hi im new here, your advice please

[cmd123]

i ve just adopted a black and tan cav,she is 5 yrs old and needs to be spayed as i dont want her to have puppies she also has a belly button hernia which is why i want her spayed, so im hoping vet will fix that when shes spayed
only thing not sure when to get it done as i want her to settle in with us first before putting her through an op she is also a little over weight which i will soon fix she'll get plenty of walks with me
how long should i wait to let her settle before getting it all fixed do you think
thanks
claire

[*Pauline*]

I just wrote the long reply below then noticed she is 5 years old!
She really won't hold it against you so I wouldn't let that put you off.

If I had a girl I think I would try to get her spayed before her first heat, this could be any time now I think assuming she hasn't come into season before 5 months. Others would say wait until after the first heat (I'll let them explain why), I believe they say 100 days after the heat.

The reason for a spay before the first heat is to reduce the chance of mammary cancer. The statistics show, and I quote:

"Studies in dogs have shown that the risk of developing mammary cancer is 0.05 percent if the dog is spayed before the first heat, 8 percent if spayed after the first and before the second heat, and 26 percent after the second heat."

Having said that, my vet didn't fully agree to me having my Yorkie spayed before her first heat but we settled on 6 months, I turned up to spay her as she came into heat so it was done 3 months later.

[Karlin]

I don't think you need her to settle in any length of time. Also, waiting risks having her go into heat in which case you will need to wait several months again before spaying, for her to be midcycle. If she is very overweight, the vet may wish to have her lose weight first, though. You should have her thoroughly vet checked anyway as a starting point, and then you can ask your vet if she can be spayed right away. I spay and neuter dogs all the time for rescue (send them to be neutered, that is!) and quite honestly, it makes little difference whether I do it right away and they settle in as they recover, or if you wait a week or two. If the dog is really stressed or came from a really bad situation I might wait a week or so but normally I get them done immediately and then they go to a foster home to recover, with no issues.

Some hernias do not need to be repaired -- only if they are deep -- so you need vet advice on that too. They do just fix them at the time of the spay. If she isn't chipped, be sure to do that while she is getting spayed as well.

I have info in the Library section on keeping cavaliers trim and low cal snacks etc -- fruit and veg for example. You will want to cut her food by about a third to see if she starts to lose weight -- people really overfeed this breed and most cavaliers I see are too heavy -- so whatever you were told to feed her is clearly too much already (if you know the amount from the former home!). Also you'll be cutting her food by anther 10-15% anyway after a spay as metabolism sometimes falls a bit (though to be honest I have NEVER noticed this and have heard that even in humans, middle age spread isn't due to any 'drop in metabolism' but due to us getting more lazy and therefore doing less which lowers the calories we burn... still many dogs are being fed too much so a cut after a spay/neuter is probably beneficial regardless.

[cmd123]

thanks for the advice
i was told they gave her a tin of meat with biscuits and leave her to that sometimes twice a day i think she also had little tit bits from the children as she explained she used to sit under the childs highchair waiting for food
they did say she was more overweight than now when they got her
i personally would rather give her a meal than remove leftovers as i dont like left over dog food sitting around she had half a tin with some biscuits this morning i think she ll be fine till this evening
i'll register her with the local vet and get her checked over she likes to walk so i dont think getting her to lose weight will be a problem

[Karlin]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of food . How much does she weigh at the moment? Most cavaliers would only need at most about 8oz of food a day/1 cup. Most have less.

If you mean half a tin as in the 400gm-ish size (eg the soup can size, not the tiny tins), half a tin of that plus dry food would be more like her entire day's meal plus more (!!) and is probably too much. She definitely will not need that much twice a day -- she will become huge! Unless she is an extremely large cavalier -- like 30lbs!! -- she should probably only be on about 3/4ths to 1/2 a cup of food a DAY to get her to gradually lose weight. I have two dogs that only eat a third of a cup of food, in total, every day, at a healthy weight. My largest cavalier, who weighs about 17lbs, only eats about 3/4ths of a cup and he is extremely active, does agility etc. The others all get four walks a day. To get a dog to lose weight you need to up exercise and reduce the calories needed to simply maintain the weight they are at, by 1/4th to 1/3rd for safe weight loss.

Also, it is better to have the bulk of her meal a quality dry food (eg not a supermarket food but something like Burns, Royal Canin, James Wellbeloved in the UK, all widely available from pet shops or online), plus a small amount of tinned food -- a few spoonfuls -- of also a quality food, mixed in. Supermarket foods are all very mediocre to poor quality protein (lots of meat derivatives and other things unfit for human consumption).Too much wet food is very poor for their teeth and leads to gum disease and decay. Dry food helps remove scale on the teeth.

I wouldn't go by the amounts to feed recommended on the food bag as this is almost always far too much.

[asto86]

i say get her fixed asap..

sorry for this quick lil thread drift but... my 9 week old eats 3 meals of 1/4 cup each.. do you think that's too much?? he weighs 6lbs..

[cmd123]

she weighs 10 kg 22 llbs i ve just put her on my scales

[Karlin]

People scales are not particularly accurate for weighing a small dog. The most accurate way to use a home scales is to weigh yourself then pick up the dog and weigh yourself again then subtract your weight. But you need to have her in for a complete check if this hasn't been done, then get an idea from the vet about what size she should be, the hernia repair and so on. Did someone say she needed a hernia repair? Just curious.

If she is only 22lbs then the amount fed above would be a massive amount for a cavalier, even a large one, especially if she were going to be fed that twice daily! That's more what a collie would eat (eg two cups of food a day). She probably should only get about 2/3rds of a cup of food DAILY and no additional treats except for fruit and veg if she is heavy. Her total daily intake once she gets to her correct weight should probably not be more than 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a cup (eg 6 oz or about 170 grams).

[asto86]

People scales are not particularly accurate for weighing a small dog. The most accurate way to use a home scales is to weigh yourself then pick up the dog and weigh yourself again then subtract your weight. But you need to have her in for a complete check if this hasn't been done, then get an idea from the vet about what size she should be, the hernia repair and so on. Did someone say she needed a hernia repair? Just curious.

If she is only 22lbs then the amount fed above would be a massive amount for a cavalier, even a large one, especially if she were going to be fed that twice daily! That's more what a collie would eat (eg two cups of food a day). She probably should only get about 2/3rds of a cup of food DAILY and no additional treats except for fruit and veg if she is heavy. Her total daily intake once she gets to her correct weight should probably not be more than 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a cup (eg 6 oz or about 170 grams).

wow...
after reading that i feel like i am really over feeding my pup with 3/4 a cup a day.. should i back off too?

[*Pauline*]

I give my boy 2 thirds of a tin a day, and he's a slim as can be, most people say he's too thin but my vet says he is perfect and most other dogs are fat.