Bears going for surgery

[JBM]

Bear is booked in for castration this Thursday as he has been having a few problems and we now suspect cancer.
He has a growth on one of his testes so it’s best to remove it and test it to confirm and make sure it’s no where else
He’s 2 turning 3 this year so I’m glad hes finished growing but obviously worried and hoping he doesn’t have cancer anywhere else

Can anyone guide me on recoup times and if anyone else has a double coated dog how their maintenance coat wise changed after neutering
My big baby has had a tough time this last month but hopefully this is the start of recovery

 

[Sealine]

I'm sorry to hear about your beautiful dog. I hope he's ok. I've nothing useful to add but you may get more useful replies in the 'All about Dogs' section of this forum.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Gorgeous Bear. Really hope the surgery goes well. My parents double coated bitch's coat didn't change straight away, gradually over a few years it became much fluffier/thicker (could be age?) but they don't want her clipped and just groom her themselves.

Sounds the best plan if there are cancer concerns. Keep us updated!

 

[HopOnTrot]

I have Border Terriers, double coated, but not floofy. Neither of them has any coat changes after neutering/speying and they were done year ago.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

As far as I know, Samoyeds at his age aren't known for getting cancer, so I think you/him have just been unlucky in Nature's lottery if it is cancer, and I assume that the odds are in favour for that it haven't spread (if it is cancer), but sadly not zero % risk. So all one can do is cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

Never owned a male dog, but 5 out of the 7 bitches I've owned were of Spitz breeds, and I can't recall that any of them had any changes coat wise after spaying (nor the non Spitz bitch either, 1 of the 7 died only about 2 years old). Perhaps it's something which only are noticeable/happens in some breeds, maybe it's one of those things which if it happens to your individual dog you notice it, otherwise you just carry on in happy oblivion, or maybe it's something which only becomes noticeable after some time/years. My bitches got spayed later in life (9 years or older), and e.g. my 3 Finnish Lapphunds had great looking coats all the way until they died.

Though with both Jonna, and Blomma, their bodies did start to get affected by hot temperatures the last 1 or 2 years of their lives, and I started to shave them in various amounts (with Blomma I dared to go full Lion cut), but if that was due to the spaying or just their old age, who knows? Some of my old Spitz bitches also started getting snow lumps stuck under their paws in snowy weather when they got old, after never having had a problem with that before, so something definitely changed in their paw fur when they got old. But again, I can't tell if that was due to having been spayed some years before the change happened, or if it was just due to their old age the change happened.

Most of my bitches acted more or less completely themselves again 1 or 2 days after spaying, and would probably gladly have tried to walk their usual dog walk lengths if I hadn't stopped them. Since spaying usually are a more invasive surgery than castration, I presume that the recovery for a (male) dog in general is either the same, or even easier. Overall, the recovery is usually most about that you need to make sure that the wound gets a chance to heal, and check so that it doesn't get infected.
However, if they for some reason needs to dig around more than usual, or if the dog loose more blood than usual, that can of course affect the recovery. My Jonna lost a lot of blood during her spaying, and she was clearly affected for maybe 3-4 days afterwards (as I recall it).

If he's not used to having to wear a Cone, or one of those inflatable thingies around the neck, or a bodysuit covering the currently no go areas etc, that might dampen the mood in some dogs after surgery (e.g. my late Smooth Collie definitely preferred to use a muzzle with a double net bottom in the nose area, instead of a non see-through plastic cone which was basically the only option back in the day when she was spayed).

Fingers crossed both for that the result is as good as possible after the surgery, and that the recovery afterwards goes as smoothly as possible.

 

[Annagain]

They seem to recover far better than we do, it's like they don't know they're supposed to feel rotten so they don't! Our one year old cockerpoo got done a few weeks ago. We were warned poodle types are terrible with pain and he would be awful afterwards but within an hour of picking him up from the vet (they'd phoned us to pick him up early as he was climbing up the door of his kennel) he was bouncing off the walls. Keeping him calm for 10 days was by far the worst part of it!

The vet told us to walk him on lead for as long as we needed (official advice is 15 mins twice a day) to keep him calm (she'd got his measure very quickly, he's ridiculously high energy, even for a cockerpoo - he did a 4 hour walk on Saturday, got home and play fought with my OH for another 90mins before finally crashing!) as bouncing around all day is far worse than walking. We had to avoid water for 2 weeks. He had a nurse check up after 3 days and again after 10 days.

 

[Nicnac]

Fingers crossed for happy outcome! I had Ziggy done in December as he had a 'strange' shaped testicle. As a puppy vet wasn't worried but as he grew it became more obvious. He was 2 1/2 in December and biopsy was all clear. Hope same for you.

 

[Rumtytum]

Just wanted to send a hug and wish you and Bear a good op, speedy recovery and successful outcome

 

[MerryMaxmas]

Thinking of you and Bear, hope it all goes well ❤

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Hope all goes well Thursday

 

[Kunoichi73]

Sending hugs and positive vibes for Thursday.

 

[JBM]

Bear has been neutered no sign of cancer just got word thankfully
There was something off so hopefully that will be him sorted now
He’s feeling very miserable
Has only pooped once since
They said he could be off for a couple of days but I can’t help but worry
Checking him constantly making sure he’s warm and is resting a lot
Not that he needs much heat!
Orthopaedic bed out

 

[Bellasophia]

HE 'S SO BEAUTIFUL,I wish him a fast recovery.
I spayed both my standard poodle girls and had no change in coat.

 

[ycbm]

What a beautiful white wolf! I hope he's feeling full of beans soon.


ETA I just realised I may have used the wrong expression there, beans
.

 

[Clodagh]

Poor chap. I hope he soon bounces back.
As for his coat, I recommend plenty of grooming, my mum had collies and she used to groom daily and comb them with her fingers when they sat with her. It seemed, unscientifically, that the more you stimulate the skin and coat the less dense and dull it became post neutering.

 

[oldandgold]

Glad that it is good news regarding cancer. I hope he has an uneventful recovery - I found that wearing the cone made one of mine very down.

 

[JBM]

Unfortunately he really overheats in the suit but seems to be getting more back to himself

 

[ElectricChampagne]

How's the gorgeous boy today? Sounds like he's on the mend!

It's great news it's not cancer

 

[JBM]

Sorry completely missed you asking how he was!
He’s in much higher spirits tail is up again feeling like himself
Check up tomorrow morning should go well as I sent a picture Saturday and they were happy
Smiley face is back

 

[JBM]

The shaved hair on his front leg makes his legs look so skinny

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Sorry completely missed you asking how he was!
He’s in much higher spirits tail is up again feeling like himself
Check up tomorrow morning should go well as I sent a picture Saturday and they were happy
Smiley face is back

The shaved hair on his front leg makes his legs look so skinny

How lovely to see that his happy, smiley face is back. I was too busy looking at his pretty face, and white fluff to think about the shaved spot on the front leg, but now that you've pointed it out, I do agree that it does make it look much skinnier than the not shaved leg.



I scrolled through my photos back to when I had all my 3 girls, to see if my memory of their coat quality not having changed after spaying was just my own wishful thinking. But I found e.g. this indoors photo from early in 2022 of all 3, Beata furthest to the left, Blomma in the middle (both about/over 13,5 years old), and Jonna furthest to the right (over 16,5 years old)

And this outdoors photo from one of our bike rides 2021, Blomma, and Beata towards the front of the box, and Jonna closest to the camera

I don't remember exactly which years they had their spaying surgeries, but I think that when I took those pictures, Beata and Blomma had been spayed for a few years, and considering Jonna's age, she'd probably been spayed for between 5-7 years, and as much as you can judge coat quality from a picture, I don't think that their coats looks neither dense nor dull.
Hopefully Bear's coat quality doesn't change either.

 

[ElectricChampagne]

Now that you mention is, I do remember thinking at the time that my black poms coat did change a little when he was neutered. He got white hairs around his little wound too.