Spayed female post op care?

[StephTech]

Wasn't really sure where to put this, so here goes.

Cotton was recently spayed (Friday afternoon, it's now Sunday afternoon). Doc was pretty clear about no wheel for two weeks, keep her eating, and we've got some pain meds for her to help out.

My question is... What do you do with a hedgie that likes to get poop EVERYWHERE when they have in incision you are trying to keep clean and clear? She's kind of turned gross-nasty about 6 months ago and poops where she sleeps, poops and walks in it and sleeps in her own poop, etc. So far I've been using a damp paper towel to get her feet "clean" and change out all her bedding every night so it's all fresh again.

Has anyone ever had any kind of post op infection because of their pog's nasty habits? Any advice on how long to go before giving her a bath? I'm calling the vet Monday to ask, but was curious what your past experiences have been.

 

[StephTech]

I guess no one but me has ever had these issues.

Well, if anyone ever is also in this situation, two days after and it was fine to bath the animal, but it may depend on the type of sutures/surgical glue used. Always check with the vet first .

 

[Kalandra]

Bianca was a very active hedgehog of mine and had a very large mammary tumor removed just 1 month after coming to my home. She would circle her cage for hours on end and run through her feces while doing it when she didn't have her wheel.

We actually didn't have any problems with her healing up. The only problem we had with her was that one of the internal stitches didn't dissolve and eventually worked itself out of her tummy after she had healed.

For her I changed her cage liner twice a day. I often stayed up very late so would change it mid evening to ensure she wasn't getting yuck on her stitches (she was up running the night of her surgery despite my best efforts to get her to rest). I also used just a damp cloth and patted around the incision to clean anything that had gotten on her fur.

We did have a bit of secondary infection (around where that stitch worked out). Doc had us use very dilute peroxide on guaze to clean around the area and use neosporin (no pain releif version) to clear the infection.

If someone is having trouble like this with a hedgehog, your best bet is to monitor the incision closely to ensure there is no infection starting to settle in and talk to your vet.

 

[Courtney]

When Kismet was spayed, the vet told me to take her wheel away for a few days because she understood how important the wheel is to animals like this. After 2 days, Kismet was going snakey, so I gave her the wheel back and shoved a blanket underneath so it wouldn't spin AS fast. That way, she could still plod around but she couldn't get going as fast as normal.

As for the cleanliness issue, all I really did was clean her cage twice daily and check her incision area for mess. What they did for her was internal dissolving stitches, with glue on her skin to keep it together while it healed. If I spotted a mess, I gently dabbed the area with a clean, damp cloth and then dried the area thoroughly.

I didn't have any issues with Kismet's healing, post-op. The biggest issue was that one stitch didn't dissolve completely and worked it's way out of the incision area. It looked absolutely gross one day, I took her to the vet, and they removed that one stitch manually. The next day, her belly was completely unmarred.

Overall, she healed very well and was back to herself the same day.

 

[AlbertaGirl]

Thank you for posting this thread. Phoebe will be getting spayed later this year and I was worried about the same things.