Puppy booked in to be neutered tomorrow

spurscormac

Hi all,

Booked my 9.5 month old in to have the snip tomorrow.
He's been getting a little growly towards other males & has been testing out patience a bit with becoming more & more stubborn.

Anyway, I'm aware that when I collect him tomorrow, he'll be a little out of sorts for a couple of days. The vet nurse will go through everything with me when I pick him up, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice on do's or don't & how to help him cope.

Thanks in advance.

Munster Gal

He'll probably have a plastic lampshade collar going home but if he doesn't keep an eye on him in case he goes at his stitches. Feed him somethng light like boiled chicken in broth for the first night and make sure he has plenty of water available. No walks for the first few days either. Don't let him jump on furniture or go up steps for a couple of days to give his stitches a chance. He might have a little cough from the anaesthetic tube so that's normal. 99% of male dogs won't have any bother with the op so he should be fine.

kazza90210

Its such a small op for the boys he sould be back to his old self in a few days, You can offer him food the same night of the op but if he doesnt eat thats ok and nothing to worry about, the advice above its good for the first few days........

dont worry about him to much he will be fine

spurscormac

Thanks for the advice folks.

I do realise its a much simpler operation than with females, but I still can't help feeling bad for doing it - its not like I'd appreciate someone doing it to me. :eek:

I know its for the best, and should help calm him down a bit & repress his dominant streak that's come to the fore in the past month or so.
But it's still a little sad knowing that he won't be passing on his good looks to further puppies & people to enjoy.
Ah well - I suppose there's more than enough dogs to go around.

It's probably more about us coping than him to be honest.

sn00ps

spurscormac, don't be too sure it's going to suppress his dominent streak. My 2 year old Cocker has been neutered since he was about 5 months and he's getting growly now. I'm putting it down to socialisation tho as he is without doggie company a lot.

Also be prepared for the pain they will be in. I wasn't prepared for this. My vet didn't give him any painkillers as he said the recovery time is quicker .. I'd ask for some if I were you, even to take the edge off and allow him/you to sleep.

It's not a nice surgery, no matter how necessary it is. Stiches where they will be have gotta hurt right?

My guy didn't eat for about 2 days, drank a lot tho, we had to take his collar off for this as he couldnt reach. this will depend on your dog. TBH i would leave off the collar if you can keep an eye on him .. he'll be much happier. Just make sure he doesn't lick the stiches as they can get infected and cause you and him no end of problems.

HTH and hasn't put you off ... I just wanted to prepare you .. I got a big shock!


sn00ps!

andreac

spurscormac wrote: »

Thanks for the advice folks.


But it's still a little sad knowing that he won't be passing on his good looks to further puppies & people to enjoy.

There are enough unwanted puppies around that were bred just for these reasons, which are not good reasons to breed a dog for.

You have done the right thing by neutering him. He will be back to himself in a few days, dont worry.

spurscormac

sn00ps wrote: »

spurscormac, don't be too sure it's going to suppress his dominent streak. My 2 year old Cocker has been neutered since he was about 5 months and he's getting growly now. I'm putting it down to socialisation tho as he is without doggie company a lot.

Also be prepared for the pain they will be in. I wasn't prepared for this. My vet didn't give him any painkillers as he said the recovery time is quicker .. I'd ask for some if I were you, even to take the edge off and allow him/you to sleep.

It's not a nice surgery, no matter how necessary it is. Stiches where they will be have gotta hurt right?

My guy didn't eat for about 2 days, drank a lot tho, we had to take his collar off for this as he couldnt reach. this will depend on your dog. TBH i would leave off the collar if you can keep an eye on him .. he'll be much happier. Just make sure he doesn't lick the stiches as they can get infected and cause you and him no end of problems.

HTH and hasn't put you off ... I just wanted to prepare you .. I got a big shock!


sn00ps!

Thanks for that - its exactly the type of reply I was looking for - an honest perspective from an owner who's gone through similar. Funnily enough, my little fella is also a Cocker, so might have to follow your advice on the collar removal to allow him drink.
Will have to leave it on overnight, though he'll have the g/f's parents looking after him during the day while we're at work, so they can give him a break from it every so often.

I think the nurse already said over the phone that they would give pain killers - but I'll definitely ask for some anyway.
Luckily I'll be working from home next week, so will be able to keep a close eye on him then & give him lots of break time from the collar.

As for the growling - well we've socialised him loads as a young pup, and we always bring him to the park for walks where he meets lots of other dogs - he's just started getting growly to other males & has tried to test our authority - which we've clamped down on & will continue to do so after the op.
Hopefully he'll get back to being best friends with all dogs he meets, which he was up til about a month ago.

Noopti

Also be prepared that he might not be sleepy, out of sorts at all after the op.
Maybe it depends on the size of the dog, but we got our fella done last week and he was his old self (full of energy) as soon as we collected him a few hours after the procedure.

We had to constantly watch him so he wouldn't jump around too much as he wasnt' affected at all by the op.
The best thing to do also is to take the "lamp shade" head thingy with you, but don't use it until you see that he is going to be at his stitches. We didn't put it on our guy, and he went for his stitches once, and we said no to him and he never went near them again for the week. So we didn't have to use it at all in the end, which was better for us and him.

Anyway, the most important thing to remember is that is a hugely routine procedure so don't get unduly worried (I know, easier said than done!).

Oh, and like someone else said.....do make sure you get painkillers from the vet.

Cian92

Just remeber to keep aneye out for him, people say its a routine operation but things can go wrong. Our guy was done on Friday, he has become slightly aggressive, snaping and that he never did that before, but thats because of the lampshade. He has stopped now though. His personaility is back to normal! Also three days on and he is still bleeding, (which apparently shouldnt be happening) so we are bringing him back to the vet in around twenty minutes....

sn00ps

Glad to be of help, will be thinking of the little guy tomorrow.

Is it my imagination or is there a flood of Cockers around these days? This is my second and already there are 7-8 living in my village .. mad!

Good luck with the patient.

S

spurscormac

Well he's in with the vet now.
Have to admit I'm pretty worried about him - will be anxiously awaiting the phonecall at around 2:30pm.

As for Cockers - yeah I've noticed quite a few of them around my part of Galway. Obviously, I think they're great - but I do reckon they're a good size dog for in and out of the house - easy to pick up when needed cos of this, as opposed to some of the other bigger breeds (not that I'm trying to run others down).
I suspect because they are an easily manageable size has added to their popularity - and of course, they're just great looking little dogs.

sn00ps

So .. how is he?

spurscormac

Here's what happened...

Got called in to chat with the nurse - Rambo started jumping like crazy, was so excited to see me & just wanted to lick me non-stop, not easy from inside one of those lampshade collars.
They gave me the chat about keeping him quiet (tough task) for a few days and a care sheet, pain killers & recovery food.

Brought him home, and he drank like there was no tomorrow, also had no problem eating at all - looks like he ain't lost any of his appetite.
He did get sick twice, once after we got home & another time a while after eating, though he didnt overnight.
After initial excitement, he clamed down a bit, and was clearly not his exhuberant normal self.

The only worrying things are that he appears to be in a little pain at times when peeing, and ends up in a half lying position & getting some on himself - though other times, he's perfectly fine. He hasn't tried cocking the leg yet, probably too sore to try.
He also seems to almost be able to get at the stitches, even with the collar on - can't quite figure out if he's just getting as far as the hind leg or to the stitches.

Will just keep a close eye on him over the next 2 weeks and hopefully he'll be back to himself quickly.

Noopti

spurscormac wrote: »

Here's what happened...

Got called in to chat with the nurse - Rambo started jumping like crazy, was so excited to see me & just wanted to lick me non-stop, not easy from inside one of those lampshade collars.
They gave me the chat about keeping him quiet (tough task) for a few days and a care sheet, pain killers & recovery food.

Brought him home, and he drank like there was no tomorrow, also had no problem eating at all - looks like he ain't lost any of his appetite.
He did get sick twice, once after we got home & another time a while after eating, though he didnt overnight.
After initial excitement, he clamed down a bit, and was clearly not his exhuberant normal self.

The only worrying things are that he appears to be in a little pain at times when peeing, and ends up in a half lying position & getting some on himself - though other times, he's perfectly fine. He hasn't tried cocking the leg yet, probably too sore to try.
He also seems to almost be able to get at the stitches, even with the collar on - can't quite figure out if he's just getting as far as the hind leg or to the stitches.

Will just keep a close eye on him over the next 2 weeks and hopefully he'll be back to himself quickly.

Glad to hear he is doing ok!

As for the getting sick, I was told by my vet to only give our guy a small feed of something light (like rice/chicken) that evening. So maybe you fed him too much?

Also, he told us to give him a little water initially, take the bowl away, and then allow him full access a couple of hours later.

The pain is normal, Marley could not seem to get comfortable at all the first evening, he would constantly walk around - try and lie down, but then just continue walking. I eventually just lifted him onto the couch and put him on his side and he fell asleep.

As for the stitches, you should really try and take the collar off and just watch him. It could be the actual collar that is annoying him and not the stitches. Like I said before, we didn't need to use the collar at all - we just watched him and the one time he went for the stitches we just said "no" sharply and he didn't go near them again.

spurscormac

While I'd like to take the collar off - he's definitely trying to get at the stitches, so I'm going to leave it on him.
Advice from the nurse was also that once he gets used to it, taking it off a while & putting it back on will only stress him out more.

I'll play it by ear, gonna let it heal a bit first, then monitor him & if he stops trying to go near it, I might try taking it off.

Skillie

Just had our Newfie (@7.5 months) done and have had good and bad since. he recovered very quickly, first 24hrs were the worst with regards to him being uncomfortable and in pain and groggy etc. He really was very distressed by the lampshade and that was driving him crazy more than anything, he was crashing into everything and scaring himself and our other dog. we left it off while we were around him and put it on at bed time. noticed if he really wanted to even with it on he could reach the wound. seeing as he was very good and not at it much we abandoned the satellite dish as quick as possible. he drank bucketloads and his appetite was huge after the 24hours of starvation!!

Big negative is he's been a bit destructive and has been peeing all over the house since. seems to be a psychological side affect of the abandonement at the surgery and the ordeal of it all but he is improving in the last few days and no doubt he will be back to his best in no time. Very hard to get them to not be boiterous and take it easy really at that age but 2 weeks on and physically its all over stitches came out no drama there which i thought there would be given that he's 7 stone and you can't just pick him up and turn him over when you feel like nickin a few stitches

On the dominance thing this really is out dated old fashioned and inaccurate dog behaviourist theory. You need to read some good modern sources on dog psychology, don't watch the Dog Whisperer (i was once a fan but dig deeper and you'll find he's hated in the "real" proffessional knowledgeable dog pyschology world, the guys heart is in the right place i feel; he's 50 years behind in his ways). Notions of Alfa males, top dogs, dominating the household etc are wildly wrong. look up www.dogstardaily.com and search for articles on the theory this really is a superb website for deep accurate latest knowledge on how to give our dogs the best lives we can. anything you need on behaviour you will find in there, hope this helps.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/dominating-issue

kildara

We got our lad done two weeks ago, for pretty much similar reasons as you, aggression at other dogs bigger than him. If the dog was smaller he didnt mind, or if it was a bitch he was happy enough but once it was a bigger, intact dog he'd growl and snarl.
We can see a differnce in him already, he will now roll onto his back for you to rub his belly - something he never did before - so I think its a combination of him having been neutered and also the new pup we have is fairly whipping him into shape! What a bitch she is!
Leave the collar on your boy if he's at himself, he's better of being uncomfortable with the collar on than ripping his stitches out and having to bring him back in to the vets again.

He will be right as rain in no time...

sn00ps

Glad to hear all went well. You will find the first 48 hours are the worst so today should be the end of it. I would totally agree with the other posters about the collar. As long as you are careful about watching him, and I mean ALL the time, it will really make him happier.

Jasper looked like he was nearly at his stitches too but once the collar was off he only bothered a couple of times which we reprimanded and then was good until night time.

With respect to the aggression. This is our second cocker and both have been neutered, one for health reasons the other coz it was the right thing to do as we aren't breeders. Neither personality was changed in the slightest.

As I said already Jasper is showing all the signs of being dominant but only when he's on the lead. Once he's off and with other dogs, he plays normally does the ol sniffy bum thing and generally has a good time. On lead its a different story, unfortunately he's a runner so doesn't get much off lead time!

Neutering makes no difference to this and I firmly believe this is training .. which I obviously haven't got the handle of yet! But I keep trying. BTW although cockers are gorgeous dogs they do have an aggressive streak, so it maybe this is just your dog and you are going to have to work harder on getting him to settle down.

Best of luck with the recovery and ongoing training .. to both of you!!