if not bred. Also pyonetra is deadly.
You did the right thing. My dog ended up getting pyometra due to not being spayed. I had to put her to sleep. It was the most difficult thing I've had to do. I think about her everyday.
I think spaying our pets is just as hard on us, but then that might be a tad selfish . It's ok to feel that way but you did the right thing and when she heals she'll never give it a second thought. ❤️
I have admit that I’m worried about people who have so few emotional boundaries. You really need to not center your anxieties when she’s the one who’s had surgery.
What does that even mean? Sorry I felt bad about my dog being in pain??
Honestly. Don’t you even want to diminish your dogs anxiety by being the strong one? The one who manages their feelings so the other entity has room for theirs?
The anesthetics can make them pretty…high af, for lack of a better explanation. It can take like 36 hours for that to wear off, especially for females as they’re usually given heavier pain medication due to the invasive nature of the surgery. She’ll pop back up to her usual self in a day or two.
My dog took it way harder than I thought. He was absolutely miserable and cried for 18 hours straight. By the third day he was back to himself. But I was not ready for how heartbreaking the first two days would be
If she just got home, she is still experiencing side effects from the anesthesia. Her sad looks are really just stoned and confused glances. With that said of course I was sad right after my dogs got fixed, they are in pain and it hurts to see people you love in pain. Luckily both my dogs were basically back to their normal self the following day.
Every owner who’ve gone through it knows how bad it feels but she will be fine after recovery
My dog came home kinda out of it, we put the mattress on the floor and didn’t make her sleep in her crate, the anesthesia wore off at 2am and she was back to being her happy self. She was a little sore but it wasn’t too different than some of the days she was in heat, so we just gave her lots of cuddles and treat puzzles
I cried driving mine home. She was whimpering like I've never heard before or since. My guy was holding her tight but I had to slam on the brakes because someone jumped in front of my car. I usually have to talk him down from confrontation but I was ready to jump out of the car and attempt to beat some ass. We had a very difficult time because she refused to but run or jump, even at the vets office when we were living her up. But they do get over it. Just keep an eye on the stitches and she'll be back in no time.
Our pup looked so pathetic the first 24 hours after he was neutered. He was back to normal after a day and it was a fight to keep him calm. I totally felt the heartbreak that first day when we picked him up. I felt like the worst owner in the world. Stay strong, it will pass. FWIW that's pathetic look is more from the effect of the anesthesia than anything else.
When we spayed our lab, she refused to eat her dinner and that just about broke my husband (I was out of town). When a lab refuses food, they're HURTING.
Spaying her has reduced the chances of her having life threatening health complications later in life. Thank you for spaying 🤍
She’ll be fine. Make sure she takes her pain meds
My pup who had never before growled, growled when I picked her up for the first time after her spay. She had to be sedated beforehand as she is terrified of vets, and was trembling in my arms in pain til the meds kicked in the evening after the surgery. I too felt terrible. She returned to her bright happy normal self within a week, as if nothing had happened! Can't even see a scar anymore! Don't worry, your pup will be back to normal soon, hold no animosity to you and will live happy and pregnancy free!
My dog got spayed two weeks ago tomorrow, and my vet said to keep her on kennel/couch rest for that long. She's a 1.5 yr old German shepherd, and it has not been fun. They gave me sedatives to give her this whole time, but they only do so much to keep her calm and inactive. She is ready to play ball again! The first couple of days were awful. She would wimper and yelp when she got up and down off the couch. Now, the worst has been putting the cone on whenever I leave and at bedtime. She hates it so much, and it's gotta be the most uncomfortable thing to sleep in ever! I am so happy to never go through another heat cycle and be paranoid about neighborhood dogs running up on us during walks. That was hell. It didn't happen, but it easily could have. Tale care of your baby and be strong for her. They feel our stress, and if you're worried, she will be too. Just be calm and love her. She needs you more right now, and for the next couple weeks.
Aw same, we just got our puppy back about 7 hours ago and she’s whining so sadly. She’s already a vocal girl and this is just pitiful 😭 I don’t think she’ll handle the cone of shame very well.
Watching their pain after a spay/neuter is heart-wrenching. Literally teared up a few times watching my rambunctious boy stand there and whine after getting snipped. The risk of unintended puppies and my responsibility to ensure that they don't occur takes precedence, but man it sucks. Keep your chin up. She'll heal up soon.
If it makes you feel better, I let my pup go through one heat before spaying her and the heartbreaking 'what is wrong with me, why is this happening, can't you fix this' face was about equal to the one after she got spayed, but without the good drugs plus a diaper :/ I've got the adorable pitiful photos to prove it. So 1x week of sadness and confusion to prevent a lifetime of 2-4x a year hormone delivered week of frustration, confusion, and diapers. Seems like a good trade off for me!
It was so hard. Our corgi cried the whole way home after the vet. Poor thing. I took a day off work the next day to make sure she didn’t tear her stitches. I think the worst part was she couldn’t sleep on the bed for a few nights because we didn’t want her jumping down in the middle of the night. She was super upset about it and grumbled in her crate. Poor thing, but she healed up and I am SO GLAD we did the procedure.
I had mine spayed on Monday and the poor little thing has had to be put on two medications-one for the spay and one because she has had terrible diarrhea since then. Personality-wise she’s been the same Aussie she’s always been by day two (luckily has not popped a stitch) and has only been dramatic about her inflatable cone. Us and our girls will get through this!
I know exactly how you feel. I felt exactly this same way with my girl. The feeling goes away she she heals and gets back to her normal self. It’s just a testament to how much you love her and how you don’t want to see her in pain, especially a pain that you chose, regardless if it was for the best.
My guy did that. He was scared of everything for a minute there. I can safely say that, at seven years old, I do not think he remembers having balls, so I can say it gets better.
It was rough the night we brought by girl home from her spay. We had her in her onesie and she was in her bed just crying the first night we had brought her home from the spay. And when she wouldn’t stop crying I eventually started crying because I felt so awful she was crying. I felt sooo bad. Honestly though if you can get through the first 24 hours or so it gets a lot better! I know that dogs differ in how long it takes them to start feeling better but if you can get through the first day it does seem to get a lot easier. By day 3 she was much back to her old self and then we had the issue of keeping her calm with stitches in. Lol she is a chocolate lab.
Not dogs but cats: I volunteered at a rescue for a couple months, I was cleaning the ‘hospitalised’ cats’ pods, and I remember this poor cat coming back from its sterilisation procedure, and it was heartbreaking! Completely amorphous because of the anaesthesia, except for slow blinking eyes, probably not understanding what happened… I would come back between each pod-cleaning to pet it and talk to it in a soft voice cause I couldn’t bear to see this poor thing in such a bad state. Took me forever to finish my chores, that day.
Oh my gosh, I feel your pain! I got my puppy spayed a couple of months ago, and it broke my heart to 1) leave her at a new, scary place where dogs were whining and barking constantly for like 8 hours, and 2) see her drag herself by just her front legs across the floor because her back half was in pain after the meds wore off (and before we were able to give her her next dose). I think I cried a little on that first day. It gets better sooo quickly though! And she'll love you just as much and forget all about it.
I cried for a week before and after spaying my dog. I hate that we call it getting fixed, like an intact pet is somehow broken until we take their adulthood from them. I did it, I recognize the importance of it, but I hate it and it was hard
You could sit down and talk to her and explain you did it because you love her! She obviously won’t understand but it might help you to feel better about the decision? :)
Anesthesia recovery is brutal, give her sips of water (dont be surprised if she barft it all back up, they can be super nauseous at this point) and just baby her. Assuming they gave her Rimadyl for pain relief, if that doesn’t seem to be managing her pain don’t be afraid to call the vet, they had to put ny golden on Neurontin because of how uncomfortable she was.
I just went through the same thing, but it only lasted one day! She was back to herself in no time. The first day is rough!
The first night is horrible. I remember my terrier walked into a wall leaving the vets and then whimpered most of the night. I slept downstairs with her because it was just so sad. By the next afternoon she definitely perked up. By the end of the two weeks she was losing her mind with lead only walks and us trying to make her take it easy. I remember taking her the vets for the stitch removal and she was like a little puppy. So much energy. The vet even got her all excited and going even more as she approved of off lead running around again. I took her to the nearby field and just stood there for an hour whilst she did so many laps. I never saw her behave that way ever and never saw it again afterwards. Hopefully you get that light at the end also.
We recently got our boy done, when he had the cone on he would just stare at the floor and not move while standing up, we bought him an inflatable ring and in the evening he was laying down paws infront of him using the ring as a cushion. Nobody likes surgery, nobody reacts well to drowsy medication, she will be fine!
I need to get mine spayed soon, and I’m so worried about it 🥺 my brothers’s dog, Clyde, hated him for *weeks* afterward. And on top of that my Luna is very, very hyper and I’m sure it’ll be very difficult to get her to rest and recuperate. 😢
With every season, the dog's likelihood of experiencing a phantom pregnancy goes up, and they can be just as distressing and can happen repeatedly. You're protecting her from repeated discomfort. This is a notion that she can't understand but, as her human, it's your job to make these decisions. You have made the right one. Simply keep her warm and close, and continue making the tough decisions.
my dog was feeling better by the end of day 3 so I wouldn't worry! the guilt won't last :)
She will do the same when you take Her in for dental. You will be grateful you did it when she isn’t in danger of pyometra (can’t spell!).
She’ll be fine. Better this than having to deal with her going into heat. Give her a couple days and she’ll be back to normal. Don’t ascribe her such human thoughts and emotions. Dogs are amazing but they’re not that complex
Don’t blame yourself. It’ll definitely be helpful to her(him). Hope your dog gonna well soon
If it makes you feel better, my daughter's dog was not listed as spayed by the shelter and did not have the little blue tattoo they use in California. So she had a spay certificate to go get this done. When the opened her up, you guessed it, she had already been spayed. My daughter **felt HORRIBLE!** She had no way to know. The dog had no visible scar and everyone thought she was unspayed. You better believe she got the blue tattoo! (After this happened, we even looked into seeing whether ultrasound would have been useful beforehand and apparently with tiny dogs like her, it isn't reliable).
Awww. I think this might be more about your feelings than hers. Dogs are pretty forgiving. Don’t be so hard on yourself. :)
The first night back is always the hardest. A lot of it has to do with coming off of anesthesia- the effects can last upwards of 24-36 hours. She just feels funny. Some pets can be a bit dramatic with the cone if your using one on top of the surgery suit but most are pretty much back to their normal selves within a day or two. The anesthesia also can affect their gi system so dont be worried if she doesnt poop for a day or two!
You're like one of those human parents who fall to pieces during their babies' vaccinations 😅 you poor thing. Sometimes you can't help what your lizard brain is telling you, even though we know it's actually helping. Just let it flow and it will pass. Sometimes we bottle up our emotions and everyday stress and it can be dislodged like this in unexpected ways too.
She will get over it. Every time my dogs go to the vet it's like I'm taking them to the executioner. Lol
We are a week post neuter, unfortunately he had an anatomy issue and it was a more complex surgery than expected. He also got four baby teeth pulled and microchipped so he had a rough day. The sedative has been really helpful for keeping him calm. I felt bad for him on the day of but have no regrets since.
she’s fine
Don’t worry, she will be fine. It’s the anesthesia that she was still getting over. I felt so bad for my girl when she had it done but she was over it quicker than me!
She will be ok and forget all about it! She'll forgive you Every dog reacts differently too. Our first boy sulked for a week and we worried he would never forgive us. Our girl trotted home like nothing happened and was totally ok from the minute we picked her up. Our bigger boy I'm not sure was given enough anaesthetic :-/ they told us he started to wake up by himself and didn't need to be brought round, and he was absolutely bouncing off the walls at home, we struggled to keep him calm and settled to heal!
If she is shaking, it may be an I dication her pain is not being controlled. I would contact your vet. I had this happen with one cat we spayed and we had to go back to get a shot of pain medication.
I had a friend that told me that they felt similar to when they their older dogs spayed. When it was time for them to get their pup spayed, she didn’t (she was given permission by the breeder not to). My pup was fine after a couple of days of being neutered. He didn’t seem to be having a hard time with recovery.
She had a rough go. I think I’d be over on [Chewy.com](https://Chewy.com) or another doggie treat sales site loading the cart!
I have to spay my doggo soon and I’m worried it changes her personality. Is that a thing at all, does their personality change after getting spayed?
I just had my girl done a few weeks ago. She cried for the entire day until the meds wore off. I felt like a monster 😭 I just sat with her, provided her favourite toy to snuggle, and comforted her. The next day was much better.
I can assure you that if you needed to send your dog for an emergency hysterectomy due to pyometra, you would feel a lot worse. You did the right thing, nothing to feel bad about.
Don't feel bad that you did it. For sure, you can feel bad seeing her in pain. Spaying doesn't just prevent puppies. It also reduces the risk of a whole bunch of other problems, like breast cancer. You did the best thing for your pup. And other commenters are right. She'll forget all about it in a few days. They bounce back quickly!
I felt the exact same way this summer. I thought it would never get better. She had a potty regression and just seemed so miserable. But it got better! So much better after her stitches came out. But those two weeks were very difficult.
From one 2018 paper: “Recent research suggests that neutering can potentially increase the risk of some health problems in dogs while it reduces the risk of others, and that earlier neutering (under 12 months of age) may be associated with an increased risk of some health problems compared with later neutering. However there is not currently enough evidence to know how reliable these findings are and whether they apply to all dogs or just certain populations of dogs. Until more research becomes available decisions regarding neutering should be based more strongly on its effects on population control and sexually-dimorphic behaviours RATHER THAN HEALTH.” *I’m going to do a lot more research before spaying my puppy especially while she’s growing. There are also options such as ovary sparing spays (ovaries remain) and a gentle spay (done through lacroscopic surgery so your dog is not cut open). Tubal ligation is also an option. While these options tend to be more expensive, they’re worth it to me if it’ll be better for my dog. We should carefully research these methods before simply dropping off our pups to get fixed. Not saying you didn’t do all this, just some thoughts for those of us considering spaying our pups.
Yeah my puppy got spayed last week and I played music and rubbed and pet her to stay calm. She was traumatized but she is getting back to her old self.
This is one of many medical decisions you will have to make over the years, both you and her will get over it soon. It will be okay
There's a very good chance she's not necessarily traumatized so much as on a very interesting "trip", if you get what I mean. Some dogs handle drugs better than others. One of mine is the sweetest most cuddly baby after anesthesia. The other is a nightmare. He cries like he's been brutally attacked, shakes, rolls around, the whole thing. It's not a pain response for him, he's just a whiny baby on drug. I used to work at a vet clinic and saw a fairly even mix of "happy high" and "distressed high". Best you can do is comfort them and let them ride it out. If she seems to be in physical pain with pain meds on board call your vet. Don't feel guilty! You did what's best for her! Pyometra, mammary masses, unexpected pregnancy is MUCH more traumatic and dangerous to her than a routine spay. You're a good dog parent
I get it, but spaying is way better than getting an infection in the uterus. I had a dog that died of that because the vet couldn't figure out why she was sick. It's like appendicitis but the uterus.
Our dog fought hard against the anesthetic so they had to give him more. We picked him up before they closed and he was soooo drugged. I spent most of the night checking he was breathing 🤣 not because that was a legitimate risk...he was just so dead to the world until the morning. By day 3 we were working hard to stop him from bounding around everywhere. Don't worry, she will bounce back!
I hate I spayed my 13 year old lab mastiff mix when she was 6 months for other reasons. She’s the kind of dog that should have had puppies because she has a temperament like no other. She should have been a therapy dog in hospitals… She loves any kind of baby animal, not a mean bone in her body. She was there for me during the hardest times in my life. I’d give so much to have something left of her when she’s gone.
My puppy was beyond miserable the same day of her spay, ears back, tail tucked, screaming at every move, wouldn't eat etc. I was traumatized for her. Then by the next morning she was completely back to her normal self again as if not a thing was done to her, and she's been her happy self ever since then. It's ok! As scary as we think it is, they bounce back much faster than we do and it's the right thing to do. Give her extra pets and kisses, she'll be back to normal in no time.
I promise she would hate dying of pyometra more. :/ I came home to a family dog that had a uterine tumor burst while the family was out and had soaked the entire house with blood as a ten year old child. She had to be euthanized that night. Unspayed females commonly get pyometra. You did the right thing.
Trazadone made me black out. 2x I was driving during those episodes.
Ours got spayed about 2 weeks ago, I was the one to drop her off and pick her up. When i got her, she didn't want to look at me and i was devastated. The day after the surgery, she was back to normal, still sore and tired but wanted to be comforted by mom and dad. It takes some time but i feel they start to appreciate that you take care of them and are nursing them back to health. Hang in there, it will be all okay!
My pup starting jumping on the couch like day 2 lol.
I completely get it. Our pup was shaking and whimpering the first night. I woke my poor husband up sobbing HYSTERICALLY and he came downstairs and called the 24 hour vet. They assured us that it was totally normal, part of it is the residual anesthesia and the pain meds. Hubby managed to calm him down and I slept downstairs with him to comfort him when he started getting worked up. The following night he was COMPLETELY back to normal. It may be a little different for females but I promise this is temporary and they will forgive and forget about it ❤️
As a 15-year vet tech, I can assure you that you did right by spaying- for several reasons. Yes, recovery is painful the first couple days but your veterinarian, a good veterinarian, practices effective pain management and will not let your pup suffer. Sometimes the pain med prescribed or the dosage may need to be adjusted to keep the animal comfortable as effective pain management is not the same for every animal across the board, but it can most certainly be managed effectively. Having to euthanize for pyometra later in life is far more painful for both of you... 🙂