Bitter Spray vs Cone of Shame

[beth101509]

So I guess another question I should have asked in my original post:

Do you really need to keep your dog calm for 7-10 days or can you start going on short leashed walks before that? Can we play fetch in the house before that? When can we go back to our normal routine?

[Annette47]

I’ve never had a male neutered, so can’t speak to that. With Scully, SHE left her incision alone, but Mulder wouldn’t leave it alone and kept licking it, which of course a cone wouldn’t have helped, so we put her in a t-shirt and tied it up around her waist so that it covered the incision and he couldn’t reach it. Jolie had all sorts of incisions as she had a mast cell tumor removed from her side, a separate mammary tumor and was spayed all in the same operation. We had gotten one of the inflateable cones for her, but she didn’t really need it as she left all her incisions alone.

Chloe is still intact but when she hurt her leg and needed to be splinted for a few weeks, we found the Bite-Not collar which is kind of like a cervical collar for a human to be both effective and comfortable. I think that would be my first choice if I needed something like that.

As for the exercise, we did short leashed walks before 7 days - that would be much better than fetch in the house as you can better control them so they are not doing anything that pulls on the incision like they might if they are playing off-leash (even in the house). Again though, we only had girls done.

[Tanya]

So I guess another question I should have asked in my original post:

Do you really need to keep your dog calm for 7-10 days or can you start going on short leashed walks before that? Can we play fetch in the house before that? When can we go back to our normal routine?

yes.

no jumping the first few days, after that I allowed SOME getting on and off furniture but tried to keep it to a minimum. Leash walks short at first, i don't really stop walks all together. No free play/fetching or play dates for 10 days. I had to do leash walks as I lived in an apartmetn for many years. 5-10 minutes the first few days (more than once a day). By day 5 i think I would up to 20 minutse but CALM walking, if the dog gets hyper and jumpy then we scrapped the walks. So I guess I was very very strict about anything running/jumping/crazyiness but more relaxed on teh leash walks part. No fetching, the fast movement and rapid stopping I think woudl be bad.

SOME dogs you can ignore that and be fine. But again, I had fosters that ended up being on house arrest for 3-4 WEEKS because they were not properly kept calm the first 7-10 days. Honestly, be DILIGENT for 5 days. You can increase calm leash walks if needed but no running around. It's worth being over cautious and keep the total number of days down. It is VERY annoying when you are going on week three. (note: most of the times I had issues were because other fosters had the dog the first few days and let them do whatever they wanted).

It IS a great time for training. Teach a fwe new tricks. Make the dog work for every meal (training or toys). Lots of stuffed kongs.

[Snowshoe]

I was SO ticked off with a friend of mine several years ago. Her female Lab was spayed and she got the usual instructions to curtail activity for 10 days. She let the dog off leash and the dog went swimming. "You know what they are like," she said to me, "It's so hard to keep them out of the water." Really, I felt like smacking her, the owner. If the dog had been on leash, as advised, she wouldn't have gone swimming. And then, then she wouldn't have gotten that bad infection. And, this owner was a nurse, an RN. !!!!!

It's not quite the same with boys, not so invasive. But the leash is such a good idea and I agree, no fetch.

[kimbersmom]

Kimber's another girl who chewed out her stitches. This meant she not only had to wear the cone, but her recovery was much longer. She was a very active puppy so keeping her quiet was miserable for everyone. We kept a leash on her at all times, including the house, so that we could quickly curtail her attempts at jumping. We served all her meals in the Buster Cube and other food-dispensing toys; I think that mental exercise saved us.

[beth101509]

I was SO ticked off with a friend of mine several years ago. Her female Lab was spayed and she got the usual instructions to curtail activity for 10 days. She let the dog off leash and the dog went swimming. "You know what they are like," she said to me, "It's so hard to keep them out of the water." Really, I felt like smacking her, the owner. If the dog had been on leash, as advised, she wouldn't have gone swimming. And then, then she wouldn't have gotten that bad infection. And, this owner was a nurse, an RN. !!!!!

It's not quite the same with boys, not so invasive. But the leash is such a good idea and I agree, no fetch.

Well, ours will be more of a spay since only one of Oliver's testicles has dropped. I am hoping the other one will make itself known soon because I would prefer the easier neuter as opposed to the more invasive neuter...Fingers crossed!

[Jeff]

My vet gave me a list of instructions. The first day when they come home they are usually pretty out of it from the drugs, day two Hemi was still not feeling up to doing much. Day 3 though we resumed short walks, maybe a mile but that was it no rough play or jumping. Day 6 or 7 is when things really started returning to normal.

Hemi also had Laser therapy which can really increase healing times. Not sure if your vet offers that or not.

[happy_blackbird]

Woodrow Woodchuck, my girl sounds so much like your Sunshine, I am thinking we're going to have to stock up on the Acepromazine next week when she gets spayed. Is that what they used with her? I tried simply introducing a new harness to her last week and she zoomied through the house like a dervish while pooping (something I didn't think was possible with her little butt tucked). Go, high energy dogs!

[Woodrow_Woodchuck]

At 6 months old Sunshine NEEDED 5 hours or more a day of off leash run like a nut time, every day. There was absolutely no way I was going to keep her calm for a week without help. The vet knows her well and understood. I can't deny that I enjoyed the heck out of that week!!! She had gone through her 4 week Spawn of Satan stage, and her energy release needs seemed to increase daily. It was a needed breather before facing the next year and a half with her.

I don't remember what pills I gave her, sorry. I do remember the vet saying to start with 1/2 and see how that went. She ended up getting two at each dosage. They did not put her down for the count, but did take the edge off enough to where we could play hide and seek or I could have her destroy a stick and she was fine with that.

[twocrazylabs]

We will be going through this again too in a few months... Although this time around it will be twice as hard since he always wants to wrestle with his older brother! :\