Pence's Spay & Recovery

The past week has been a big one for Pence. As you may remember, we previously took her in for bloodwork. It was required for dogs over the age of 5 who would undergo anesthesia. Good news - everything came back fine and she was cleared for surgery.

Last Friday, she was scheduled to get spayed. We had to get her checked in by 7:30 a.m. In normal conditions, it would be a 30 minute drive. But of course, it had just snowed 3”, it was dark, and snow plows had not been out yet.

When we were about to leave the house, Boo was screaming his fool head off because Pence was once again getting to go somewhere that he wasn’t. Trust me buddy, you would’ve hated it.

Pence, being a sled dog and used to being with her “pack”, was nervous because she was being separated again. She was so anxious in the car, which isn’t uncommon for her anyways.

We went through the McDonald’s drive through really quick and she made friends with the cashier, who wanted to give her a sausage patty. Unfortunately, we were under strict instructions to not give her any food after midnight. Next time, girl.

We headed to the clinic. After a few scary moments on slick roads, we made it.

We walked in the door and were greeted by, I kid you not, 50 other dogs and cats in the waiting room. I was horrified. Last week when we were there, we were the only ones in the waiting room, so I had no idea it would be that chaotic. I knew it would only amplify her nervousness. She was shedding like no other.

We sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes before a tech came out to get her. They took her vitals and said everything was good to go, and to come back at 5:15 p.m. to pick her up.

Of course, I was thinking about her all day. Wondering when her surgery would be and how she was doing with the chaos. She’s not used to clinics like this, and especially not that many other people and animals screaming and barking.

In the afternoon, we took Boo to Beth. We wanted Pence to be able to recover from her spay in a calm, quiet environment. We didn’t want Boo to bug her or try to rile her up.

After dropping Boo off, it was about 4:15 p.m. An hour before everyone’s designated pick up time. However, I wanted to go to the clinic early and see if she was able to leave before the crowds of people and animals filled the waiting room again. Luckily, they said she was ready!

When the techs brought her out to us, she was much more energetic than I thought she would be, but also had a glazed over look in her eyes. I was surprised to find out that female dogs don’t typically need to go home with cones after surgery.

The bad news of the day is that we were told Pence couldn’t jump up or down on couches or human beds for 7 days. I thought, ummm…good luck with that.

Riley lifted Pence up into my car and she sat on the edge of her dog bed, stoned and confused.

When we arrived home, Riley carried Pence in the house. She was still nervous, trying to pace around, fighting sleep. We ended up putting her in her crate for much of the evening, because it was the only place she would lay down and try to get some rest.

That night, we were worried about leaving her in the crate in the main room of the house because we wouldn’t be able to hear or see if something was wrong. We also didn’t want to have her sleep in our bed and jump down while we were sleeping, or lick the incision. So naturally, we brought the giant dog crate into our bedroom.

Early the next morning, Pence was whining a little bit. I’m guessing her pain medicine had worn off and she was telling us it was time for more. I knew this may be a challenge though. She’s smart. Almost too smart for her own good.

I tried to give her the pill by itself, because she eats her joint supplement that way, but she refused. I tried to hide the pill in a piece of turkey sausage, but naturally she ate all the sausage and spit the pill out. So I tried another piece of sausage. Same thing, except she bit the pill in half and spit both halves out. My dad was on his way to our house and I asked him to bring slices of cheese in case she wouldn’t take the pill with sausage.

But we were determined to get it in her system ASAP. Riley got a spoon full of peanut butter and hid the pill pieces in it. At first, she refused to even look at the spoon. Eventually, she gave it a little lick and was like, woah, this stuff is actually pretty good. She went to town on the peanut butter and ate the pain pill! We think this might have been her first time trying peanut butter.

It didn’t take long to kick in, and Pence was zombied out the next few hours. She spent a chunk of the day in her crate again, where we could keep an eye on her. But clearly, she wasn’t happy there. Her happy place is her couch.

We told her she could lay on her couch if we were in the room with her, and if we lifted her up and down. She obliged.

In the midst of her recovery time, we had several family members over, which wasn’t planned. Still feeling funny and now with random people in the house, she was anxious. A friend dropped off a thunder shirt for her, so we thought we’d give it a try. I think it helped! If not, she looked cute anyways.

She hadn’t eaten for a day or two, likely from the nerves and pain medicine. And being a couch potato doesn’t use much energy either. But I wanted to get a little food in her. I hand fed her a couple bites of food and she ate it immediately, and acted like she wanted more. I brought her food bowl to her, and she chowed down! I told her she better not get used to this lol.

She spent the majority of the week relaxing on our couch. She eventually noticed her incision and became a little more interested in it. I imagine it started itching as it was beginning to scab. Luckily, she didn’t mess with it too much, so she remained cone-free.

Wednesday was her last dose of pain pills. The incision is healing well. It will likely be at least a couple more weeks before we consider running her again because we want to make sure everything is healed fully, inside and out.

Thank you all for the well wishes for her surgery and recovery! We’ll keep you updated, but hoping we have an uneventful next couple weeks with her recovery.

Check back on Tuesday for our next blast from the past story about Doty 2022, when Riley and I both attempted our first wheeled sled dog races! Definitely a big step up from canicross, and more fun for us.

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