Spay with Hernia Repair Question

Kodee will be spayed 1.5 mths (so I have plenty of time to work myself into a complete frenzy and panic!).

At her spay she needs an umbilical hernia repaired. The vet told my husband (arg never send a man to ask your questions as they dont get the full answer no matter how much you prep them!) that she would be spending the night. He was supposed to ask first why - do they keep just spayed dogs too or is it because of the hernia repair. I will be checking that out next wk when she gets her rabies shot - but i want to know what has been the case with people here. Let's face it, Kodee wont handle this well! The lil princess cries and pouts if i go to the store.

I'm hoping my vet is over protective and lots of you will tell me yours were able to come home. If I know many go home after having both, I will put my little foot down. We dont have small children, another pet and to boot I am home all day. But I do know one thing, she is not staying unless someone is in that building the entire time she is there icon_devil

All three of the cavalier MEN in my life have been fixed and had a hernia repair done at the same time.
They have all been a one day procedure and come home that night having had an injection for pain before leaving and fluids during their stay at the vets.
All three have had very small hernias so maybe it is the size of the hernia or the females are different ??
I would ring and ask your vet why ?

Both Cinders & Minnie had hernia repairs when they were spayed. Minnie was only done in January, she had two tiny incisions on her tummy and came home the same day - apart from being a bit dozy from the anaesthetic she was fine!

Katie was about 18 mos. old when she was spayed and had a hernia repair at the same time. She stayed overnight and was fine the next morning when we picked her up. I understand your concerns. Our vet lives next door to the practice and checks on them several times a night. Talk to your vet about your concerns and see if anyone is there at night.

Thanks to all! I really dont want her to stay unless there is an absolute medical reason. For instance after the surgery she shows signs of not recuberating as well as should be etc.. I do not want to go on the assumption she must if others have been sent home and fine. I would understand if I was not home, had young noisy kids or other pet or for that matter a first time pet owner who was dense - ok I can be dense at times but I have been through one pets spay and anothers neuter and brought both home and provided good care without complications.

Kodee is not necessarily a typical Cav but she shows tendancies like many - needy for Mommy!! She will be very stressed drugged or not! And if they have to drug her to the point of not being stressed - well then, that much drugs I am not comfortable with unless she has 24 hr care. My vet and I will have a "talk" next wk at her rabies shot. My "talks" usually end up with me getting my way

hi there! indy had his umbilical hernia repaired on monday when he was neutered---it's a very simple procedure and my vet explained that it's almost all external---they just put a couple of stitches in the muscle and sew up the outside. i don't imagine they'd want to keep kodee because of that.

it sounds like it's just a 'precaution' that the vet takes, but you should definately put up a good argument to take kodee home. usually they do the surgery early in the morning and the dogs have all day to be observed and then you can take them home in the evening. i hope your "talk" works---she'll want to be with her mommy after her tough day!

(arg never send a man to ask your questions as they dont get the full answer no matter how much you prep them!)

Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol: and never EVER send them to buy anything more complicated than milk...well, there are still possibilities for that to go wrong as well. :lol:

k

Kodee said:

I really dont want her to stay unless there is an absolute medical reason. For instance after the surgery she shows signs of not recuberating as well as should be etc.. I do not want to go on the assumption she must if others have been sent home and fine...

Click to expand...

My Milly just had a spay with a hernia repair two weeks ago. Her vet keeps all spays overnight, whether there's a hernia repair involved or not, the reason being that they like to monitor them closely and check their temperatures the next morning prior to releasing them. To be honest, they can do a much better job of monitoring her there than you can at home, because their overnight staff are on their work shift, unlike you who will want/need to be getting some sleep. They are there to check on your pet during the night and are trained to respond promptly if anything is going awry.

So my advice is if their practice is to keep them overnight, go ahead and take advantage of it. You will probably be encouraged to call and check on how she's doing--I called a couple of hours after surgery when she'd had time to come out of the anesthesia, etc. You will probably be able to pick her up fairly early the next day (we picked Milly up at 9 am) and you will be assured she's in good shape to come home, almost 24 hours post-surgery.

For Milly, the hernia repair added about $60 plus a couple of stitches to the spay procedure, so it's no big deal. Hers was listed on the estimate as being "hernia repair, simple."

Tucker also had an umbilical hernia repaired when he was neutered, the vet kept him overnight, as planned. Like Pat, though I was anxious that Tucker was not with me I was relieved that he would be in a medical facility with trained staff, observing him through the evening. I picked him up as early as they would allow me to the next morning. As I recall, there was a little confusion when I phoned at 8:00 to ask what time I was to pick him up. I worked myself into a near anxiety attack, but he was fine. The vet working that morning, was busy till 10:00 and wanted to give him another exam before she released him to me.

Debbie,

I would see if your vet has an overnight staff that would be there with her during the night. I totally agree with you on this subject.

The vet told me that they would like to keep Kosmo overnight and I flat out told them no. They decided he could go home late in the afternoon (I wouldn't have accepted another answer) and I was able to finally take him on closing. I figured since nobody was there then it was pointless to keep him there. I can do just as good of a job keeping him warm with water bottles etc and if he crashes the most important thing is I can see it!

He ended up being fine. He had to pee like a crazy man when I picked him up but we stayed on the couch for a while and I held him with a heated blanket. 24 hours later you'd never know anything happened to him.

As for the hernia repair it shouldn't be too big of a deal. KOs also had a hernia. If they use internal stitches then they should dissolve. Kosmo didn't have that kind and we returned about a week later for a follow up visit and to make sure everything was healing properly.

I suggest you looking for a onesie to fit Kodee right after she comes out so she doesn't lick at herself.

Here's a lovely thread about Brid Kenny's Phoebe's spay:

http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2512&highlight=phoebe+spayed

:flwr:

As for her being needy, I have a funny story about that.. my mom's JRT got spayed and she raised so much h3ll after the fact that she actually got a phone call at noon (she dropped her off at 8) to say that they were evicting her due to obsessive compulsive barking :lol: :lol: She wouldn't calm down so they sent her home with mom and she made her a bed in front of the stove and she curled up there for about 24 hrs. :lol: Who would ever think a dog would get evicted from a vets?! icon_whistling

Same thing happened when our two male cats were neutered (they are brothers from the same litter). I got a call from the vet's office letting me know that "the boys are doing well, so you can pick them up anytime..." This was well before the pickup time they had originally told me. When I walked into the vet's office, all you could hear were Dusty and Bruiser expressing their disgust with the place and the activities which took place therein... icon_whistling

So these baby grows or onesie - they go the bathroom how? I'm guessing you have to undo it to go outside. If that's the case I guess anyone would know if their little darlin is sneaking off to a corner in the day to go! My lab never bothered her stitches - but Kodee I see going at it so these may come in handy.

You can either take them off to go outside, or just unsnap it and roll it up sort of under her "armpits" to go out--if she doesn't mind walking like that. My girl was so good about getting dressed and undressed that I went ahead and took it all the way off so she'd be as comfortable as possible for walks. She even seemed to like wearing the thing. We'd come back into the house and she'd run to get on the little stool where I would always put it back on her.

And, yes, if they have an accident in the house while wearing these things, you will know to go and look for it!

Oh, and I was surprised about the holes I cut for her tail--I never did any reinforcing of them, and all of the onesies I used stood up to being machine washed without raveling.

Mom_of_2_Cavies said:

You can either take them off to go outside, or just unsnap it and roll it up sort of under her "armpits" to go out.

Click to expand...

Thanks :flwr: Kodee will know doubt eat the thing! She will view it as a new chew toy :roll:

Ginger had her hernia fixed when she was spayed, and it was a one day procedure.

We dropped her off at the hospital at 7:00am, then around 1:00pm the vet called to say the surgery was done and we can pick her up anytime after 5:00pm. He said that she was the third one in line to do the surgery for that day (they do max 5 surgeries per day, they have total 3 vets in the office).

I'd ask the vet why they're keeping her overnight, and this time go ask yourself!! :flwr:

Ginger's Mom said:

I'd ask the vet why they're keeping her overnight, and this time go ask yourself!! :flwr:

Click to expand...

Thanks its good to know most arent kept overnight. I will be going with her for her rabies on Monday. Unfortunately last time I had no choice as I was under a CT Scan for my lil head at the time! (its a demand performance I have to do from time to time and I dont get a choice of day or time)