Small dog spay issues

[Teddybearlover]

Hi everyone, I was trying to research some answeres and came across this page.  I have a 7 month old shih tzu bischon frise mix puppy. She had her spay surgery And a hernia fix on Thursday. I ended up taking her back friday because she kept jumping in a hunched over stance and yelling. The vet figured out she had a uti as well. She has only peed 3 times since Thursday, she has not pooped since Wednesday. (Today is Sunday) she has not walked at all, and all she does is dig at her bed to get comfortable. She stopped yelping but does tey to go after her vagina ( the vet said to self heal) so i took her cone off her head so she could self heal but she started going after her stomach so the cone is back on. She wags her tail but will not get up. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there anything you could suggest? Would you take her back to the vet? She is eating very little and drinking somewhat. She is alert, and does not seem to be in as much pain as Friday but still not feeling well enough to get up and walk.

[JanisM13]

First a couple of questions:

When you took the puppy back to your vet and a UTI was found is the
puppy now on antibiotics? A UTI IS AN INFECTION ANTIBIOTICS ARE
REQUIRED TO HEAL THIS.
2) I have had puppies spayed and one also had a hernia ( mom chewed
the cord too close to the belly) repair and spay were done ( puppy was
not as old as your puppy) my puppy was up,walking NEVER hunched
over,never in pain and crying so I am glad you returned to your vet.
DO NOT REMOVE THE CONE AGAIN and leave it off unsupervised
as this prevents them from chewing on the surgery site.
I would RUN back to my vet ASAP and find out why this puppy will not
eat,drink or walk,the cone could be making her not want to eat as most
dogs do not like them. You could remove the cone give her food and
water in front of her to see if she will eat,do this every 3 hours BUT then
put the cone back on her again.
Perhaps she resents the cone so much she just is not walking,eating or
drinking but this seems extreme behavior,since she just was spayed
and hernia surgery done Friday your vet should recheck her at no charge
to be sure nothing is wrong.( mine rechecks for 30 days no charge after
a surgery)
You can get a brand of GOOD dog food CANNED and see if she will eat
that,you may need to give her water with a 3cc syringe every 3 hours to
get water in her.Fill the syringe then you put the syringe in the SIDE of
her mouth, ease the water out slow (to get water in her) you can also use
Pedialyte  (I use the powder form mixed in a 6 ounce glass of water
put the left over in the fridge to use later, this get fluids and electrolytes back in her system.
You can buy a tube of Nuti-Cal ( feed stores or Petsmart, Petco) to
stimulate her appetite,adds vitamins,minerals and electrolytes back in
her too,using about 1/2 inch strip squeezed in her mouth.
Please come back and let us know how she is doing.

[JanisM13]

The CANNED dog food has more moisture in it than dry kibble food but
she will still need the water or Pedialyte for fluids.
When you squeeze the Nitri-Cal in her mouth with your other hand
very quick hold her mouth closed for a second, the Nutri-Cal is very
thick and sticky and this keeps her from spitting it out..it will small very
strong like cod liver oil..( ahhh memories of that stuff when I was sick as
a kid,mother gave to me never forget the smell of cod liver oil!)
IF she will still not eat the canned food you can boil up some chicken
cut up in tiny pieces,mix with about a cup of rice...since she doesn't have
an upset tummy she can have the skin also..I use one chicken breast to
boil or 2 chicken thighs. You can also use some of the chicken broth
from the boiled chicken to make the rice a bit sloppier and wetter for
more moisture.( DO NOT use salt in the chicken to boil it...salt removes
fluids.
Hope this helps your fur baby...please come back and let us know...I do
hope one of these ideas helps to prompt her to eat and drink very soon.
Jan

[Teddybearlover]

Thank you for responding. I'm sorry that I mislead you by the vets response. She did prescribe a 10 day treatment of antibiotics, which we started Friday night.  She did eat a little today and actually drank some water out of her water bowl. She stood up but still hasn't walked across the room. She laid back down and peed where she was laying so I moved and cleaned her up. She finally pooped today, 5 days later and it was as hard as a rock. Unfortunately, I did not witness it since she was in her puppy pen and I had my son at the doctor, so I really dont know if it hurt to pass it. Thank you for replying, I will try the chicken and see if that will help up her diet.

[JanisM13]

OH GOOD NEWS,I love to hear that she is starting to do a bit better
and showing interest in water and food..hey no problems,one can not
remember all the details which was why I wrote the second post...I did
wonder why with an IUD there were no antibiotics...thanks for explaining.
Your little girl has not had much in the way of food and water for awhile
so she doesn't have a lot of strength right now but it will come just take
a little time.( for me who cares if she went potty where she lay what the
heck she went and everything is cleanable)
Not to worry about the poo,like I said no food no water and water would
add moisture to the poo, don't think it hurt her rather think it was more of
a relief to just go. Also with a spay and the hernia surgery her poo may
have a darker than normal color ( cleaning old blood out of her system
after surgery) this should clear to a more normal color and shape as she
starts eating, drinking more.
As I said, I have never seen a dog who "likes" the elizabethian ( cone)
collar so if you can be with her, take it off for a little while to give her a
breather but it goes back when she can not be supervised 100% of the
time...it may make her relax a little more with the "thing" off BUT she
has to be where you can always see her when you remove it. Fur kids
are very quick and in a few short seconds she could get to her sutures
so keep her in sight if it is off.( if memory serves me right your vet will
remove the sutures in about 10 days after surgery)
IF she had an upset tummy I would tell you to take the skin off of the
chicken but it is good protein for a dog when they are a bit down so it
would be good in this case she should chomp it down and the rice will
help to fill her up.
Hope she continues to improve...Jan

[Misfits4Me]

This doesn't sound right to me & I would have her checked again......I just had a foster neutered & hernia repair and he was walking, eating drinking pooping just fine from day 1....ALso wore a cone 24/7 for 8 days...

We have done many spays/neuters & I have never had a dog not walking the 2nd or 3rd day....

How was the UTI found? Urine sample I assume, did they do a culture to check for certain bacteria??Or did they just guess?

This whole scenario may be nothing but severe constipation...It's quite painful.....anesthetic from the surgery can cause this in dogs....

Try adding a teaspoon of canned pumpkin to every meal...Pure canned pumpkin.....It's considered fiber and will help if this is constipation....

Moist foods will help too.....Let us know....Hope she gets better soon..

[ginger899]

I remember when my girl was spayed. She did poop normally afterwards (the next morning after surgery, once she had got some food down her) but wasn't keen on doing the first couple of days. It obviously hurt a little to go into a crouch to do her business. That I guess is fairly normal after abdominal surgery, when skin and muscle has been opened and stitched up again. But it's not normal to go so long without doing a poop.
I think the idea of moist food, and especially canned pumpkin is a good idea, to keep her bowel movements as soft as you can just for a little while, to help her over these days.
Her lack of exercise probably also hasn't helped her bowel routines, and it's a bit of a vicious cycle.
I'm glad she sounds a little bit perkier now. Let's hope she will recover soon. I would say -don't hesitate in getting her straight back to the vet -or even another vet for a second opinion, if she continues to be unwell.

[Teddybearlover]

Belle is so much better. Now we can't get her to stop jumping and running around. She is eating and drinking and popping about 10 minutes after I give her her antibiotics. She has an appointment on Tuesday to get the stiches taken out, hopefully we can get her to calm down for a couple of days. Now that she is feeling better, I don't know if she is mad or has too much pent up energy but she has started nipping at every one in the family. She even jumped up to bite my hand. Which she never did before.

Thank you to everyone for your guidance and suggestions.

[ginger899]

Thanks for posting back to give us an update. So many people disappear!

I am very glad to hear your girl is feeling much better and is so full of energy. That is great news.

Why has she started nipping? It may be because she's been confined for a few days....I don't really know.
Did you by any chance hand feed her while she was recovering? In which case her returning appetite might be strong especially if she didn't eat as much after her surgery, as normal, and she's got used to hands producing food....
I don't know -probably nothing to do with it and a very wild guess.

[Teddybearlover]

Your wild guess may be right. I did hand feed her while she wasn't walking and to get her to take her antibiotics so she probably is trying to get me to feed her. She has gained a very strong appetite too. Thank you so mich for responding. I hadn't thought about the fact that I was hand feeding her and she may just be looking for food.

[Misfits4Me]

So glad she's better.....

[JanisM13]

DOING THE HAPPY DANCE HERE!

How awesome to hear Belle is doing so much better, as Ginger said
she may be looking for food from your hands. Now you just need to push
her down when she does this and start telling her FIRM....OUCH ....at
least this is what I did when this happened with Mr. Benson after he was
so sick...he thought he hurt his mama and he's stopped now...
AGAIN...WAY TO GO BELLE...AND KIDOS TO YOU for being such a
good fur mama, YOU did good!