were spaying our 4 month old staff tomorrow. were kind of worried and hope she will cope fine. does anyone have any tips/ advise?

will she get angry and grumpy when she gets home? :(

how can i make her feel better? im thinking of buying her a shoulder of a lamb (she love raw meat :D) just as a nice treat.

She'll be in a lot of discomfort, so light food only after the op. Poor baby, she's very young to be spayed. :( What was wrong with her?

Oh poor baby what happened, so sad so young. She will be in pain, make sure she is kept calm and as quite as you can with such a baby. Watch for infection very carefully as such a baby would not cope very well and would need attention straight away. So sorry what a terrible thing to happen.

They do say that having them spayed young means they cope better withthe recovery but having had a kitten spayed quite early over 20 years ago (she was about 5 months old) I personally wouldn't do it. With a dog I like to wait until they have had their first season.
Bec

With my Lab, the first night was the worst, she was pretty out of it and cried a bit, it seemed like she couldn't get comfy. Best advice is just be there for her. Next morning she was pretty much back to normal, just a little more sleepy than usual. The vet said short leash walks would be fine, I think I took her for 4 a day! Just short, relaxed stints to stop her getting bored and giving her a bit of exercise. Hardest part was keeping her calm, but she recovered far quicker than I imagined. I think bones will be great for the following days, but my girl didn't want to eat anything the night of the op. Hope all goes well, I'm sure it will.

Hi Red

Did you decide on getting your new puppy in the end ? I presume this is the reason why you have decided to spay this little one so young as you were concerned about having two bitches together as you mentioned in a previous post ?

If you have done this then please make sure that the pup is kept well away from the recovering girl as she will not be up to having puppy plays and could well seriously damage herself.

I do hope she will be Ok and she recovers well as she is such a young little girl to be spayed.

Lucy

Did we ever find out why she is or has been spayed at suchh an early age?

Mark

No, I'm afraid not, Mark :(
I don't know a vet who would perfom major surgery on such a young animal unless it was for sound medical reasons, though.
So I hope the pup gets over it quickly and the operation solves the problem, whatever it was.

Edited to alter wording to avoid any possible misconstruction ;)

im trying to hold back my tears as i read these reply's... i had no idea that my girl would be too young for spaying, she is 5 month today (sorry if i wrote 4). it was the vets idea to spay her now. he said she will be much better off the sooner we spay her. were picking her up in half an hour. weve been so worried about her and had the phone next to us at all times today to hear from the vet. he called and told us that everything went well and that shes fine and awake. i just burst out in tears when we hung up, it felt terrible not being able to be there with her.

yes we did get our other baby of 6 weeks, and they are actually getting along pretty well. just regular play biting but very calm and my 5 month old is very gentle.

i dont know what to say about her spaying at this age. only that the vet strongly advised us to do it, to avoid cancers and infections and such... we only want her best so we went along with it. otherwise theres no problems and we definitely didnt do this just for the sake of our two puppys getting along that would be pretty horrible.

I'm pleased to hear she's OK and hope she's fine when you get her back. Make sure the tiny baby doesn't 'maul' her about for a few days.
It's sad that vets don't talk through ALL the options with their clients so they can make their own mind up as to what option to take but am pleased your little one is OK.
Bec

Very pleased she's okay - that's the main thing. Wishing you all well.
:)

thanks everyone, were all back home now and our spayed baby Biscuit is sleeping on the couch with my girlfriend and im sitting at the computer with the 6 week old sleeping under my desk.
Biscuit seems fine, just really tired, shes getting lots of TLC. :)

A tip I've found useful, if she worries at her stitches, put her in a tee-shirt.! I had to do this with one of mine who was getting her wound swollen, and pulling the stitches out. During the day the excess can be safety-pinned over her back, and at night put a stitch or two in between her legs to stop it riding up.

Works brilliantly, and saves them the torment of one of those big collars.
Hope it won't come to that (it only has with 1 out of 4 of mine) but it's worth bearing in mind.
:)

oh thanx so much for the tip, im going out to buy a baby t-shirt today. i havent removed the bandage yet since i was worried she might pull out the stiches. she seems fine though.. just more tired than usual. my girl is so tough. :)

Hi,
My vet told me to put a t-shirt on her to stop her eating the stitches..... she didn't bank on an aussie being smarter than the average dog.. Went back to work today and left her with a t-shirt on. My mum went in this morning to check on the dogs..... Gabby was asleep in her bed, t-shirt was across the other side of the room, no rips in it, tied exactly where I had tied it....... heaven only knows how she got it off.....
Well, this afternoon, I went out and bought her a baby's vest, the biggest I could find, with poppers on it....... she looks sooooo funny, but it is staying on up to now, which is good as she has licked her stitches today and made all the area sore looking.......
See what happens when I go to work tomorrow....... :-D
Gabrielle x

I'll be following this with interest :D

Daisy

Well Daisy,
Came home today.......... the vest was in the kitchen, still with poppers fastened!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it??? I give up, I don't know what else to do....
Vet phoned me at work today, to see how she was doing and commented that she is one smart girl....... she is that alright.:-D
Only other option now is the ''dreaded collar'' which I really didn't want to do, but may have to.... see how she goes on tomorrow. Her stitches have stayed clean and dry today, and don't look quite as sore, so she may leave them alone....
My friend comes in at lunchtime to let the dogs out, and Gabby still had the vest on, so she must have taken it off in the afternoon..... she looks so funny, but she doesn't like you laughing at her, so I must refrain :-D :-D
Gabrielle x

thanks everyone, were all back home now and our spayed baby Biscuit is sleeping on the couch next to my girlfriend, and im sitting at the computer with the 6 week old sleeping under my desk.
Biscuit seems fine, just really tired, shes getting lots of TLC. :)

Glad she is back OK and hope she is back to her normal self soon.

Lucy
xx

Bless you........ I know just how you feel, my aussie bitch was spayed yesterday,..... she was 21 months old and had never had a season, but when I left her at the vets, she cried after me, I waited by the phone until the vet phoned to tell me she was fine and everything was ok. They had told me to phone at 12.30pm but my vet knew that due to a bad experience with my rescue aussie, I wouldn't settle till I knew how she was........... The relief when she phoned was immense, till I went to pick up and she wobbled into the waiting room to me....... I cried, she cried, and she looked so pathetic... I worried about her all night, slept downstairs with her and made sure she had plenty of water with it being so warm.. I fretted I had done the right thing, but as the day has gone on today, she is getting back to her old self and still has a huge ''wiggle but'', has eaten all her tea and even picked up the odd toy to play.... Now the anaesthetic has worn off, she looks lots better and I am sure now I did the right thing..... The only reason I left her for so long, was because I wanted her to have one season before I spayed her, but it never arrived so I made the decision with my vet and in 10 days time when the stitches come out, she will be 100% back to her old self, and I can't wait..... :-D
Hope your girl is ok too,
Good Luck,
Gabrielle

Now Tara is coming to the end of her season I am starting to think about when we get her spayed :( I know that I have to get it done, but it is not something that you look forward to :( One of her nicknames from a young pup has been Tara Tart and has she lived up to her name :D Our older (fortunately neutered) dog has never had such good luck :) She has been flirting outrageously with him almost from the beginning. He has never shown any interest in other bitches and so I was quite surprised that he has been SO interested in her. I'll be quite glad when she gets back to normal :) I couldn't go through this twice a year - it's been making hubby quite jealous :D

Daisy

wow your dog drinks tea? i thought mine was unusual !

I know some very odd jack russell terriers who often have a saucer of tea in the afternoon, (and a piece of toast in the morning with a drop of milk and their tea of biscuits and leftovers in the evening) I was quite amazed when i first looked after them, slightly spoilt it seems, and by a man!
My girl is due to be spayed this month and i was a tad worried about dropping her off, as she is quite clingy and nervous and i have visions of her crying after me and giving me the 'look' that she has perfected. From these posts it seems that they get over it quite quickly so that is a relief!