Big day for Maggie yesterday; She went in for major surgery.
Since she’s almost 6 months old, it was time to get her in to be spayed. I really don’t think there’s a decision point for fixing dogs other than ‘do you want to breed your dog?’. I’ve heard(read) some arguments that people want to leave the dog intact for reasons other than breeding(personality change, weight control, risk of surgery) but I don’t agree that any of them would outweigh the risk of unwanted puppies. I’m sure there are exceptions and valid reasons why to not spay… but for the every day companion dog, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision to get them fixed.
My vet is pretty awesome and she recommended we also get her stomach tacked. It’s a procedure called Gastropexy and it’s done to prevent Bloat or GVT which is a serious, life threatening, and fast killing condition. The dog’s stomach flips, trapping gas and cutting of blood flow… they can die within hours.
Danes are the #1 at risk dog for bloat (Check the previous link above to see a chart of the top 25 at risk dogs) so it was a no brainer. Well, almost a no brainer… Our vet started calling a few places for prices and we were looking at $1300 -$1500 for it… that seemed a bit much to spend on an elective, preventative procedure…
In the end, one of our vet’s buddies made room in his schedule and agreed to take Maggie in even though she wasn’t his patient. Now that’s a huge win, because this vet is a large breed specialist, and is booked up way in advance. And we got the procedure for less than $300. Wins everywhere.
We also got her micro-chipped… I actually expected this procedure to be in the hundreds of dollars as well for some reason, and never asked. It was about $30 for a ‘permanent’ id that will always link back to us.
So all in, it cost less than $800 for the surgery including meds and a lampshade…. Maggie shows no signs of trying to lick the stitches yet, so I’m not putting it on her unless I have to leave her alone, or she’s not leaving the incision alone.
Part of the prep for surgery is no food or water after 8 the day before. We dropped her off at about 8 day of surgery, and got a call just before lunch that she was all done and everything was perfect. No issues or complications, and our vet was there and scrubbed in with the surgeon to learn the gastropexy procedure. She would be ready to go home later in the day they said… anesthetic needs to wear off.
We picked up a very groggy dog about 4… Maggie is a pretty hyper puppy, especially when people are around. But still coming out of anesthesia her tail was barely twitching when she saw us. Lifting the 65lb dog into the back seat of the truck was a bit of a challenge, but since she was zoned, she didn’t put up too much of a fight. Getting her out once we got home was a different story 
She did not want to come out and was squirming out of the way any time I tried to get a grip to lift her out.
It took prolly 10 minutes of cajoling to get her to stand up so I could lift her out of the truck…. she slowly made her way to her kennel and crashed.
About every hour we tried to roust her to see if she needed to go out or would take some water… it’s been over 24 hours since she’s eaten or drank any water and I’m starting to get nervous. She eventually asked to go out at about 5am but still didn’t want any water. Couple more hours nap and she was up and ready for some food… but no water, so we are pushing 36 hours without a drop of water… that can’t be good for the dog. So, I wet down her kibbles and she goes for it, then has more water. fiiiinally…
So here are a few pics of her from last night… she was pretty drugged up and not very happy
And no, she does not have a white pillow and a black blanket in her kennel… those are both smaller pieces of bedding that were under her at one point… she fidgets a lot and she’d pushed them out from under her
