My puppy's spay incision is small, she's active. What was removed?

Keeping puppies "quiet" after surgery is certainly not an easy undertaking! The good news is that I think her incision is healing beautifully. There is very mild inflammation right around the incision, but the incision appears to be closed and does not appear to have any discharge. Continue doing your best to keep her as quiet as possible for the next week, but I know it's not possible to turn a 5 month old GSP puppy into a couch potato! If she's really out of control, you can ask your vet about prescribing mild sedative medications (like trazodone) to help her to stay a bit more mellow while healing. Keeping an e-collar (cone) on her is the best thing you can do to promote healing, as this prevents her from licking at the incision at all. Hope that everything continues to go well!

It is likely that your puppy had an ovariohysterectomy, which is the removal of both ovaries and both uterine horns plus the uterine body. So there is likely no swollen uterine horn present. Also, you would not be able to see that from the outside when you look at your dog. That said, if you think your puppy's abdomen is excessively swollen and /or if your puppy appears ill you should take her to a veterinarian for an exam. You may want to call the shelter and find out whether Athena had an ovarectomy or ovariohysterectomy and whether you should take her back there for an exam.

OVH is the most common method of spaying a female dog that most veterinarians will perform. Ovariectomy (OVE) is when just the ovaries are removed. A newer trend that is still being researched on its effects on dogs is the removal of the uterus but leaving the ovaries. The dog will still have heat cycles but is unable to become pregnant. Traditional research has suggested that after going through several heat cycles, dogs are at risk for developing mammary cancer. Until that research is proven wrong otherwise, removing the hormonal influence that the ovaries have on the body helps reduce the risk of mammary cancer according to current research. Spay techniques are surgeon preference, so if your veterinarian would like to leave the ovaries in and remove the uterus, I would discuss this further with him and ask him about the pros and cons of doing such a procedure. Does he know if the risk of mammary cancer is altered in doing this procedure differently? Removing the uterus does not cause any major complications other than urinary incontinence, which does not happen in all spayed female dogs but a good majority do suffer from urinary incontinence due to being spayed. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. In some hospitals, especially at academic institutions, spays can be performed laparoscopically, meaning only a couple very small incisions are made in the abdominal wall. A thin camera is placed through one, and another instrument which can grasp/cauterize/cut tissue is inserted through the other. While these procedures are less invasive, the procedure itself takes much longer than a typical, "open" spay. Most spays can be performed in 15-30 minutes, thus minimizing anesthesia times. Laparoscopic spays tend to take 60-90 minutes. I hope this is helpful!

It is impossible to completely keep them confined. Keep doing the best you can and keep the incision clean and dry. You may notice a little swelling around the incision called a Seroma from the activity, but it will resolve over the next week. Keep using her pain medicine as directed. If she was in pain she would it be as active either

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Reys. Yes, both ovaries need to be removed. If not, she can still experience signs of heat as well as being prone to an infection in the remaining portion of the uterus. I hope this information helps!

The incision looks good. It is closed with the amount of redness and swelling you would see the day after a surgery. There aren't any external sutures which is probably why it looks odd to you. To pick her up, place one hand on her chest in front of her front legs and use the other hand behind her rear legs to scoop her up. Do the reverse to put her down. Keep an e-collar on her and restrict activity as much as possible.