Pupdate: Spay Surgery Recovery

Bloo got spayed a few days ago. I decided that I wanted her to come home the day of the surgery and not have her stay overnight. I also opted out of pre-surgery bloodwork (screens for any possible complications), no laser cut (reduces bleeding by clotting blood immediately), and advanced screening. Would this have been awesome if it didn’t cost hundreds more dollars? Yes. But right now, the best thing I can do for her is to save the money on a routine procedure, put it aside for an emergency situation, and also use some of it for making her recovery as comfortable as possible (most complications come post-op). I figured she has a very likely chance of making it out of this surgery, but the next one might not be a situation was as many known factors.

Oh my god it is so stressful to take care of a post-op puppy!! House-breaking is annoying. Teething is frustrating. But making sure this puppy doesn’t accidentally kill herself by reopening her wound? Very stressful! She has spent almost every single second under supervision.

Bloo is usually a very bouncy, happy puppy. A constant blur of ginger in the corner of your eye. She seemed normal when she was brought out of the hospital, but in the car she was just…not quite there… She usually didn’t cuddle up when I sat next to her in the car, and just stared into space. When I brought her inside and put her down in her bed, she just stood there and stared into space… After a few minutes she sat down and then stared at the floor… If you’ve ever seen someone SUPER stoned, that was my dog! Totally in her own world, not really responding to her name, totally about to hit the green-out point.

I spent time sitting on the floor petting her and reassuring her that everything was okay. It was really jarring to see her like that.

The first three nights she slept in my bedroom so that I would be able to notice if she was in discomfort, or if she took her cone off (she did this twice in her drugged state).

The first couple mornings when she woke up it almost seemed like she couldn’t stand on her two hind legs. She would stand up on all fours and suddenly drop down into a little ball. She does this was less flair now, but I think a lot of it comes from discomfort/itchiness. I discovered that there was dried blood around her vulva that she couldn’t clean up herself. That must have been very uncomfortable. I cleaned it up carefully with some wet paper towels. Google said that a little blood there was normal, and the vet did too. The first morning because she wouldn’t stand up, I put her bed on the bay window so she could watch the world outside. She didn’t want to go to the bathroom. Just wanted to be a little curled ball.

Bloo Bloo is feeling a lot better now. She’s bouncing around more than she should and it’s getting really hard to entertain her all day. I have to think of so many ways to channel her energy towards something that won’t rupture her wound.

Things that might work if you have an exuberant puppy:

• Hiding food under a cup
• Bully sticks
• More bully sticks
• New toys
• Treat dispenser toys
• Napping in new locations

I also got her a soft cone from Amazon because I thought it would be more comfortable. At first Bloo really wanted to try to eat it so we put it over the clear cone so she would get used to it. Then when she realized it was a shorter cone and could play with her toys, hold her chews with her paws, and most importantly lick her privates, she LOVED the new cone. It was only available on the US Amazon, so I paid for the expedited global shipping and it was SO worth the money. It arrived the next day!

x.

kl