Hi

Have been trying to get my staff spayed for a month now, but every time we go to the vets, we get turned away as Jess seems to be having a permanent phantom pregnancy.  Have been told to return again in 2 weeks to see how she is.   Its been 2.5 months since her last season and she went 5 months between the 1st and 2nd season.  The vet has said there is an injection they can use as a last resort which will dry up her milk but it may cause complications. Just wondering if anyone else had any experiences of that.  Are desparate to get her done before her next season as we have a 4mth old boy pup.

An old remedy to dry up milk was to put a small amount of epsom salts in the drinking water -  it might be worth mentioning to your vet to see if he is happy for you to try it.

If she had been mated and had pups then she would be at about the height of her milk production now

Why can't she be spayed if she has milk?  Bitches are often spayed during a caesarian and you don't get much more milk than that?  Also, I had a bitch who became very ill after her first litter with toxic mastitis, and when she started to recover her milk suppy kept on in the unaffected teats and the infection kept recurring.  My vet suggested spaying her as the best way to stop her milk and assist in the healing process.  He was right, she never looked back after that.

If a bitch is "in milk" when she is spayed then often the milk supply never fully dries up.  Bitches are only spayed during caesarian's if it is an emergency, most vets will not do this as routine as the massive fluid loss can send the bitch into shock causing other complications including death.

I was eager to get our Maggie spayed as soon as possible after she had her litter, but one of the criteria the vets used was that she must have finished feeding. (We kept a puppy and she did keep on feeding him for some time - I thought she'd never stop! :D :D :D.) One of the vet nurses explained that the production of milk demands an increased blood supply, and the incision used for the spey runs through the area of the blood vessels in question, thus making the surgery more risky. HTH.

I always thought that a spey was more risky with a caesarian, but I had to have a ceasar this time for one remaining (unfortunately dead) pup and as I never breed again after a caesar he said it is a much quicker operation for the bitch if he just "whips everything out" at the same time, rather than having to sew the horns up etc.  He assured me there was no increased risk of blood loss or shock, so I agreed.  I have to say he was dead right, she was feeding and cleaning the pups within 2 hours of the operation.

My other bitch who was speyed because of mastitis went back very tight after the spey and the milk supply stopped.  So who knows the right answer, I guess like a lot of things each vet has their own idea.