All booked in!

Soooooo ...

Chase is booked in for the snip on Monday (25th Sept) and I'm a little nervous for him bless him.

It's all going ahead sooner than planned but will be better for him in the long run and he'll hopefully be able to concentrate a bit more while out walking and training.

Anyone got any advice on keeping him quietly occupied so he doesn't do himself an injury while healing?
I'm planning on getting him a Kong toy to keep him busy but any suggesting would be great!

Well, anything that uses brain power rather than muscle power!

You'll find that brain power (seek etc with toys/treats) will help with the lack of physical exercise.

And I suppose adjusting quantity of food is advisable to compensate for less physical energy used

Gus was done 12 days ago. The first 24 hours were the hardest as Gus whined the whole time, I think we managed to get a couple of hours sleep. It's a common side effect from the anaesthetic. Gus had loads of zoomies because he wasn't getting his usual exercise and was definitely frustrated not to be playing with other dogs on his walks. We bought a better cone as he hated the one he got from the vet although we didn't really have to bother with it in the end as he didn't lick the area. If you have any questions fire away.

Yikes, it'll be fine Chase honest

As Gilly has said, mental games will certainly tire him out and it's great that James' Gus has just been through it and can offer first hand recent experience

Thank you all of you!

Chase is crate trained so he should be happy to settle nicely in his little house.
He'll be getting a crate big enough for a German shepherd next week so he'll have plenty of room.

I was wondering about walking or taking him out to the toilet ... How soon after can we walk him? Keep him on the lead to go toilet?

Once Gus was over the anaesthetic we started to walk him. All on the lead though and not anywhere muddy. Gus was marking the vets as his area immediately so don't worry about him going to toilet.

It'll be fine, honest! Yes, the first day or two can be disorientating and it takes time to get used to the cone (watch the kids' legs if you have the hard cone), but do keep it on. Like James, we thought our first dog, Mungo, was brilliant at not licking his stitches until we took him back to the vet to have them taken out - there was only 1 left and Mung had very carefully removed the rest without us even knowing!

Mental games are really helpful - they can play the treat in a cardboard box game all the time without getting bored - and training is a good way to keep their minds busy. You and the kids could teach him some party tricks like high fives, waiting before taking a treat, going and fetching a toy...

I wouldn't worry overly about reducing food, it's only for a few days, but if you do a lot of stuff with treats then I would reduce accordingly.

Misty recovered within hours but we could only do very short on lead walks for two weeks. We used a lot of Kongs and taught her a lot of little tricks.

Also I just recently bought her a lick may from. PAH, it's great, it's a plastic sheet with lots of rjvets you can then paste peanut butter or mashed fruit or fish on. We then freeze and it keeps her busy for half an hour and really tires her out.

Gus only needed to have a check up as the stitches were dissolvable ones.

Thank you everybody!

Just bought him a nylabone (sp) and will look in pets at home on Friday for the lick mat.

We always have cereal boxes so I'm sure I can make him a few treat toys with those too.

Thank you again x