I have been encouraged by Carol to take a look at the latest comments.
Julie, thank you so much for your genuine support. I emailed another allotment acquaintance, who also has a female Westie, and asked about her. She too was spayed at 6 months with no ill effects afterwards, (she is now a good few years old), and so this has encouraged me to stick to the original plan.
I have come back on here to state that some of you are making me out to be a very bad owner, and I am nothing of the sort! And yes, a few of you have been pushing your luck with your biased opinions. Julie has written a lot of common sense, and support.
I said I was taking a break because I needed to calm down, and I hope you can respect that.
No need to thank me jazzi, Im just getting thoroughly fed up of judgements about other members when all they want is a bit of tlc to get them through. This forum used to do that so well but here we are now making you feel bad. Not nice at all.
I for one do not think you at a bad owner Jazzi. I never said that and I wish to make that quite clear to you. I am also no expert and, again I have never made myself out to be so. We must all do what we think is best for our dogs and I don’t think your vet would spay Holly unless he/she was confident of a positive outcome.
Best wishes to Holly and yourself for next Tuesday.
You asked about a body suit for Holly and I am sure you can get one from your local petshop, certainly Pets at Home. Your vet will give you a sized buster collar post-op and, although they look uncomfortable, Holly should quickly get used to it and (unlike a body suit) it will stop her scratching the wound. At the risk of writing a thesis and being a know it all ;-)- just one last word. It is usually best to leave the wound uncovered -heals quicker - your vet will advise and she won’t be going amywhere dirty for a while, so should be fine. Again good luck to both of you - and keep posting.
Jazzi If someone came on a site and said they were going to take a course of action concerning a puppy and I had some information about that action that I withheld, I would feel dreadful if a problem developed with the puppy.
I guess you would prefer ‘not to know’ so in future I will not try to offer the benifit of experience.
It’s not about being special it’s just a life time working with animals and vets .
And good vets vets that were working in adverse and difficult circumstances with many animals with horrible conditions.
So yes in that way I am special in that I have been extremely lucky to have had the benefit of this experience .
I am glad that you are doing the best for them .
However early neutering is not IMO doing the best for them .
It’s unnecessary elective surgery .
But there you go everyone has their own opinion .
Jazzi, it is a real pity you seem to have taken it so personally. I honestly don’t think for a moment anyone suggested (or thought) you were a ‘bad owner’ at all.
There are some very experienced people on here, and I am sure they were only thinking of Holly, nothing personal towards you whatsoever.
What would you honestly do if you saw someone start a thread, any thread, that you didn’t agree with? Would you comment or ignore the thread?
People only gave their opinion, just the same as we do on on any other thread.
If you didn’t want anyone to comment, why post?
I admit I suggested you do your research first - and you asked your niece - and I still stand by this. I always research everything for my own dogs, and I find it very interesting, plus it arms me with more knowledge.
I also agree with Meg, that Holly’s first season could be imminent, so that alone would make me wait.
But as you say, the choice is yours of course.
There are risks with surgery, and there are risks if you don’t.
Good luck on Tuesday, and please don’t take it to heart, but like Meg, I won’t be offering my opinion any more.
You will be fine Jazzi, I know my heart used to be in my mouth when I had dogs needing the vets, but they do recover
Im sorry to say Im also of the brigade who would wait and do the spaying between the first and second season. The thing is, no one knows when her first season is due, it could be next week, and that makes spaying more difficult and healing takes longer. At least once she’s had her season, you wait the 12 weeks, she’s at her best, will heal a lot quicker
I admit to only ever having dogs, and I only ever had one neutered, out of necessity when he was 14 months old. I tried not to get him done but he was really badly effected by bitches in season and we lived near a park. Poor love used to sit on the mat by the door howling to get out, and if we were out and he even got a whiff of a bitch in season, he was off. Broken collar and leads, me in tears chasing him scared he would get run over
Never had a dog like him. Still miss the wee critter, he died 18 months back and Ive said no more, cant put myself through it again
So thinking of you, try to find something to do to keep yourself occupied on Tuesday so you don’t wind yourself up with worry
Don’t forget to do your dog and get that crevice tool well into the awkward tufty bits .
Sorry, couldn’t resist that.
What a rum thread. You’d think it would be safe and enjoyable to read.
Obviously you should do what you think is best for you Jazzi so your furry companion fits in with your planned lifestyle. Didn’t a stuffed dog appeal to you at all?
Right, I’m running for the hills. This place is going bonkers… and it’s contagious.
When l had my Labrador, Cassie, l had to have her spayed at a very young age as she had a phantom pregnancy and went very odd.
She kept going behind the television and trying to make a nest or something?!!
The operation went fine and she recovered very quickly.
ST and Susie, after doing my own carpets (sorry, not going into that as a business, OR favours, lol), I will be working on my allotment, weather permitting.
If someone came on a site and said they were going to take a course of action concerning a puppy and I had some information about that action that I withheld, I would feel dreadful if a problem developed with the puppy.
