Spay question

[Lise]

Okay, I don't even know if the vet I am taking Bella to for the spay will listen to me.... since she has never met me before and doesn't know me.

But since there are several of you on here who routinely get rats spayed:

What does your vet use to close up the skin layer of the incision?

My experience is limited to tumor removals and neuters, where glue was always used. Is surgical glue recommended for a spay incision?? (I expect it is going to be fairly large, not tiny like some members of this forums vets seem to do.)

If not glue, or she is unwilling to use glue... are sutures or staples better? My worst nightmare is having a rat come home and rip open the incision which with a young rat I can see them doing. Especially since I am driving just over an hour to get to this clinic, I can't exactly make a quick trip back to get things repaired.

 

[jorats]

For our girls, the spay incisions are not even an inch long. Our vet uses glue.
I would really try to discourage the use of staples.

 

[user 78]

My vet's incisions aren't pretty. She just used glue, after I begged, for my last two spays, but insisted on using her usual staples as well. It was an awful experience overall..

If she absolutely refuses to use nothing but glue, staples are a better bet in my experience. They're much more difficult to get out, and so long as you manage their pain they should leave it alone for the most part. Expect a few staples to be removed by the rats, but it should be okay. In my experiences, it's the incision causing pain that makes them mess with it more than anything else.

If, for any reason, they do remove the staples, I promise it will be okay. My girl Mac pulled out all 12 staples in the 30min drive from my vet to my home. It wasn't until I asked around that I found out my vet hadn't given them anything for pain after the surgery. Due to circumstances, I wasn't able to get her back into a vet to get immediately closed back up. Everyone assured me that so long as long as there was no major bleeding, she would be perfectly fine. She had minimal bleeding that first night and none after some compression. I gave her a higher dose of Baytril [10mg/kg] and kept an eye on it. Within 3 days she was healed over and perfectly fine. She had a small abscess, but it literally popped and healed within 48hrs.

I've got pictures!

Penn had started removing these before I took the picture. She had 12 staples in total.

Glue w/ Staples, and gives you a better idea for staples:

Mac's incision one day after her surgery/ As you can see, it's already starting to heal internally :

 

[lilspaz68]

My vet started me with internal dissolving sutures, then glue then staples...

Kyrie's incision. There were only 3 staples so it didn't seem to bother them much, although Brie pulled hers out at the vet clinic. :roll:

I had a few bad experiences with staples and asked my vet not to use themin the future unless completely necessary.

This is Bronny's belly...she ignored her incision completely. With metacam for the first day or so, I found they were just fine.

If your vet does internal stitches try for the glue.. Why not call and ask what she normally does for rat spays, ask about pain meds etc. No blindside for you then

 

[Lise]

I dropped her off and spoke to the vet, she uses glue to close the incision. Yay!

She said she would feel bad if the surgery didn't go well and something happened to Bella, when most likely she would have the babies without any complications. She said if I didn't want to raise the babies, she could raise them there... LOL I explained that raising babies is not really the issue, it is the homing of the babies and the fact that there are already other unwanted rats.
As well, I like the benefit of reducing mammary tumors.

It was a very long drive, I definitely wouldn't want to do it for every sniffle... but the vet seemed nice. We will find out this afternoon how the surgery went.

 

[lilspaz68]

Good luck wee Bella!

 

[jorats]

Keep us posted!!

 

[Lise]

Whew. Just finished over 5 hours of driving today for a ratty spay. Definitely not getting back in the car for anything tonight!

Bella is home and she is doing wonderfully. The incision looks fabulous! I am so impressed with this vet both in price (way more affordable than anything close by me!) and professionalism.

She had 12 pups in her uterus. Boy am I ever glad I went through with the spay.

And, exciting news, I talked to the adoption manager at the Humane Society and she is going to reimburse me for part (she thinks 50%) of the bill!

Pictures to come later tonight, she is still very groggy.

 

[lilspaz68]

Awww, thats wonderful that you liked the vet, her work and that you went through with the e-spay, plus you educated a vet on why e-spays are so important

And yeah 5 hours travel time is pretty ugly. I did 6 hours for my spays, and I was exhausted by the final return trip.

 

[jorats]

Wonderful news all around.

 

[Lise]

Here she is:

She did an owwie stretch and Tom called me "Bella is acting weird! Oh no!" She seems fine to me though, resting easily.

 

[jorats]

That's a pretty long incision but looking very good.
Those owwie stretches are a heart stopper the first time you see them.

 

[lilspaz68]

if she ends up hunched and stretching all the time, give her some pain meds when you are able. You'll know when.

she's adorable!

 

[mamarat]

Healing vibes for the little lady.

 

[Lise]

Well the little brat just had to rip her incision completely open yesterday. It is already showing signs of beginning infection.

So I brought her into emergency last night to pick up some antibiotics, and we are supposed to do hydrotherapy with her. With an untamed rat -- hah. I can barely even get the abs into her.

She has an e-collar on now.... hindsight I wish I would've just put one on her right away, because now she is going to have to wear it for a long time while this heals up. She is so miserable.

Ugh.

 

[jorats]

I would be a little concerned with the fact that it's not completely healed by now. :shock:
Usually 10 days later, you can barely see the incision.

The meds should get it all cleared up soon enough.

 

[Lise]

It was healing up fine (it had been 5 days since surgery, and I checked on it multiple times in the first 3 days when giving her metacam), but then I think she begin to chew and lick and chew and lick until she opened it all back up. The entire incision popped open so you can see the body wall inside. *sigh*

The vet on duty didn't know anything about rats, but of course since I work there she let me grab meds...

I took Baytril, since I didn't know what else to take. Baytril works okay for skin type infections right?

 

[lilspaz68]

I use baytril after surgery for mine. I used baytril for Selene's Pyoderma, etc.

See if you can get her to sit in a saline sitz bath (sink maybe?) to soak the wound. As long as those internal sutures are holding you should be okay.

Meds and a few soaks should clear her up.

 

[jorats]

Baytril works great for those type of infections.
Also, my vet doesn't recommend flushing when it comes to opened incisions. She says it's best to leave them alone. Unless of course you have tons of infection in there.

 

[Lise]

There is large chunks of skin glue mixed with suture material and pus that need to come off.

That is why the vet recommended hydrotherapy -- running warm water over the incision.

I need my bf home to help me though, she is a scrapper and getting very fed up and starting to bite even when I just go to grab her out of the cage. I couldn't get any of the Baytril in her this morning. *sigh* Look what I get myself into....

I just have one more final exam I have to concentrate on, that is on Friday. Then I will have two weeks off to doctor her, and bond with her. Thank god.