The Cone of Shame

After much thought, I finally decided that I wanted to get Lola Grace spayed. I wasn't sure if we wanted to breed her one day, but after a few trips to the ranch… and male dog love interest….I thought it would be better if we just went ahead and got her fixed. I called the vet and let them know I wanted to plan the surgery and they wanted to get her in as soon as possible, because she is older and so big. 

Surgery day came and I completly freeked out! I didn't want to take her and just had a bad feeling about it. From  now on, when I have a bad feeling about something, I will listen to my feelings and not ignore them. 

That day after I dropped her off the office called me several times through out the day to let me know how the procedure went, and that her recovery was going well. I went to get her as soon as they would let me. They told me to keep her still and calm, and to wear the cone of shame. Here are a few pictures from her first night at home.

Playing with toys is a hard job with the cone on.  I would have to give her her bone to chew inside her cone.

 This is her eating… it was so sad. 

Lola was pretty good about staying on her bed and resting most of the time. 

 After the fist day, Brian and I had enough of the cone, and vowed to watch her very closely so we could prevent her from licking her wound. After two days, her surgery site wasn't looking like I thought it should and I brought her up to the vet for a quick look. As, I suspected, it wasn't healing "like it should" and they prescribed our sweet girl an antibiotic and said to continue with lots of rest. Lola was DONE resting and wanted to start playing again. She started getting sick to her stomach and I thought she was acting like she didn't feel very good. She would want to play, but would tire quickly and get sick often. I called the vet and they suggested I give her something to keep her calm. So I had to "Drug" her so she would stay calm. We spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch and on the floor.

 Our friend JT brought her a toy to chew on during her recovery. I took Lola to the vet again on Monday, after I worried all day at work about her. The vet said that she was having a hard recovery, was swollen, and had an infection. The antibiotics were probably the cause of her upset stomach, so they gave me something to add to her food. Here is a picture of her scar three days after surgery. It did not look good, and my momma bear claws were out and ready to dig into the vet if they didn't get her well soon.

I went back for another visit on Tuesday, and they assured me that her scar was starting to heal and the antibiotics were working. I "voiced" my concerns with the office, and the vet set up another appointment for us on Friday. Luckily by then her scar was looking much better and she was feeling more like herself. The vet said she could have gotten her scar infected in a number of different ways, or she could have had a reaction to the glue they put on the scars after surgery. I will NEVER get another dog fixed while pregnant. Brian will have to make that call and take care of everything. Talk about an emotional week for this momma to be! 

After two weeks of rest and recovery, Lola is back to her self and you can barely see her scar. Here she is fetching a stick in her new backyard. We can't wait to be here, especially so she can have a place to run and play whenever she wants to be outside.