Today was another day full of spays!  I thought I would describe for you guys how a spay is done.

Anesthetic

The animal is given a sedative first.  We often use a mixture of drugs called hydromorphone, acepromazine and glycopyrrolate.  After about 10 minutes the animal is usually quite sedate.

We then place an IV catheter.  The IV fluids help to keep an animal’s blood pressure up which helps to support the kidneys while she is under anesthetic.  Also, if there was an emergency under anesthetic then we have quick access to administer emergency drugs intravenously.

We then do an injection of a medication which will cause the animal to be completely unconscious.  This is usually either a mixture of ketamine and valium or a drug called propofol.  When the animal is totally out then we place a tube in her trachea and she will breathe a mixture of oxygen and a gas anesthetic called isofluorane.  This will keep her asleep for as long as we need.

Preparation

The animal is then shaved on her belly and the skin is prepped.  We do a series of scrubs with chlorhexadine soap, alcohol and then an iodine type solution.  This is the best way to keep the area as clean as possible.  She is then moved into the surgery suite.

The surgery

The animal is laying on her back and we make a very small incision about an inch or so below the umbilicus.  Once we are in the abdomen we use an instrument called a spay hook to find the uterus.  Then, we pull the ligament that is attaching the ovaries and this allows the ovaries to be pulled up into the incision.

We then tie a stitch around the blood supply to the ovary.  The same thing is done for the second ovary.

Next, the uterus is pulled out so that we can see the area where the uterus attaches to the cervix.  Each uterine vessel is tied off with suture and then we put a big stitch around the body of the uterus.  It is then ready to be removed.

We usually close the body with three layers of stitches.  The first is the most important as it keeps the muscle layers closed.  We then close the subcutaneous tissues.  I usually put in buried stitches after this, but some vets will place stitches that have to be removed within 10-14 days.

Recovery

After this is done, we turn off the gas anesthetic and wake the animal up.  We will give an injection of some anti-inflammatory such as Metacam for dogs or Tolfedine for cats.

They are usually up an walking within the hour, but we don’t send them home until several hours later.

It is amazing how fast cats and dogs will recover from a spay!

Have a question for Dr. Marie?  You can ask an online vet question here.