The Good and the Bad: Miyu's Spay and Hip X-ray

Poor Miyu, all doped up and wearing the cone of shame

So yesterday I dropped Miyu at the vet to get spayed.  I was a total mess, the whole time while driving her there I was thinking about all the bad possibilities that could happen while she was under.  In the end though, the surgery went very well with practically no tearing and a fairly small incision.

I spent a greater part of 6 months researching and finding a vet that I was comfortable with cutting my baby girl open.  I originally wanted to go with a Laparoscopic Spay, but after getting the price estimates for such a procedure from the two vets in the island that can do it ($1500 for one, $820 for the other), I found that financially I could not go that route.  So instead I went with an Open Style Ovariectomy, of which the second vet experienced with Laparoscopic Spays was capable of doing.

The incision with a quarter for size comparison.

With an Ovariectomy, only the ovaries are removed while with a regular spay(ovariohysterectomy) they also remove the uterus.  Miyu's uterus remains and is now inert and dormant, with the chances of her getting any major uterine illnesses becoming a fraction of a percent.  There is less internal damage and quicker healing when leaving the uterus in, as well as most surgical mishaps have been avoided altogether (which could have potentially needed a second clean up surgery to fix).  The vet did not leave any foreign substance (suture thread) in her body, and instead cauterized the areas that the ovaries were attached to.  All this for the same price as a regular spay.



While she was knocked out, I opted to get her hips x-rayed and OFA scored.  When I came in the pick Miyu up, the vet discussed with me what he saw in the x-ray and what concerns he had.  From what it looks, the vet says that she has mild Hip Displaysia and that only time will tell how severely it will affect her life.  Looking at the x-ray, the vet pointed out that her balls weren't in her sockets as much as they should be.  The overlap should look to be at least 50%, while hers were more like 1/3 (33%).  Her right sockets did not look very smooth and had a slight jaggedness to it.

We'll see what OFA scores her at and will be taking the image to my regular vet to see what they think.  Either way, I plan to having her x-rays done again in about a year to see how it progresses.  Fingers crossed that it doesn't get worse.


UPDATE:  Her OFA prelim score came back as Moderate, which is a step up from the worse score she could have gotten.   Will do another xray when she's older to monitor the change,  hopefully she doesn't get any worse.  Here is her OFA page showing the results.