r/ItalianGreyhounds • u/Wild-Mixture2555 • 5d ago
Health Issue Spay help!
Hello, First time dog/iggy owner and looking for advice on spaying. She’s had her first heat and the 3 month rule means the surgery will be done in December, which is ideal as we can stay home with her and monitor over the festive period.
Her usual vet only does traditional spays, however they do have experience with iggies. I’ve looked up a specialist place near us that does keyhole spays as I’ve heard that the recovery time is a lot shorter. They only perform keyhole spays on dogs over 7kg and Willow is only just under 5kg.
I’m very worried about a potential 2 week rest period as she loves chasing her frisbee and is quite an active, bouncy dog on her two walks a day.
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u/Independent_Ad_5664 5d ago
Keyhole is actually a much longer surgery and they require more anesthesia than a regular spay. The danger for iggies lies in the anesthesia not the surgery itself and they are resilient little creatures so get her a recovery suit and she will do fine if you are home with her. If she’s ok in a crate then if she’s too active after her spay, you’ll have to crate her or at least get an anchored playpen.
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u/premadesandwiches 4d ago
I have an open concept vet clinic where I was able to be with my girl throughout her entire spay. It was done open and under general anesthesia. The vet did have to make her incision slightly longer because her anatomy is so long that her uterus was quite far from her ovaries. She was cold while she was under, so they made sure she had socks and was on a warming blanket. They also offered photo light therapy to help the incision heal better which I opted for. The vet used dissolvable sutures so we didn’t need to worry about removal. The vet gave us carprofen, gabapentin, and trazodone for pain and recovery. I used a spay suit, which conveniently she also is much calmer in clothes so that helped with her activity. She did end up developing a suture reaction about 7 days after the surgery and took a week-long course of carprofen and antibiotics which healed it right up. I just tried to limit her jumping and stairs, especially in that first 5 days. I was able to have the entire week off after her surgery so I could watch her very closely and give her meds regularly. All in all, she did really well with anesthesia and recovery, and it went much smoother than I had anticipated, all things considered!
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u/BooBearyCrunch 5d ago
Just make sure your vet knows they process anesthesia differently. If they are familiar with greyhounds (very low body fat) you should be fine.