No Puppies Please
There are so many dogs in Britain, too many in fact, and rescue centres are bursting at the seams, which has been exacerbated by people surrendering dogs they got during lockdown, but can't cope with now they are heading back to working away from home.
When we got Lilly she was reproductively intact, and having owned neutered pets in the past, this was a new experience. We enquired about spaying soon after, as we knew we didn't want to add to the over-population, and were told that they would only do it three months after her season.
She came into season 2 weeks after we got her, and it didn't seem to affect her or us that much, but after a rather scary event when she decided to do a Houdini-style escape, and went for a10 minute walkabout in the park, I was rather concerned that she may have had a romantic encounter, and that puppies would ensue.
Damian kept telling me she wasn't gone long enough, but every time I walked her I kept mentally noting how many dogs weren't on leads in the park, and how easy it would be for her to get knocked up. After reading about her breed having large litters, and the fact that a couple of her nipples started to look a bit fuller, my anxiety levels started rising.
We had only had Lilly a month or so, and were just about coping with the upheaval she'd made in our lives, how the hell would we cope with 8-10 puppies as well?
I found out information on the length of her breed's pregnancy, noted the date of her escape and kept a look out for nesting behaviours and tell-tale signs of pregnancy.
Apart from those two nipples nothing else was materialising in the timeline that the websites were stating, so I started to relax a bit, but never really did until a week after she would have given birth.
Phew, no puppies!
As soon as we knew she wasn't pregnant we booked the date for the spay with our vets, but during the wait I started to do some research, and we decided that with her being a very active breed (she is part Whippet), that we'd prefer a laparoscopic spay. Instead of a large wound that would take 6-8 weeks to properly heal, and weeks where she wouldn't be allowed to run around, the laparoscopic version would mean a few small incisions (3 in fact), that she'd be up and about almost immediately, and allowed to get out'n'about in around a week.
She was booked in for the 3rd of December, and on the morning we both took her in, left her with the vets, and went home to nervously wait. Well, there is nothing normal about the humans in the Turner household, and I think we've rubbed off on her, because only half an hour later we were called to pick up our little darling. Why? Remember those swollen nipples that I mentioned earlier, well they weren't her just being a little chubby (as I'd thought after no puppies materialised), no she was in the midst of a phantom pregnancy, and they couldn't do the spay until she'd stop producing milk!
After a couple of checkups, and a 40 quid bill for drugs later, the milk dried up, and she was rebooked in for the 15th.
This time all went well. She went in at 8.50am, and they called us early to pick her up, as she recovered from the anaesthetic remarkably quickly, and she was raring to go.
Lilly in her doggy babygro.
We didn't think she'd do so well with the 'cone of shame' as she has terrible spacial awareness at the best of times, so we opted for a Buster - basically a doggy babygro, to stop her licking at her stitches. It did the trick, but when we got the itemised bill the Buster was a whopping £23, and honestly it really wasn't a lot more than a baby's popper vest with a hole for her tail.
She was eager to go out from the day of the op, but she had to put up with short 5 minute toilet trips for 3 days until she had a post-op checkup.
The vet was really happy with her progress, so she got allowed 10-15 minute wanders, and at her final checkup just a week later she was allowed to ditch the babygro, and resume normal exertions.
The laparoscopic version cost us around £300 more than it would if we'd gone for a standard spay, but to us it was worth it to see Lilly's super quick recovery, and it helped alleviated our guilt at inflicting an operation on our gorgeous little lady.
Quick note : Instead of paying extortionate amounts for a bodysuit from the vets, if you are handy with a sewing machine you could easily have a go at adapting a baby's vest, but if not, I have looked about for alternatives, and have found PDSA do a similar thing called a Recova Shirt, which starts at £14.99 up to £19.99, so if your dog is going to be having an operation in the near future you may want to make, or buy your own beforehand.