Our Laparoscopic Spay Experience

KevinDo88

If you're wondering about whether or not to go the expensive route for your dog when bringing her in for in a spay, this is our experience with our Shikoku. The picture is from the day we picked her up. The doctor did her surgery Saturday and we picked her up Sunday. There were three small cuts made, and the stitches are inside her. We were prescribed two painkillers to give her. The first 24 hours is the hardest since she would walk a couple a steps, spin around, and freak out + lick her tummy. We think it's because she's not used to the stitches yet. The painkillers gave her cotton mouth, so she drank a lot of water. She also experienced constipation for several days.
At day two, she was still constipated, but she was mostly back to her usual self; there was no more licking or jerking around to examine her belly.

Overall, I'm definitely glad we went this more expensive route (only $100 more) because she's making a very speedy recovery!

BearMom

My sister also went the laparoscopic spay route for her female JA 2 years ago. We were able to pick her up the same day. She was only in pain for that day...would cry a little when she tried to lay down. The next morning she acted as if nothing had happened. Since she was acted normally the second day, we stopped the pain meds.

Instead of stitches, the vet used staples. Her dramatic wails from having those removed was probably the worst thing of the entire experience.

PoetikDragon

It's not any more expensive at our vet (in fact it is the *default* way our vet does it). However -- the real drawback of laproscopic spay IMO is that you can't do a gastroplexy for bloat at the same time. While maybe not something I would recommend as a surgery on its own, its nice to do for peace of mind if the dog is undergoing abdomen surgery anyway.

Calia

I would have loved to have done a laproscopic spay when I had Miyu done, but wasn't able to afford the $800-$1000 for it. Though instead I went with a traditional style spay but only had the ovaries removed. Same price as a full spay ($400) but the incision was a lot smaller and recovery much quicker since they didn't have to fish around for the uterus.

BearMom

Our vet was able to do a laparoscopic gastropexy at the same time of the spay. It required an additional incision and unfortunately a larger shaved area.

One of the major benefits of the laparoscopic spay is virtually no down time afterwards. That was negated when we added the gastropexy. We still had to restrict her activity for roughly 10 days.