Post-neuter Care Help, Suggestions?

I have just had my dog George neutered. I was planning to go away for Thanksgiving but the vet directions are he should avoid stress, no running or playing hard, for 7-14 days. If he is to active he will develop a seroma? which says it will cause him a great deal of discomfort. He is also not to be around other dogs. Where I was or want to go is a ranch on the coast lots of open range and there are 2 dogs there that he plays with....any advice?

 

Hi,
Theres really no ways around this, a seroma is a buld up of fluid under the skin at the surgery site which can happen if your dog is running around, jumping or playing or licking excessively at the site.

Your going to have to make sure your dog is confined if your not with him and restrict his activities in general.

 

It really depends on your dog. As foster homes, we have the care of many dogs after spays and neuters. Most of the foster homes don't limit a lot of activity after the first day. When I got my last foster neutered, the vet didn't really seem concerned. She said they sort of let the dog regulate themselves, but since he loved to wrestle with my dog that perhaps we shouldn't allow that for a day or two. I brought him home the day of the surgery and only brought him outside on leash for the rest of the day. The next day, I let him in the backyard off-leash but kept play sessions short. I checked the incision often. He never had a problem.

The dog before that got serum pockets after her spay, but she hadn't been very active at all. But she also had a cold. I think her immune system was too stressed out from all that had happened to her.

Our own dog was spayed the day before we brought her home from the shelter. We didn't limit her at all and she never had a problem.

I think it really depends on the dog and the skill of the surgeon who stitches them up.

Oh, I also give homeopathic remedies to help the dogs heal. After a spay or neuter, I give Arnica 30C. One pellet, mixed in 4 oz of water and stored in a brown bottle. Give one teaspoon once a day, and before every dose, strike the bottle on your hand 10 times.

 

I have to say here (not disputing anything you said Jamiya, just expanding on it)... its always a risk. Some dogs dont develope a seroma if they overdo it a little and some do, personally i doubt it has much to do with the skill of the surgeon, if they do a bad job its more likely the inside sutures would collaps or something hadnt been sutured correctly and they develop an internal bleed..... and the problem would be a lot worse than a seroma, the site would dehiss (like some vets still insist on doing a single line metalic suture...works okay on small dogs but not so good on large dogs).

Bottom line is whether or not slacking off on the confinement for a few days is worth the risk. That said, most seromas if caught early enough when they first start can usually be taken care of with a hot compress a couple of times a day (and then 'strict' confinement) but Ive seen them were the swelling has been so bad, the suture line has opened, infection has got in and theyve had to go in for surgery to clean everything out and suture them back up again.

 

I had a vet tell me once that when he stitches up an incision, he takes a lot of time with it and makes the edges of the skin line up neatly. Most vets just draw it tight, almost like a purse that puckers up when you pull the drawstring shut. I would think the puckery stitches would not heal as well or as quickly, but it sure is faster.

 

I dont think I actually know of any vets that do external sutures on straight forward spays and neuters anymore, the skin starts to heal almost immediately post-op. The problems with dehisses are from internal sutures collapsing, seromas can occur with or without external sutures.

The vet that works with the shelter here uses external, plus a light sticky bandage and e-collar but only on the shelter dogs, not on his private clients dogs.

The reason they dont is the external sutures for these procedures is they can cause more problems than there worth, The incision is generally only and inch or two in length (obviously depends in part on the size of the dog), its a fine line cut so theres no skin actually cut away that needs to be pulled back together, dogs are more likely to lick/chew at the site due to irritation from sutures which in turn can pull the skin apart, they can become infected through licking, they can get 'snagged' on bedding etc and people sometimes forget when they should come out and the skin starts to grow over them.

The last dog I recall having external sutures for a neuter was in the 80's in UK. Ive had 7 dogs in the US plus a bunch of fosters, none of them had external sutures for the procedure and only one developed a seroma....and that was because someone let her out of her crate and then went to hang out with her friends and forgot to put the dog back in her crate, she didnt even over do it much, but she ran around the living room a few times, was rough-housing with one of the other dogs and jumping on and off the couch for a couple of hours. :?