Poor Annabelle!

sounds like pain to me;
I'd call the clinic & ask them if they gave her anything at all for pain.

I'd give her the pain medicine now and not wait until 6pm. Did they say if they gave her pain meds after the surgery?

I have called and there is no answer.Her paper work says and also the vet told me she had morphine.I did not purchase any pain meds from them as I have the same as they were going to send home with her,its meloxicam.They would not tell me what dosage to give her being they did not prescribe the one I have(something about laws)anyway she weighs 37 lbs.I'm having to guess what amount to give her.I went ahead and gave her some at 3:00.She is still whimpering but maybe not as bad.She has already peed on herself 4 times since being home.The paper said to expect some accidents.The paper also said expect her to sleep but thats not really happening yet.She had a rabies shot also,that was included with the price.Maybe tomorrow will be better.

I wish Meghane would check in;
I never have heard of giving morphine to a dog, & it all begins to sounds scary to me:
they didn't indicate a dosage,
you get no answer when you called,
& the dog is in pain.

I would get her to a regular vet right away;
at least call your regular vet & beg for help.

I wish you the best.

Instead of buying a full prescription from them you should just ask for enough for one day. Then you will know the amount.

Self medicating too soon after just being put under plus being on IV pain meds is risky. That can cause respitory problems.

Any animal that was taken to a strange place and had strange people do strange things to them is going to have it affect them for awhile. Having an invasive procedure done and having all kinds of drugs put into them is also going to affect them. Do not expect the dog to act normal, it can't. The most you should do is offer comfort, keep it clean and fed. Follow the vets orders in regards to wound care, activity level and diet. Don't give her pain meds because you or anyone else thinks she needs it. Get a small script from your vet so you will definately know the correct dosage and the times to give it. It is not worth risking the life of your girl

You must have misunderstood franknjim,I was told I could give her pain meds by the clinic vet that did the procedure if I felt she needed them.I don't expect her to act normal.On another note she is improving somewhat.She is sleeping a little more and the whimpering is down unless I come into her sight.I fed her a small amount of her dog food(again I was told it was ok).
I got a recording when I called the clinic.I was also told any after care she needed I would have to use my regular vet.About the morphine,she was drooling lots when I picked her up and they said it was because of the morphine.I have my checkout papers and morphine is on it as well as the anesthetic medication that was used.They could not give me a dosage for the meloxicam because I was using what I already had instead of purchasing some from them.I'm not worried about the mobile clinic as they seem to be well known in our area.I think Annabelle is stressed as well as in some pain.They told me she shredded all her bedding apart in the crate twice while waiting for her turn.I'm hoping in the morning the worse is behind her,if not we will go to our vet or at least talk with them.

IMO, they should have started her on pain meds during/after the surgery. Once she reaches a high level of pain it takes longer to get it under control.

Hopefully she's feeling better by now. If you used the meloxicam for her before, then it's probably the same dosage. I'd call your local vet to confirm.
Watch for signs of listlessness, fever, vomiting and diarrhea and get her to a vet if you see them.

Lucy goes through this every time she has anesthesia. She did it even with just a dental, that is how we finally figured out it wasn't from pain. In her case, she just doesn't like to feel woozy and expresses it with the whining. She also can't sleep after the anesthesia until we go to bed at night. The whining stops with a good nights sleep.

I googled the dosage and came up with 0.1 mg per pound initially, followed by 0.05 mg per pound once daily.

Hopefully Annabelle will feel better by morning.

Good Luck,
Linda

1. She had only morphine for pain control, which is inadequate IMHO. I personally almost always use an NSAID prior to surgery, unless disease precludes use of an NSAID in which case I premed with something else longer acting than morphine.

2. Morphine lasts maybe 3 hours. So by the time you got her back, she had nothing on board as far as pain meds. Glad you gave her meloxicam. The initial dose is 0.2mg/kg, then 0.1mg/kg once every 24 hours.

3. Morphine can cause dysphoria, aka drunk doggie. She may have been whining and drooling because she was stoned. My own dog Max was *very* sensitive to opiods of all kinds and would be very confused and whine when given them. OTOH dogs can whine and drool due to pain. I would know based on a post-op PE and would give additional pain meds if needed. Of course, your vet had already kicked your dog to the curb so they wouldn't know!

4. I'm sure that while they did a fine job, I am VERY leary of any place that cannot handle a post-op emergency. What if a ligature slipped and your dog was bleeding to death internally? They won't even answer the phone. And they didn't even watch the dog that long after surgery to be sure there wouldn't be any complications. Mine stay over night, but I'd be happy to send them home after 6 hours post-op. You didn't get that. If there was an emergency, any money saved using the S/N clinic would have been immediately lost by the emergency vet fees. But I guess since you didn't go to a vet despite signs of problems that isn't an issue.

5. My patients go out the door bouncing and happy, not whining, no matter when I release them. And I would have given you the dose of meloxicam to prevent accidental liver/kidney toxicity. Of course I would have also given her the first dose by injection PRIOR to surgery so she wouldn't have woken up painful. Trying to catch up to pain is much harder than preventing it in the first place.

6. My patients *never* urinate on themselves at home or forget their housetraining. I express their bladders during surgery so when they wake up the bladder is empty. By the time they go home, they are completely coherent and can definitely go outside to urinate/defecate.

I wouldn't be happy sending home a dog in Anabelle's condition. Even my late day emergency surgeries who go home are in better shape than that because I monitor my patients post-op. I sent home an emergency pyometra spay that I started at 6pm at 7pm and she wasn't whining or drooling... bounced out the door happier and lots healthier than when she came in.

Hopefully she does OK.

How is Annabelle today? I hope she is feeling better.

I don't have experience with that type of distress after spay, but certainly it's a major event- physically and even psychologically.

Hope you both got a decent night's rest and today is a brighter day.

Meghane, my dog will be facing this at the beginning of November. What questions do I want to ask my vet prior to the surgery? She is a small dog (Havanese) and she will be six months when she is spayed. Thanks for any help you can give.

My 6 pound, 5-month old Chihuahua was spayed this past Monday and came home with the 'drunken dog' syndrom. I put her in her kennel and she slept for hours, but when she awakened, she was whining in pain.

I called the vet and they told me to give her 1/2 teaspoon of children's liquid Tylenol, which worked - she slept well through the night and, today, she's almost her usual bouncy self. No, I'm not letting her bounce yet, but she could if I'd let her.

I was told to keep her crated for a week, except when I'm with her outside to potty and exercise, and so far, so good. She's eating as normal for her - it looks like she is doing very well.

Thanks, kayjones, my dog is 6 lbs too and is now scheduled to be spayed next Thursday. I thought she would have to wait until she was six months, but my vet likes to do it earlier and I trust her completely. She just needed to be at least 4 lbs and she is 6, so she is ready to go. I hope she does as well as your girl.

I feel certain she will be fine!

murraysmom I was really worried about getting my little girl spayed too but it all went fine. She wasn't in any pain and was just a bit groggy/sleepy when I picked her up and like meghane said, the vet emptied the bladder so there were no accidents or anything like that. When I got her home I set up her bed next to the couch and got her settled in the LR and I turned down the lights and just watched some tv quietly while I stayed with her. Every so often she would open her eyes and check to see if I was still there and I'd give her a pat until she went back to sleep. By the next day she was back to normal so just make sure your girl can get some rest when she gets home and a bit of food and water later on and she'll be fine.

Thanks you guys, that does make me feel better. I do have a quiet household (just me and the animals), so I should be able to give her some quality quiet time. She's the busy one, so if she's out of commission, I should be able to control the rest. I like the ambience you created trancegemini, I hope I can stay awake LOL.

"I like the ambience you created trancegemini, I hope I can stay awake LOL"

LOL, it's a very relaxing way to spend the evening and if your other pets are like mine they'll meander on in and go to sleep too :). It's good that you know your vet and trust her but just ask her any questions about things that worry you, such as has she had any pain meds etc. I'm used to having my dogs go off for surgery but for some reason I was really worried when my baby went off for her first surgery. I think it was just because she was so young and little but I really wish I hadn't worried so much looking back because apart from sleeping off the anaesthetic she didn't have any problems with it. The hard part was keeping her quiet over the next week so she wasn't running around or jumping because they bounce back so quick and don't realise they have to take it easy.

Let us know how the surgery goes ok? I'll be thinking of your little poppet on Thursday :)

Well, Carmelita had her spay surgery today and all went well. I dropped her off at 8:30 and I got a call at 10:15 that the surgery was over and she did great and was even sitting up at that point. She did get injectable pain meds during surgery and my vet sent home a week's worth of pain meds although she said she should only need it for the first 48 hours. Carmelita is very quiet and mostly napping. She gets up and walks around a little bit and then lays down again. She ate a little bit (that's all I offered her) and she had some water. I'm glad it's all over and I hope I can keep her "quiet" for the next 10 days or so! Wish me luck!!

Thats great news murraysmum, it sounds like it all went fine and she is doing well and it always feels better once their back home again. I do the same with my dogs after surgery and just give them a little bit of food at a time just in case they get nauseas. good luck with keeping her quiet over the next week or so! LOL

We took our litter of kittens to the 'cat taxi' which is a low cost spay/neuter thing. They pick up cats from all over the Chicago area- take them to a clinic in Chicago - bring them back to various locations in Chicagoland. I was so apprehensive because the literature says they do over 100 cats a day.

I could picture these conveyor belts full of cats and kittens in a large factory! We picked them up and they immediately started running and jumping around like nothing at all happened to them. We were amazed and very pleased. If they suffered any pain, we sure couldn't see it. Glad to have it over with but if you are in this area, look up 'www.cattaxi.org'.

Carmelita seems in much better spirits this morning. She had a good night, although I took her out to pee either two or three times. I don't mind that a bit. I gave her a little food at three different times which about equaled one meal for her. Her appetite has been very good. I've given her pain meds at 9:00 last night and again at 9:00 this morning. We've taken a couple of little walks already today too. She seems like she wants to do more playing, but when I just ignore those requests, she lays down and sacks out for quite awhile. I'm really happy to say that she has barely bothered her incision. It looks good and she seems to be doing really well. Thanks for all your conerns.

I'm glad to hear your Carmelita is doing well.Annabelle was fine after the first day.I've had three female dogs spayed,two of them at the vets office and the one at the clinic and I have to say none of them went as smoothly as you hear some people talk about.Good luck...