Maggie got spay yesterday - Pain?

Binkalette

Yesterday we took Maggie in for her spay in the morning and picked her up today at 8 am. She was sooo happy to see us and seemed just like Zoey had when we picked her up: Like she didn't even notice the incision. But as soon as we got home she seemed like she was in a lot of pain. She sat in her favorite spot for about 20 minutes.. real tense and ridged, she wouldn't lay down and she was panting pretty heavily, so I called the vet and she seemed to think she was probably just having some pain from all the moving around she did when she was excited to see us, but offered to give me some pain meds if I wanted.

So I went down there and got them, we only live two blocks away but I put Maggie in the crate anyway just to make sure she stayed still... They gave me Carprofen (Rimadyl?) and I'm supposed to give her 1/2 a pill twice a day. When I got home I crushed up half of a pill and mixed it in with a little peanut butter, and Maggie ate it all up. It seemed to help her pain a little, but mostly I think it just made her sleepy.

Anyway, I'm just sad and a little worried for my little girl, it's been 7 hours since I gave her her the Carprofen and her pain is back- well, not back, it's always been there, it just lessened a little bit with the Carprofen I think. It's so odd though.. every time she moves she RACES to wherever she wants to be and immediately sits or lays and then starts trying to lick her stitches. When I took her out to potty she rolled and rubbed her face in the grass in the same furious way she's been running to places she wants to go. She really wants to be by me.. so when I go somewhere she races to me and then sits down on my feet and tries to lick her tummy.

I want to give her more pain meds to help with her pain, but now I've been reading things online about some dogs having reactions to it that don't show up for 24-48 hours after the fact. The vet said they had given her one Carprofen yesterday.. So, I don't know I'm just nervous to give her more of the pain meds if there's a possibility of it harming her..

She hasn't really eaten anything other than the peanut butter, a few small treats and two pieces of kibble. She hasn't visited the water bowl at all, so a few hours ago I fed her a bowl of ice chips. She LOVES ice chips and ate them all up.. so at least she got some water into her. The vet said she might not have much of an appetite until tomorrow though, and to call them if she doesn't drink for 2 days.. If she doesn't go to the water bowl by tomorrow afternoon I think I'll call them again...

Her incision looks fine to me.. I don't think there's anything wrong there, but I'm no expert so I am posting a picture of it..

I'm not even sure what i'm looking for advice on right now.. I'm just worried for my little girl and I want to make her feel better. When Zoey was spay she didn't even seem to notice..

Here's the incision..

the little bump at the top of the incision is where her belly button hernia was.. it was just a small one that they found when she was 8 weeks old, but he said they would leave it until she was spay, so, they removed the little pieces of fat that was there during the spay too.

Cuddled up on the couch.


Zoey wants her to feel better too.. She hasn't tried to get Maggie to play all day.

MoosMom

Its probably going to take a couple days before you really start to see her personality again. She basically just had major surgery. No different than us needing recovery time. You certainly dont want her to feel invincible or she would take off and risk her stitches popping! Baby her while you can, pretty soon you will be worrying about how active she is.

Thracian

Aw, I'm sorry. Poor Maggie.

I actually took Clay in for his neuter yesterday, and I got the pain pills also. I think it's not surprising that she's feeling a little sleepy today. Clayton vacillates between lying around and wanting to run as usual. He's not up for playing yet, but he's doing better than I expected for one day after. He is wearing the cone of doom to prevent him from licking. I'm also doing my best to keep him from overdoing it.

I would probably go ahead and give her the pain medicine since it seemed to help.

Binkalette

She's so miserable. She vanished from the couch when I was making supper and I found her hiding behind the toilet... I gave her another dose of the pain meds. It seems to have helped again, but she still gets up every once and a while and either runs really fast to get to where she wants to be, or digs furiously on the pillows where she's laying. I think it must feel like there is something under her stomach hurting her and she's trying to get it off.

I finally got her to drink some liquid water now too.

Pai

Carprofen is doggie Ibuprofen, basically.

GroovyGroomer777

Awww, feel better soon Maggie <hugs> She'll be alright.

Terrie

Aside from the pain, she's probably still under the effects of the sedative. After my pup's surgery which occurred on the morning I got her, she was very lethargic and sleepy and the vet at the shelter said that the drugs would wear off in about 24 hours. Surely, the next day she was a different puppy.

Don't know if it's relevant. But since my pup's surgery was on the same day that I got her. On the way home, she threw up on me in the car. It was ~40 minute ride and she was struggling a lot. To this day I don't know if she was car sick or maybe it was because of the surgery?

Anyway, hope Maggie feels better. She's too cute to be in pain and sad like that.

Michiyo-Fir

The first few days are a little bit painful. When I first got Nia home, she whined for the entire night whenever she woke up because it hurt. The 2nd day she whined some, not a lot and by the 2nd night she was fine again. 3rd day she was all back to normal.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just let her sleep, it usually helps with the pain.

I hope she feels better soon! Let us know!

misty073

awww I hope your dog is feeling better. When we got our Maggie spayed she was really out of it the first day, very lethargic and drooling (I felt terrible) She rested for a few days after that, she was kenneled alot to rest and sleep (she was fine with that) we have two small kids, a cat and had another dog at the time so she was better kenneled. Did they not tell you to keep a cone on her? We came home with pain med and a cone...and the cone kept her calmer too (my dog actually likes them )

Binkalette

No they didn't.. They never gave us a cone or pain meds for Zoey either.. I'm kind of disappointed with the vet today.. first of all because late last night I had Maggie out to go potty, and she pulled back on her leash because she wanted to go back inside, and her head slipped right out of her collar! I looked at it and they loosened it.. There was like an extra two inches of collar length than there was when I took her in. I suppose they did that because they left it on her in her crate that the hospital over night.. but they could have let me know.. or put it back. It was kinda scary to think what if that had happened when she wanted to stay out or chase after something, rather than go back inside?

And then this morning I was looking at her paw and it looks like someone clipped her nails really short?? They weren't long to begin with.. I clip them every week, but when I was looking, two of them have scabs on the end like the quick was cut. I never hit the quick.. I suppose she could have caught them on something.. but it looks like a clean cut.. so I don't know. Sometimes I wish we lived in a bigger town with more than one vet office..

She's not feeling much better today.. Just had another dose of pain meds that will kick in soon I hope. I've been bringing the food and water bowls to her because she won't get up and go to them herself.

Zoey is really jealous of all the attention Maggie's getting...

Oh.. and yesterday when I asked how she did over night at the vet.. they said she was good, but then said that no one is there over night with the dogs. What??? How dangerous is that?? Leaving a dog fresh out of surgery in a crate, alone, all night. I had asked when we brought Zoey in for her spay if we could take her home right away, but they said no, they liked to keep them over night, and I got the impression that someone would be there.. I guess not. How could it be any safer to leave a dog alone like that than it would to send her home with her family who could take care of her?


Ugh. Just not happy today. Maybe I'll get over it when Maggie is feeling better. I hate seeing my little girl hurting so much.

misty073

Do they charge extra for the overnight stay? I find that odd they keep them, our dog was done later in the morn and we took her home that day, mind you she was very out of it, and I could see why they would keep them, but if no one is there anyways it wouldnt matter (maybe they justify charging more??).

I know when both our dogs (and the cat for that matter) were done pain meds were an optional add on...but they definatly make you feel like you must buy them. And both just came home with the cones and we were told to keep the cone on our spayed dog for 10 days, I wonder why a vet would send a dog home without one...you would think they would be afraid of the dog licking and causing an infection or irritation (or worse pulling the stitches)

I hope your doggy is back to herself soon.

jasminesmom

Please go to BARKS. Also at yahoo search Rimadyl and read how terrible it can be for some dogs. Read the about the law suit filed and watch your precious one very carefully for any odd behavior, side effects. I gave my beloved Jasmine, ProIn for incontinence before any research and now she is dead. Her incontinence turned into kidney failure after injesting this drug for 5 days. She should never had received it for she had a 'slight heart murmur'.
I do blame myself for this but I also feel vets are to tell/give us something about adverse reactions, side effects.

I hope all is well with Maggie. Keep us informed

Cheryl and Angel Jasmine

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Binkalette

Unless it's included in the spay fee, they don't charge more for keeping them.. The spay is $103.. and when I called about getting her some pain meds they seemed reluctant to give me any.. maybe for good reason with all the reactions dogs have had to it.. But the vet who did the surgery thought she would be fine with it. So far so good.. it's been 48 hours since her first dose and i haven't seen any signs of a reaction yet. Still, I think I will stop after one more dose tonight. I am trying to get her to drink as much water as I can, because I know her body needs to be able to process the drugs and get rid of them..

She does seem to be feeling a little better now as the day wears on.. She's following me around the house more now.


I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your Jasmine! I am always worried about the different drugs and things we give our dogs.. My mother in laws dog Sugar almost died from an oral flea medication.. I don't know which one it was.. but they gave it to her and within a few hours she was drooling and shaking and wouldn't look at anyone.. They got her to the e-vet and she had to have her blood pumped. She is ok now though.

And YEA..I agree vets SHOULD tell us about possible reactions.. but they don't! When I went to get the pain meds, they didn't mention a thing about it possibly being harmful to her. I had to find that out on my own when I got home.



Maggie buried herself in the pillows on the bed.. doesn't she just look sad? :-(

misty073

She does ...but I guess one thing you have to remember is she doesnt know why this happened to her. She just knows she feels like crap and that isnt much to get excited about She pretty much is doing what our dog just lying and resting.

And yes the 103 is very reasonable, especially being the only vet as you stated. We had our female done for 125 include pain med and tatoo, our male was around 70 (I dont remember exactly as he was my daughters dog at the time) We now only have one dog and I am thinking about getting another again and have started pricing things out and for a male to get neutered here in our new town its 180 (I forgot to ask what that included or if we pay extra for the pain med and tatoo)and more for a female.

CoverTune

Aw, poor pup. She will be fine though, I'm sure. Every dog reacts differently. When Corona was spayed, she was a heartbreaking sight for two or three days.. however, when Aria was done.. aside from a little sulking, she was basically bouncy and playful within a couple hours of me picking her up.

Ayanla

Wow, I guess I got really lucky.

Odo barely even noticed his neuter, and he's my "baby" about pain. He was quiet for the first evening, and we kept him crated so he could rest, but by the next morning he was right as rain.

Kira was really dopey the first night after the spay and would sit kind of on her side like it hurt, but never so much as whimpered. She just looked at us with that horribly pitiful expression Boston's give. She also was right as rain by the next morning.

As for the nail trim, my vet trimmed both of my pups nails while they were under and quicked nearly every nail on them. The nurse said it's standard because they like to take advantage of the sedation. She did comment that their nails were already decently short. They also did anal gland expression even though neither of my pups needed it.

Dog_Shrink

poor little girl. This is all normal tho. I would have insisted on a cone for her tho or keep a tee shirt on her maybe a baby onsie so that she cant mess with the stitches. Whenever I get ANY meds or vaccines for my dog I always ask for side effects... they never volunteer that info or u might not take the meds *kaching $$ for them*. Odd thing is with the zooming it is probably a fear reaction on a couple different triggers... first the pain.. dogs run from pain... second tickeling from the sutures. Those are some BIG bulky sutures and only 2??? That's disappointing. Usually are at least 5. Now the anesthesia usually takes a full 48 hrs to blow out of their system hence the spacy groggy thing. Lastly once the initial pain of the surgery passes she'll have emmense itching from the healing process. Ask the vet (which should be ok) If you can put some cortisone 10 AROUND the suture area... not directly on... this way you can relieve some of the itching she's going to experience as well as keep the skin a bit moistened. Again... not directly on the incision just next to the area.

Just relax... the more tense you are the more tense your pups (both of them) will be. They sense that amd will feed off it. Try to act as if it were any normal day as much as possible. Y'all will get thru this... or as they say "this too shall pass".

Good luck.

PS neuters are A LOT less invasive than spays. males usually take it much better. And to the OP I Would be PISSED AS HELL if they did my dog's nails and quicked them. That is totallly unprofessional. I understand that they do it so they don't scratch themselves if they thrash after coming out of the anesthesia but there is NO REASON to quick a dog when you work for a vet. And yes they absolutely should have told you they adjusted her collar or just took it off altogether.

Binkalette

I was thinking of putting her sweater on her to keep her from licking at the stitches, but your right, they are REALLY long, so they were getting caught on the sweater, and I figured that would probably only make her discomfort worse.. So I took it off.. She's still spending pretty much all day right next to me, so I've been able to keep her from doing it.. I may have to ask for a cone soon though if they are going to get more itchy

I don't think they intentionally cut her quicks on those two nails to make them recede.. I think they just did a bad job, because all her nails were pretty even before.. That is -really- bad if they did do it while she was still under, because then they didn't even have her wiggling to deal with.


I just got to thinking, there is another vet clinic not too far from here.. like 30 minutes.. They might not be open anymore.. the only reason I know they were is because I went there for "Take a girl to work day" in sixth grade. LOL.. So, if by the grace of god they are still open, I think I'll try to find them and see how they are. I have to say I was immediately disappointed with my current vet when I walked in and all the shelves were stocked with Science Diet From what I've read here, that's not a good sign.

Binkalette

Well Maggie seems to be feeling better now. I stopped pain meds on Thursday night and she's been fine. Her papers said she can resume normal activities today, and she has. She's been up and playing with Zoey, back to eating and drinking normally. I'm so glad she's feeling better My Maggie is back.

Dog_Shrink

yay Maggie.. see we told ya things would get better. Just don't let her be too active because you don't want her to irritate her incision. Personally I'd limit her to 15 minute play sessins at at ime and don't let themget too intense. Try to avoid wrestling just in case a claw might get into a suture.

When do her sutures come out?