Oh my, you and Teddy have sure been through it. Though she looks so pathetic, she also looks so sweet with her bow on her collar.

Sorry though, but I can't say that I've ever had any problems after any of the girls got spayed. It was probably just good luck on my part, or some bad luck on Teddy's part.

Awwwwwww poor girl!!
Our Doxie in just a day or two managed to get half her stitches out!! They didn't give her the collar, reccomended a tube sock with the toes cut off (shes a Doxie) to keep the area covered up. By the end of the week or whenever she was to go back and get the stitches out the rest were long gone! They are stubborn when they want something aren't they? We were just told to keep her quiet for a couple days and not to let her jump....

I see she's already perfected the "I'm so cute how can you resist giving me anything I want" face!! She really is adorable :)

Awww poor baby! Hope she can be good till it heals.

Is that a bow made of gauze on her collar?
LOL
Pretty cute!

I hope she starts feeling better soon.
We've never dealt with post-spaying complications before other than a little redness in the stitches. We've treated that ourselves with topicals.

She sure is a cutie!

Lori

That brings back memories! Henry had to wear one of those collars when he was neutered and he had about the same expression on his face too! The collar would drag on the ground because he would walk around with his head down. He couldn't climb steps as the collar would get caught on the step so he would just stand there and look pathetic. Poor pup!

Definitely NOT happy!

My dog came home with one of those too, but didn't have to wear it. I kept her with me around the clock for a few days and she never chewed at her stitches. I should say "incision" because they used glue and not stitches on the outside. In fact, if you looked at her, even very closely, you couldn't tell she had been cut! Just the area was shaved. I took a cat the next day...and say thing with her. I've got 5 more female cats going in about a week.

On one of my shih-tzus she kept trying to dig at stitches so i bought the smallest baby booties i could find and put them on her. Surprising she left then on and acted proud of them, she would raise her paw for us to inspect.

Please continue to have patience with her, she is a baby and this is all new to her, dogs want nothing more than to please their master and she is trying, I know she is. This will pass and she will be the best companion ever.
Take it one day at a time, most animal lovers go through all of this even the messes, keep remembering she is a baby and she has to learn. Best of luck!

Linda~

I had Roxie (kitten) spayed last year. She got stitches put in, and within 2 days had some pulled out.

Took her back to the vet, and she restitched the ones that were missing. Lo and behold, the following morning, she had 2 more pulled, back to the vet, and she stapled her belly.

Well if I didn't catch her pulling at the staples!!!! Ouch!
She got one out.
Back to the vet, and a collar put on her. Serves her right, but she looked so sat and pitiful with it. Little bugger

Oh my, what a sweetie... that face.... We have had collars on all 3 of our dogs for various reason... Jenny just couldn't quite get the hang of them & would be walking around and get the thing caught on the side of the couch, chair, wall in the hallway -- and just come to a dead stop... not go forward or back, would just stand there... waiting ..... for someone to come & rescue her... silly girl...

My old cat had a little cast on his leg/paw following a bad fight with an animal outdoors. We got him home from the vet and he scurried away. We figured he was just "mad" at us and we'd leave him be for a while. He proudly came down the stairs an hour or so later sans cast! That bugger had bit through all the layers and ripped it off!

This is also the cat that managed to get flea collars off by himself!

She's a beauty!

Thanks for the responses. Last night, she didn't sleep much with that e-collar and she tossed and turned in bed, which means *I* tossed and turned in bed. She usually sleeps in her crate at night, but I felt sorry for her last night so she slept with me.

This morning, I expected to see everything looking all better, but progress is slow. I hear so many stories about people getting their pets spayed and then two days later, life is back to normal. We're five days out from the spay surgery and she's a pup - only 17 weeks old - which I thought meant that she'd heal much faster. I'm surprised she's not recovering faster.

Does anyone know much about doggy antibiotics? When can I expect to see her all better? She was spayed on Sunday early morning) and the wound on her abdomen still looks pretty angry. She goes back to the vet for a recheck early next week.

Rose

She looks so sad in that Elizabethan collar. How can she sleep with that darned thing? Hope she heals fast and gets well!

aw teddy, you will be better soon :)
you should have listened to the doc and mommy :D

I didn't realize she was only 4 months old, I'm 66, have had dogs all my life, many at one time and I have never heard of a dog that young being spayed. Don't want to offend anyone but that is shocking to me, wonder if that has anything to do with the slow healing. Shaking my head at a vet that would do that, she is just a baby. I would take her back today, don't wait over the weekend. Would you ask the vet a question for me, what is the purpose of putting a pup through a surgery like that. Every female dog we had spayed came through it beautifully, but they were older. Hope you are not offended by my post, it's just I'm always on the animal's side, I feel so deeply for them.

Linda~

Linda, our vets wouldn't spay our dogs this young either. GUess there are differing opinions...

Hey, Rosemary. have you seen the new E-Collars... inflatable ones like the travel pillows?

here is a story...
http://www.arcamax.com/catsanddogs/s-366365-755484

Here is a link that might be useful: e collar.. inflatable

Thanks for the responses. There's a large body of thought (and evidence, actually) that "juvenile spaying" is the way to go. I did a LOT of reading on the topic before taking THE BABY in for the procedure, and all of it was very in favor.

It's only considered a juvenile spay if they're 16 weeks or younger and she was right at 16 weeks. In shelters, they're spaying them at six weeks old. The new anesthetics (I'm told) are a world apart from the older anesthetics - which was the main reason for delaying surgery until a dog had some age on her.

The pros are, the puppies heal much faster and there are fewer complications. The cons are (this is my own opinion), it's not pretty to lock a puppy in a crate with an e-collar for most of her 24-hour day. This is precious socialization time, and she *has* to be quiet so she has to either be on drugs, or spend a bit of time in the crate - for the first few days, anyway.

And now with this complication, she's in there until the infection heals (which I hope is no more than a couple days away). She can not be running around and/or jumping - which is what she longs to do.

Prior to this, we had a lot of fun, taking long walks and going to the dog park every day and playing catch in the back yard. She was a tired dog and a good dog. Now she's been cooped up for six days and is all fired up.

I dunno. The juvenile spay is supposed to be THE thing. I thought it was the best thing to do for my little dog and I spent a whole lot of time doing my research before I made these arrangements. We got into trouble when she licked her stitches and/or when she insisted on jumping up and down like she was a coiled spring.

Rose

do you think she might be more comfortable with one of those ecollars that I linked too? they look interesting!

Hi Kat,

I'm going out to PetSmart tonight and take a look at those e-collars. That looks a LOT more comfortable than this hard plastic thing.

Thanks for the link.

Rose

Dear Rose,
Thanks for the explanation, I know you love her very much and that you researched this carefully. It's been awhile since we had a pup, we now take in older dogs, like us. :o)
Didn't mean to fly off the handle, didn't realize things are done differently now, I do think spaying a 6 week old pup is rediculous and dangerous. They used to tell you to let the dog go through one season. Spaying will prevent her from getting mammary gland cancer.

We rescued a 6 1/2 year old dachshund who had been used for breeding, even had a # tattoo in her little ear. She wasn't spayed until she was 6 1/2 and they were through using her. We were able to have her for 5 precious years before she got mammary cancer, she had 2 surgeries but it was all over her little body. It's been a year and a half since she left us and I'm not over it yet, I loved her dearly, her name was Tater Tot.

I hope your little one improves over the weekend, sorry I butted in.

Linda~

It may be healing slower because she was chewing at her stitches before you got the collar on her.

I don't know about dogs but sometimes cats will have an allergic reaction to the suture material. And...like I said...the last two I had done, they didn't do any sutures on the outside, just used glue. I was really pleased how well it looked and how quickly they healed.