[QUOTE=Houndhill;7760531]
Sorry to open a can of worms, but why are you spaying a puppy? Are you aware of the health effects of spaying a Pre -pubertal animal?[/QUOTE]
I am not! Would you please elaborate, as I would like to know! TIA! 
There have been studies in several breeds, Rotties, Goldens, Labs, and Vizlas, with similar results, although there are some breed differences. Here is a quote from the study on Goldens:
"A team of researchers led by Dr. Benjamin L. Hart at the University of California, Davis has completed the most detailed study performed to date that evaluates incidence of cancer diagnoses and joint problems in one breed – Golden Retrievers – by neuter status: early (before 12 months old), late (12 months or older), and intact. Consistent with previous studies on the topic, the results showed increased likelihood of hemangiosarcoma, lymphoma, mast cell tumors, and canine cruciate ligament (CCL) rupture in neutered dogs.
“The most profound observations were in hip dysplasia in male dogs when comparing early and late-neutering. The risk of development of hip dysplasia doubles, and disease occurs at a younger age in the early-neuter group compared to both the intact and late-neuter group. No occurrence of CCL disease was observed in intact male or intact female dogs, or in late-neutered females. In early-neutered dogs, the incidence of CCL was 5.1 percent in males and 7.7 percent in females, suggesting that neutering prior to sexual maturity significantly increases a dog’s risk of developing CCL disease. With respect to cancer, cases of lymphoma were 3-fold greater in the early-neutered males.”
[QUOTE=AzulBlue;7760717]
I am not! Would you please elaborate, as I would like to know! TIA! :)[/QUOTE]
Also, estrogen and testosterone play a role in the closure of the long bones. If removed prior to this, the long bones continue to grow, and the dog can end up with very long legs; not so noticeably in a small breed of dog compared to a large or giant breed.
Hindsight being 20/20 I would have waited until about 3 years old to spay my female working-bred German Shepherd. She is a very strong alpha type personality and spaying her at 14 or so months prevented her from having a balance of estrogen and testosterone in her system as she matured mentally. I think the lack of estrogen has contributed to some of her @sshole-ness (although she does come by that honestly) and willingness to start a fight if she feels offended by another dog. There are a variety of health benefits to waiting for a dog’s sexual maturity before speutering, but you also need to be aware of what YOU need to do to manage that intact dog.
Oh, and to answer the original questions. Piper stayed overnight after her surgery and I picked her up the next afternoon. But she had a gastroplexy done at the same time, so it was a more invasive surgery to begin with.
[QUOTE=Houndhill;7760860]
Also, estrogen and testosterone play a role in the closure of the long bones. If removed prior to this, the long bones continue to grow, and the dog can end up with very long legs; not so noticeably in a small breed of dog compared to a large or giant breed.[/QUOTE]
One of my GSD was neutered as a very young puppy. He looks like a Greyhound in a German Shepherd suit.
And my neighbors have two male Great Danes they also neutered at a VERY young age. Ugh. You know what they look like? They look like this now:
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g39/rush88_photos/Episode_5_AT-AT_Walker.jpg
Freakishly long legs which make their bodies look short by comparison.
Dr. Chris Zink (I attended a UPenn working dog seminar and she was on the panel) has strong feelings about early spay/neuter. Link here: http://www.thedogplace.org/Spay-Neuter/considerations-canine-athelete_zink.asp
I would not allow my dog to stay overnight anywhere that left them unattended.
I agree with horsegal, they are trying to protect the animals from the lowest common denominator of owners.
If you are going to keep her crated and quiet and will check in on her overnight I’d say bring her home. Have a good emergency vet clinic identified in case of serious complications.
[QUOTE=S1969;7760517]
I had a dog with a TTA. …Omg we kept him crated for the full 90 days (or within arm length on carpet). No wonder he had such a successful recovery. Wow.[/QUOTE]
My girl had her TTA in February and that vet office doesn’t have anyone stay overnight. I told them there was NO way she could stay overnight there by herself…the vet said the same thing about 30 seconds after meeting her! She’s extremely needy/nervous I could literally imagine her worrying herself right to death having to stay in a crate/run all alone…
BTW…I never once crated her after her TTA in February. Healed beautifully and is now back to running six miles with me a couple times a week
[QUOTE=vtdobes;7761586]
My girl had her TTA in February and that vet office doesn’t have anyone stay overnight. I told them there was NO way she could stay overnight there by herself…the vet said the same thing about 30 seconds after meeting her! She’s extremely needy/nervous I could literally imagine her worrying herself right to death having to stay in a crate/run all alone…
BTW…I never once crated her after her TTA in February. Healed beautifully and is now back to running six miles with me a couple times a week :)[/QUOTE]
I don’t remember if my dog stayed overnight after his TTA (I think so) but it is a specialty hospital and I am pretty positive that they have overnight staff.
But…seriously, did you never leave your dog unattended? We were given strict orders to keep him quiet - aka crate rest - for at least 6 weeks, and had another dog (younger) at home as well. No way would I have left them in the house alone without crating the post-surgical one. I slept on a mattress on the floor so he wouldn’t get on the bed either (jumping off was the concern). Either your dog is a saint, or you’re really lucky. My dog felt SO GREAT after the surgery that we were quite afraid he would hurt himself. Maybe we were extra cautious, but he ran hard on that leg for 5 more years so I think it was worth it (this was years ago; he’s been gone for four years now…wow.)
Nope no crate rest. On leash for 6 weeks outside. I brought her to work with me long enough so that the incision was fully healed and after that she went back to staying home alone. She had gotten so used to not using that leg before surgery that not using it after was easy for her. Her leash walks made her use it of course so that it got “PT”.
I was not real worried about her hurting herself…it was her big younger “brother” who likes to race around and run into her that worried me the most!
If they were home alone together HE is always crated as he’s a bad boy.
Maybe since your dog had the procedure 9 years ago that the technique has changed? I don’t know!
Nope no crate rest. On leash for 6 weeks outside. I brought her to work with me long enough so that the incision was fully healed and after that she went back to staying home alone. She had gotten so used to not using that leg before surgery that not using it after was easy for her. Her leash walks made her use it of course so that it got “PT”.
I was not real worried about her hurting herself…it was her big younger “brother” who likes to race around and run into her that worried me the most!
If they were home alone together HE is always crated as he’s a bad boy.
Maybe since your dog had the procedure 9 years ago that the technique has changed? I don’t know!
[QUOTE=vtdobes;7761654]
Maybe since your dog had the procedure 9 years ago that the technique has changed? I don’t know![/QUOTE]
That is possible; it was relatively new at the time, but my dog had had a medial collateral ligament replaced in the same leg several years prior from an accident - so he was not able to have TPLO and had the TTA. And, we had young kids in addition to the other dog and all hardwood floors. I remember very clearly replacing our coffee table with his crate so he could be part of the action. It’s possible that in another (quieter, carpeted) house he could have had more freedom.
[QUOTE=Marshfield;7760616]
It’s not standard to keep them overnight in my area. Much greater liability in the pet being left alone unattended overnight. Far better with the owner who may notice something amiss than kept overnight with nobody checking them.[/QUOTE]
My clinic has overnight nursing staff. :yes: Otherwise, like you, I’d want them home.
At the practice where I worked all spays (cats & dogs) were kept overnight so that the Doc could recheck them in the morning. There was never staff that stayed overnight to monitor patients. I do recall critters with trauma injuries and the small animal vet did check on them throughout the night, he was awesome.
[QUOTE=SLW;7761729]
At the practice where I worked all spays (cats & dogs) were kept overnight so that the Doc could recheck them in the morning. There was never staff that stayed overnight to monitor patients. I do recall critters with trauma injuries and the small animal vet did check on them throughout the night, he was awesome.[/QUOTE]
I think the protocols just vary so much from practice to practice. I took my 6 month old kitten to get spayed and the process was nothing like what the internet told me it would be like. We dropped her off at 8am and she had the procedure early in the day. We picked her up at 5pm the same day and (gasp) she was wearing the dreaded cone! We are under strict instructions to use it for ten days.
From what I hear from friends, some practices kept them overnight, some practices didn’t provide a cone, some practices only suggest a cone if needed, etc.
I think this is one of the reasons it’s important to choose a practice that you really trust - I feel very comfortable asking questions about procedures and after care and I know I am going to get well thought out answers, even if they differ slightly from what my friends or the internet says.
I had two cats spayed recently. Took them to the vet early on the morning (around 7:30) and they came home at about 5pm. I wouldn’t leave an animal alone. I want mine at home so I can keep an eye on them.
I am unable to imagine a circumstance in which I would permit one of my dogs to be alone, unmonitered, all night, following surgery.
I’m with Marshfield on this one - I never kept spays or neuters overnight when I worked in small animal practice, because there was no overnight staff and I would rather the pet be at home with its owner so if something seemed amiss, someone would notice. Anything sick enough that it needed to be on fluids or other intensive monitoring got referred to the 24-hour hospital.
[QUOTE=Houndhill;7761856]
I am unable to imagine a circumstance in which I would permit one of my dogs to be alone, unmonitered, all night, following surgery.[/QUOTE]
Exactly! Even confined to a crate a dog can remove stitches or open a glued incision.
Our shelter tries to send available animals out for spay/neuter when surgery slots are needing to be filled at the clinic. These animals are not in foster care and are kept at the shelter, with little to no monitoring overnight. We had a sweet female Pittie that had been spayed the day before, I checked on her a couple of times during the night while working late duty(last check around 11 PM). Next morning she was fine at feeding time(around 6 AM). Not even an hour later she was standing at the pen door with half her abdomen on the floor in pieces. The images will stay with me for the rest of my life. Hardest part is she stood there smiling with her tail wagging, I don’t even know how she was standing. She was confined to a very small area. Large crate size, with no room to jump, water and a blanket for bedding. Since then I’ve had one cat spayed, poor animal didn’t leave my sight and wasn’t allowed out of her crate for the first 3 days!
[QUOTE=Houndhill;7761856]
I am unable to imagine a circumstance in which I would permit one of my dogs to be alone, unmonitered, all night, following surgery.[/QUOTE]
We had to do this with our doberman after he needed exploratory surgery that led to them finding a foreign body that had ripped open his intestine. He could NOT be moved for fear of the very thin walls that she had to stitch being ripped open by any movement. The vet is not ‘zoned’ to have anyone stay overnight so does not have overnight staff. This has been a few years now so I can’t remember if they had people stay late to check on him, but they certainly got there early.
The afternoon after the surgery she felt that it was holding well enough to transfer him to a 24 hour pet hospital for another night of observation, before they felt it was safe enough for him to go home.
Would I have felt better if there had been staff? Yes, definitely, but at that point there was nothing we could do. The vet didn’t know what she’d find when she went in there, but we needed to see what was wrong. And once she did find it, it needed to be repaired right away. It was too dangerous to move him.
