Do newly spayed puppies really need to be confined?
We got our 4½ month old puppy spayed yesterday. We got her home at 5:30 and she slept until this morning, save for a couple bathroom breaks we woke her up for. She seemed fine, but tired. Today, she was back to her old self.
We were told to keep her from running, playing, jumping, and climbing stairs. In order to do this, we have to keep her in her pen (indoors), which is about 10 square feet of space with her bed, toys, and food/water. She’s normally in the pen from 8AM until 4PM with one bathroom/lunch break and then she’s out with us from 4PM until 9PM, running around being a very hyper puppy.
She’s already stir crazy in the pen, and this is supposed to last 7–10 days. She’s eating and going potty fine, she’s not acting like she’s in pain, and I know she’s dying to jump up on the couch and play tug of war with us. It’s just impossible to keep her from jumping and running unless she’s in her pen.
I don’t want to compromise the healing process, but is it truly necessary to keep her locked up for so long? I feel bad!
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Give her a few days to heal. It’s very important not to let her be a puppy after the operation.
@Adirondackwannabe So should she even have 10 square feet of space to move around or is that too much? We have a crate, but it seems cruel to confine her in that small of a space for so long. Right now she’s just crying constantly to get out even though she’s got room, plus toys and water. As soon as we take her out to pee, she jumps and goes crazy – we can’t stop her from doing that.
10 feet is probably okay. She’s probably going to be more nuts after she get’s out of the crate.
Couldn’t you leash her and go for small walks when you have time? You can control her and limit the bouncy pup behavior. My pup seemed good with that.
@woodcutter Well, we take her into the backyard on a leash and let her walk around quite a bit when we’re at home. The post-op instructions said limit her to 2 short walks a day. We will take her on a walk in the evening, but she gets so excited that it would have to be a really long walk to zap her energy. She’s a VERY high energy puppy – a border collie mix. I guess we’ll just have to follow the instructions and know it’s not mean if it’s for her own good. I was just surprised that she was acting so normal so soon.
@livelaughlove21 I think they are worried about infection and the stitches undoing. My dog was fixed when she was older there was never any complications and as I recall she also was back to normal quickly so I made a quick call to the vet and if I recall they just told me to keep an eye on the stitches. Are you schedualed for a post op appointment for your pup? My vet did this. Also my vet made it clear that if I needed anything I could call, you could call and explain to your vet and they will guide you much better because 9 times out of 10 your dog is not the first to make a speedy recovery so this won’t be your vets first rodeo..pun intended. :)
@nofurbelowsbatgirl Well, the spay was done at the shelter where we adopted her and they recommended that we have a vet check it out in 7–10 days. She’ll most likely be seeing the vet for another round of de-wormer around that time anyways. We went on 3/22 and found out she had worms, got medication for it, but her diarrhea came back a week after the medication ran out. She’s also teething, so we dropped off a stool sample yesterday to see if it’s the worms or just a symptom of her teething, which can happen. Either way, we’ll make sure she’s checked out.
@livelaughlove21 Good luck. Sometimes the food can be the reason for the diarrhea, if you changed that from what the shelter was feeding your pup. Hopefully it all works out.
@livelaughlove21 : Whenever any stitches need to heal, I take a rawhide bone or just some dry kibble and wrap it in cloth, a sock, or just some packaging paper. If your dog likes to destroy stuff, that could keep her busy and happy for a while.
Vet says 7–10 I’d at least do the 7 day confinement plan :D
This is another thing that has changed over the years. I never worried about stitches being torn out. When they came home they went back with the pack and nothing was ever said. I never had one tear stitches out. I don’t know if they are using different stitching material or what the difference could be. Seems crazy to me 7–10 days. In the bush they spay from the side so that in case the stitches to come out, the guts won’t fall out. I don’t know why more vets don’t use that method, except it might be a bit more difficult to locate what they are looking for? I guess if the vet says it, don’t take chances and keep her as quiet as you can.
Wost case scenario, too much activity can result in dehiscense. Sure, most dogs probably won’t have a problem, but unless you just happen to have an extra $1000 laying around to repair the damage, it’s not worth the risk. (It’s fairly rare, but it happens – we’ve had dogs come in with their intestines dragging on the ground because they reacted to the suture material or had some other complication exacerbated by activity.)
Consider if you’d had an ovariohysterectomy; would you go home the next day and bounce around, or would you take it easy?
@syz – the key word there is “exacerbated” by activity. Although I can’t make a connection between activity and reaction to suture material? Anyhow, intestines dragging on the ground is why the bush vets make the incision on the side.
My dog got her incision right in the middle. Whatever they did, after that day she won’t go to the vets unless I carry her inside. Any other glass door establishment makes her pull back.
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