Canine Ovariohysterectomy – Preacher’s Procedure

Canine Ovariohysterectomy otherwise known to the lay person as canine spay, known to us in the Veterinary field as OHE. This is a surgical sterilization process done on a female dog when they aren’t going to be used for breeding, the female dog’s ovaries and uterus are removed.
I won’t be using Preacher for my breeding program so I made the decision to spay her. When she was eight months old she was diagnosed with an assumed hereditary condition, that being said after a second opinion, talking with my doctors and much research I chose to do the right thing as a breeder and spay her. Living with an intact male and not wanting an unwanted pregnancy made my decision to spay Preacher just shy of one year old before she came into heat.

Follow along with her procedure that was done at my place of work Harmony Pet Clinic.
The night before surgery Preacher was fed her supper and then was held off food the next morning so she had an empty stomach for surgery. You want them to be fasted in case they vomit while under anesthesia as it will reduce the chance of aspiration causing aspiration pneumonia.

The morning of surgery she was weighted in so the medications administered could be calculated.

Blood was drawn for her pre-anesthetic bloodwork which was run on the clinics in house chemistry machine. The bloodwork is a 12 panel test that will include checking kidney and liver function which are the vital organs that will be removing the anesthetic given to her. It will also test for diabetes and other organ functions.

A hemaocrit was done to make sure she wasn’t anemic. The level of pre-anesthetic bloodwork done is based on the age of the animal.

A pre-surgical examination was done while the bloodwork was being analyzed. She needed to be healthy for this procedure so a general “check over” was done which included a head to toe exam, checking her color, listening to her heart, palpating her stomach, temperature taken and counting her respiration’s.

Once the results were in on her bloodwork and all was normal as well as a normal exam she was given a premedication to “take the edge off” so we could place a IV catheter. A IV catheter was placed for giving the induction anesthesia and for administrating IV fluids during the procedure.

Once the catheter was in place she was induced, a endotracheal tube was placed in her trachea so gas anesthetic could be administered during the procedure. 

Her abdomen was shaved to remove all the fur, it was then scrubbed with surgical soap to create a sterile surgical field. This was all being done while the surgeon scrubbed in herself for the surgery.

She was hooked up to the surgical monitors which monitored her heart rate, blood pressure and pulse O2. IV fluids were started also. Donning a hat, mask and sterile gloves Dr. Johansen was ready to spay Preacher while I assisted in surgery doing a visual and hands on monitoring as well as getting any supplies needed during the procedure.

A laser surgical unit was used instead of a scalpel blade for cutting into the abdomen and doing the procedure. The laser cuts and cauterizes so there is very minimal bleeding. Surgeries heal up much faster with this way of doing surgeries.

Once into the abdominal cavity the uterine horns were located, the ovaries were removed at this time along with the uterine horns and the uterine body. Once everything is removed, sutured and no bleeding the abdominal wall is then closed and then the skin layer. Surgical glue is then applied to the incision.

Preacher was then taken to recovery where she was monitored again while waking up. Once she started swallowing the endotracheal tube was removed and she was kept warm while she recovered from her surgery. When she was fully recovered her IV catheter was removed, more pain medications were administrated and she waited until I was done with work and we both headed home.

The discharge instructions were to feed small amount of food and water after I took her home since she would still be a bit groggy she shouldn’t have her full meal. She would be back to normal the following morning where her normal amount of food can be given. I am to look at her incision throughout the day and make sure there is no swelling, redness or discharge. She is to be kept from licking at her incision. If she licks she will need to wear a cone collar. She is not to have any bathes while recovering from her surgery. Recovery time is 10-14 days. She will need to be leashed walked and no playing with the other dogs. She will be given a pain medication twice a day for 5 days. There are no surgical sutures that will need to be removed but a surgery recheck will be done in 10-14 days. Once healed she will be able to go back to training.

Preacher is doing great after surgery. She gets to hang out on the bed for the next 10-14 days.