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INU
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AK Dog Doc,

 

What type of complications have you ever seen on spaying? Do you consider it an easier operation compare to other surgeries?

 

I called our Humane Society in town over 20 times to ask questions but they never return my calls. Their automated message says the wait for the spay/neuter is over 4 weeks! I really like to spay her before her first heat (She is 5 months old) There are at least two other non-profitable places near town that do spaying for reasonable price but I had a bad experience with one of them. -- when we went to pick our lab up, we saw him walking around outside without colar/leash by himself after the surgery!!! He was still drowsy and drooling all over. The people there had no excuse but to apologize for losing him :mad: So lucky we happened to find him!!! Also, I've been told that those non-profitable organizations use cheaper anestesia (spelling?) compare to vets which could cause complications...

 

Bailey's Mom,

 

Did they put the microship when you had Bailey spayed/neutered? Or did they offer the service without the operation. Our Human Society only would put the microship if we want to spay/neuter.

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Hi INU

Spays are what we often think of as "routine" procedures, since they are done very frequently and most vets are very familiar with the procedure. However, it is an abdominal surgery and not always easy (depending on the patient). Usually on young slender dogs prior to the first heat (such as your dog) it's pretty straitforward; the uterus and ovaries are not well-developed and so it's pretty easy compared to an older dog with heavier tissues or one with a lot of fat. I've seen my bosses (who have been doing this for 30 years) do uncomplicated spays in as little as 10 minutes. The shorter the anesthetic time, the less risk and impact on the dog, but the caveat here is you need someone who does not sacrifice competence for speed. I'm much slower, because I'm a big chicken and I would worry about my patients too much if I rushed.

 

As far as age, heat cycles typically begin any time after 6 months, but average is 8 to 10 months. Ocasionally I'll see a dog under 6 months or over a year on their first heat, but that's unusual. So you may have a little time before she goes into heat.

 

As for complications, the things I've seen in the first 24 hours are usually either anesthesia-related problems (the dog not coming up well from the anesthetic - this is uncommon for us - or acting "weird" mentally as an idiosyncratic reaction, ie, one unique to that dog); vomiting; or bleeding problems. These are more common in dogs that are not properly managed before or after surgery (so I'm sure that won't happen to you! ) and in dogs that are in heat or pregnant when spayed (again, not going to happen in your case). Occasionally there's a problem with the sutures not holding in the body wall but this is rare. Some dogs will some seem excessively painful or restless.

 

Things you might see later are mainly things like infection (rare) or the dog gnawing the stitches out or excessively licking at them (more common).

 

The things I personally have been called in on emergency for on SPCA spays are bleeding, vomiting, the dog immediately pulling the sutures out (not usual), once for an anesthetic reaction, and pain control problems. We offer the option of post-op pain control; not sure if SPCA does. (I don't advise aspirin since it's an anti-coagulant and can worsen bleeding). One of the vets I worked with had one that had the internal sutures pull out and the dog was herniating. She did fine in the end, but it was a bit expensive. That would be a pretty rare thing to have happen, though. Most of the post-op complications are not going to be fatal, but they may be distressing to the owner or the dog. I know of one who died of internal bleeding after being bred the same day as the surgery (REALLY bad post-op mamagement there, unfortunately). That would only happen if the dog was in heat prior to the spay and if the owner didn't watch the dog afterwards, so this will not happen to you.

 

As for anesthetics - I don't know what the SPCA uses. We put them all on heart and oxygen monitors and we use a well-understood anesthetic regimen which performs well for us (there are many good ones).

 

I think the thing that would worry me the most in your case is that you can't talk to a person on the SPCA line. We have our after-hours time covered by an on-call doctor at all times (we take turns), so you can always reach someone, day or night. Can you call your vet and ask what is entailed in the procedure - how they monitor, what sort of follow-up care they do, what kinds of anesthetics they use, whether or not pre-operative bloodwork is included in the price and so on? That might help you make a decision, and if you want to know these things I can't imagine them having a problem telling you.

 

In a young healthy dog this is usually a fairly easy procedure and complications are rare. Not unknown, but rare. Because of the way you manage your dog, the chances of a problem are minimal. Any dog can have a problem under anesthesia; there is no such thing as a risk-free anesthetic, but the incidence is well under one tenth of one percent in our clinic, and using the monitors decreases the risk (as does pre-operative bloodwork).

 

So, anyway, this is likely to go well for you, but personally I'd be happier with a clinic that I knew had a crash cart on hand and knew how to use it, and one where I could speak to an actual person. That's just my opinion, though, so do whatever feels the most comfortable for you. And sorry this is so long!

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INU-They did not put Bailey's microchip in while neutering. He got the chip when he got his rabies shot. As far as his neutering-I would not have trusted the humane society for the procedure. I probably wouldn't even have gone there for the microchipping and rabies but I had just moved to Tucson and didn't have a vet yet and needed his first rabies shot to license him. I go to a holistic vet, and that is where he was neutered. As far as anesthetics-some are definitely safer than others. I know that my vet was explaining the type they use and why it is so much safer than the rest. Of course I forget what anethetic is was. But I will try to call and find out and post the name of it.

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Just a note - I have had literally dozens of dogs neutered and spayed at out local SPCA hospital. The only complication we have ever had is that one of the dogs reacted badly to the surtures they used. Aside from this, and one dog who took a while to recover from the anesthesia, we have had no issues. The same goes for the local low cost spay/neuter clinics - no problems there.

 

The one dog I had spayed at a "higher price" vet clinic led to fights with the clinic - they didn't want me to take her home because they wanted to charge me for the overnight care. The dog was in massive pain overnight.

 

Having said that, my dog is right now in one of the most expensive clinics I have ever dealt with (not getting neutered) and they are doing a great job and I am happy to pay the money. But neuters are a pretty routine procedure, especially for places that do them all the time, and I think that any clinic that wants to charge $40.00 for a tattoo is bound to be gouging you in other areas as well.

 

RDM

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Doc, Thank you for the information! I love when your message is long :rolleyes: it is always valuable!

 

 

I've tried calling Humane Society all morning and I gave up on reaching them. They also have option to get information on "how's your pet doing after surgery" when pressed 2. The answer is also automated. The voice says "all animals are doing fine" hmmm... I would want to speak to live person even just to hear "she is doing fine". I have respect for them and admire their work but when it comes to my baby, I get paranoid.

 

I called another non profit organization but they didn't offer microchipping. I called up several vets in my area and one of them said "$270 for spaying, $70 for microchipping" -270 because they include blood work prior to surgery.

 

My vet is open till 9pm on tuesdays so I probably take her in next tuesday. So if something happenes (knocking on wood), I can take her back late at night. I will see if Humane Society would call me back before... I don't mind paying 3 times more if I know for sure that it is worth it.

 

 

Bailey's mom, the reason I asked if you had him neutered and microchipped at the same time was that our vet said it is painful to microchip so they prefer to do both at the same time. Did they give him anesthesia when they microchipped or was it a quick simple procedure? If so, I can do the microchipping at Humane Society later.

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INU-They did not give Bailey anesthetic. It did look a little painful to me-it is a hollow needle that shoots the microchip in. It was very quick though. Bailey only made one little yelp and was completely fine afterwords. There was no blood. He acted like nothing had happened. He made more of a fuss over the rabies shot. My boyfriends husky didn't even move or make a peep. I'm sure it does hurt-but I don't think it is too terrible. I have had my belly button pierced-that hollow needle was bigger. And it didn't hurt much. I imagine the microchipping is somewhere along that pain level. I guess the only major issue would be if you have a dog that is really squirmy. The dog has to stay still so that it goes in correctly and deep enough. And gets done right on the first shot.

 

Also I hope I did not offend anyone who works at a low cost clinic or shelter. I'm glad they exist because a lot of people could not afford to go to their vets for the procedure. Then we would have even more unwanted puppies! Its just that at the humane society here I rescued a BC mix who I found a great home for, and I picked him up the day of his neutering and he was covered in urine. They didn't take the time to give him a potty break or clean him up if he peed while under the anethstetic. And there were so many dogs getting done that day that I had to wait almost an hour in line to pick him up. And it is also hard to get any info about the vets who are performing the surgery and all that. Bailey can get quite nervous in new situations if there is a lot going on, so I figured he would also be better off at the vets where there would only be one or two other dogs rather than the humane society where tons of dogs were getting neutered on the same day.

 

My vet only charged $140 for the procedure, this included pain meds and some homeopathic remedies. Wow-$270 is a lot of money! I understand your predicament. INU-how much does your dog weigh. Most of the vets here adjust their price according to weight. Bailey weighed about 30 lbs. when he got neutered. I'm guessing that spaying costs more than neutering though?

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The local vet that I take all my animals to is wonderful, but he isn't cheap. He charged $30 for tatooing and $40 for microchipping and I can't remember the exact amount he charged for spaying Mia but I know it was at least $100. I never even called around to compare prices; the thought never occurred to me to do so because of the care I knew she would receive when she was there. I really think it is best to leave them there over night so they can keep watch over them to make sure that there are no complications, plus my vet doesn't charge for the overnight stay.

 

This is completely off subject but if you find a good vet, you might want to consider paying the higher price. My baby cat (2 yrs old, was 8lbs. now is 6lbs because she couldn't eat)had been throwing up since last Tuesday but I thought nothing of it because another woman I work with had gone through a similar issue with her cat and he just got over it so I thought Kahlua would too. This Tuesday my husband called me and told me that I had to make an appointment for her to go in so I did and I'm so glad that I took her in yesterday because he changed her food and told me to separate her from the other cats so I could check her stool and food/water intake. She didn't eat, drink or go to the bathroom all yesterday and all last night so first thing this morning I called him again and he told me to bring her in so he could start blood work and maybe take some x-rays if the blood work came out fine. The white blood cell count was a bit high but okay considering she hadn't eaten a thing in more than a week but the x-ray showed she had a large metal object in her small intestine. He told me that he would try to do the surgery today but that he had a lot on his plate and may not be able to do the surgery until tomorrow. Well, I'm glad he was able to get to her today by squeezing her in because he just called me and said that had he not done the surgery today the PENNY (has anyone else's cat ever eaten a penny?) would have broken through the small intestine and she probably would have died. :rolleyes: The reason for the long post is that he only has office hours until noon today but was worried enough about my cat (and he doesn't even like cats) to do the surgery today even after the office was closed. So I guess what I'm trying to get across to you is that sometimes the quality of care out weighs the dollar value. Money comes and goes, but you will ALWAYS remember your pets!

 

Mia, Kahlua, Patch and Hanna's mom Gimmie Sue

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MiaP,

 

you are absolutely right.

I only have been with my new vet for a couple of months but I like to build a good relationship with them for a long time. Another reason I think I should take my pup there for surgery is to show them respect. If I take her somewhere else because of the money (although it is pretty big deal for me right now after having three of my other furry kids taken to emergency/vet in last two months. these things seem to happen at once :rolleyes: ) and go back to the vet in the future, I probably feel like I cheated...

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