Behaviour after recently being spayed

[hedge1]

My dog was spayed last Wednesday, and while she's a lot brighter than she was, she's acting quite strangley. She's obsessed with chewing at the stitches, so is having to wear a lampshade plastic collar permanently. She coping pretty well with wearing it, but the second you go to take it off, she gets very agitated and tries to get to the wound.

The problem is, she's clearly a bit stressed by the whole experience (understandably), but having not had a bitch before I wasn't sure how 'normal' her current behaviour is. She is eating and drinking, but only seems to go the toilet when she really needs to (and far less frequently than normal), and when she does move, she trots quickly to where she wants to be then sits down quickly. I haven't been able to take her out for any kind of walk as she refuses to move with the lampshade on, and without it all she does is try to chew the wound. I'm concerned how much the obvious aggravation of the wound is stressing her - am I right to be worried or am I just being a fusspot?! She's due to have the stitches taken out next Friday, which feels like a long way off at the moment!


She's a springer spaniel cross, and is usually a lively confident dog. She's just over a year old, and on the advice of the vet was spayed after having her first season.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[star]

sounds like she's just bugged by the collar. most dogs will try and chew their stitches and some take great offence to the collar and refuse to move unless absolutely necessary. take her back for a check-up if you're really worried, but I think she'll be fine :biggrin:

 

[CAYLA]

Agree with satar..this can be very normal...she is aggrivated that she cannot get at the stitches and that that she has the lamp shade(elizabethan collar) on, we gets loads of dogs refusing to move an inch with them on lol

its must feel very strange to have one of these around your head...esp when it restricts your normal view and access to what they can normally do/see.
She sounds a little neurotic...which some dogs can be to get at their wound...hopefully once the stitches are our she won't persist on licking and chewing at the area

Alao if she is moving and exercising less this may be a reason she is passing less motions as usually they like to walk or circle to loosen themselves up for a number 2

 

[hedge1]

Thank you for your comments, feel much better now. We're both getting a little neurotic I think! Roll on Friday...

 

[Petrie]

My lab was neutered 2 weeks ago, had the stitches out last Friday.

She was very, very distressed by the collar, so we left it off and she licked the wound a little bit, bit not enough to worry us, and she didn't try to take the stitches out.

As the wound began to swell one stitch began to cut into the flesh and got very sore, she did then start licking at it more, but as it was only a few days before the stitches were due to come out, we held out. There was also some fluidy swelling under the wound.

My gut feeling was that the vet had done that one stitch too tight and this was causing all the problems, and once it was out, things would get better. I was right, the nurse said so as well, and literally and hour or two after those stitches came out it looked 10 times better.

She stopped licking it, and it's healed up nicely now, and all the swelling and fluid has gone down.

I was a bit cross about it actually - it did look like an amateur had stitched her up! Poor thing.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, perhaps you ought to take her in and see if there's something going on which is particularly irritating her which could be sorted out. I wish I'd take mine a bit earlier when I could see something wasn't right - perhaps they could have taken that one stitch out a bit earlier.

It is awful though, isn't it. I found the whole thing really distressing and I wondered for the first few days what on earth I'd done to her, just for my convenience. But now she's bouncing around as normal, I'm pleased we did it.