How To Prepare For The Operation

Crunching The Numbers

I feel lucky to keep in touch with our breeder. Throughout the first year, she sent us little reminders like when to change food, or when to book the next round of vaccines. A month before neutering Henry, we received a message from our breeder to start planning with the vet.

The vet clinic provided an estimate. In our case, it was 740.00$CAD (taxes in). This included an umbilical hernia surgery (130.00$CAD), the surgery itself (292.00$CAD) the plastic cone (20.00$CAD), a blood test (146.00$) and other routine medications. For those who have pet insurance, this procedure isn’t covered seeing as it is a routine, planned event. I highly recommend pet insuracne, by the way. It’s helped us on numerous occasions; you can read all about it here.

That said, one of the main factors to expect when neutering your dog is definitely financial.

Post-Surgery Comfort

Another factor to consider is your dog’s comfort post-surgery. In fact, there are more comfortable alternatives to the plastic cone [of shame]! Thanks to the wonderful dog community on Instagram, we discovered the donut and surgical suit! The “donut” (a.k.a. protective inflatable collar or cloud collar) was a great option for Henry. It’s basically like one of those airplane neck pillows, but for dogs. Here’s the one we used.

Other recommendations included the surgery suit, a full body suit that covers the operated area to prevent your dog from licking. Your dog can also wear nothing if they’re not “groomers”…unfortunately for us, Henry likes to make sure he’s extra clean.

**Little side note for the donut, especially for cavaliers, make sure to brush their ears every day when they’re wearing it…Henry got so many mats, that was the only downside to the donut…I’ve linked a variety of different combs here!**

The Big Snip

Going To The Vet During COVID

The day before neutering Henry, our clinic called us to confirm our appointment, as they usually do. Clinique Vétérinaire Rive-Sud is honestly the best and most attentive clinic, they look after Henry so well! They suggested we bring him in the night before his operation, for practicality. Because he’d be staying overnight after his operation, this meant a whole two days without the Smol! (Not mad about the little break LOL) They called us the day after we dropped him off to confirm all went well! Little did we know that the easy part was done.

Going to the vet during COVID times is a little weird: they have you wait outside, and pick up your pet at a designated door. We waited in front of door number 1 and I could already hear Henry’s little barks from behind the glass. They initially brought him outside without a cone (I think they were taking him out to do his business at the same time we happened to show up). He stayed with us, as we waited for further instructions.

The Recovery Period 

Boy was he happy to see us, at first glance he seemed perfectly normal, but I’m sure he knew something wasn’t right. During the time we were waiting for the vet—without a cone—the first thing Henry did was “scoot” on the pavement in the parking lot and try to lick his wounds. Naturally, we jumped on him to get him to stop, and I immediately asked the vet technician if he’d opened his stitches.The last thing we wanted was infection.

She assured us everything was alright, and took us through the additional instructions. We’d have to give him anti-inflammatories for the first 4 days, and the recovery period would take 10-14 days…and we weren’t allowed to get the stitches wet, so we’d have a nice smelly Henry for 2 weeks. Fun.

So, What Can You Expect When Neutering Your Dog?

Although a routine procedure, getting Henry neutered was a tiring process for us, reminiscent of the early puppy months.

Be prepared for the financial aspect of the procedure, as well as your dog’s comfort. He’ll need a lot of love of attention. This may come with a couple of sleepless nights. Although the recovery period is about 10 days, they bounce back pretty quickly and they’re back to their normal selves in no time!

All in all, we’re both very happy we got him neutered, especially because the ONE thing we hoped it would change, more than anything, actually happened: he stopped marking! He no longer tries to mark inside, and he now asks for the door to go outside. We do bring belly bands with us when we go somewhere new, however. 

If I had to do anything differently, it would be to plan for more things to chew on to keep Henry calm and relieve his stress, and mostly to take his mind off the licking. I linked a few products that helped get us through the last couple weeks, below, as well as some suggestions I got. Here’s hoping they can help you too!