The dog next door...

[Miranda]

My neighbors got another dog about a month ago. Looks like a border collie/lab mix or something, but it's really short, about the size of their beagle. It stays outside pretty much all the time. He always wants tons of attention and always wants my dogs to play with him. They run up and down the fence line constantly. A couple weeks ago he started trying to dig into my yard. I can never catch the neighbors at home to talk to them about it, but I wasn't really too terribly worried because once he gets into my yard, there's nowhere for him to go and my dogs can't exactly get through any hole that he makes. Well, now I'm kinda worried. I don't know if it's because Laika's in heat, but today he's decided that he hates her. I was sitting here at the computer, and they were barking as usual, but then I noticed that his bark sounded weird. So I look out the window and he was attacking the fence where Laika was standing. I yelled out the window and my dogs came running to me, but he was still standing there with his teeth bared and I could hear him growling. And now anytime Laika walks near the fence he attacks it and barks and growls like crazy. Is it because she's in heat? That's the only thing I can think of, because I don't see how his attitude toward her could change in a day because of anything else...

[Kermit]

I would say YES definitely it's because Laika's in heat. Those kinds of hormones and pheromones flying through the air can cause all kinds of craziness in dogs, even dogs who are neutered. At the house I used to live in, we had some new neighbors move in with a breeding pair of pit bulls. When the female went into heat, my own dogs started fighting with one another. It SUCKED!!!

In fact, my two dogs Nigel and Zoot fought so bad at that time that they now hate each other and I have to keep them separated constantly. 

So... I would keep a really close eye on Laika at this time! Dogs will jump over a fence, go under a fence, you name it! Just to get to a dog in heat.

[Miranda]

Ugh...if only she could be spayed while doing the treatment for this diskospondylit is!!!

She's been in heat since Friday, and already two neighborhood dogs have slipped their collars to come see her. Since there are usually a few unneutered male dogs roaming our neighborhood, I'm sure more will come. Haha...the dog that came yesterday was kinda funny. He was a terrier mix...really small. Laika was on one side of the fence, he was on the other, and he just kept marking the fence. I have to say, I was impressed with his bladder supply!!

[Miranda]

Laika's getting spayed on Thursday. I decided that I really didn't mind paying the extra money to spay while she's in heat if it brings peace to the neighborhood again. When I came home from work, the minute I got out of my car I could smell the urine from all the stray dogs coming and marking my house. EW.

[longshadowfarms]

Ugh...if only she could be spayed while doing the treatment for this diskospondylit is!!!

I'd talk to your vet but I'd think the heat would be a bigger issue than the discospondylit is unless I'm missing something???  I think there is a concern with the amount of blood in the uterus during a heat or something related to the heat itself - can't quite remember.  I think discospondylit is is simply an infection in a disc in the back.  If she's been on the antibiotics long enough, that shouldn't be an issue unless I'm missing something.  I know they don't want an infection going on while operating but I think once the antibiotics have been in place for a while, it should be ok.  Then again, unless things have changed since we had a dog with it, it was a loooooong haul on antibiotics (something like 8 weeks) so perhaps she needs to be on them for a long time before the infection can be considered controlled.  Whatever happens, good luck dealing with the situation! No fun to be in the middle of a pack of males with a female in heat!

[Scootergirl]

First of all, kudos to you for stepping up and making the financially difficult decision to bring peace to your neighborhood. Of course, if your neighbors were as responsible as you and had their dogs neutered as well, you wouldn't have this problem and could wait until she was out of heat for her spay.

That being said, it's not any riskier to spay her while she is in heat, I believe. It's just more of a hassle for the vet, which is why they usually charge more. At least, that's how my vet tactfully explained it.

[Miranda]

Ugh...if only she could be spayed while doing the treatment for this diskospondylit is!!!

I'd talk to your vet but I'd think the heat would be a bigger issue than the discospondylit is unless I'm missing something???  I think there is a concern with the amount of blood in the uterus during a heat or something related to the heat itself - can't quite remember.  I think discospondylit is is simply an infection in a disc in the back.  If she's been on the antibiotics long enough, that shouldn't be an issue unless I'm missing something.  I know they don't want an infection going on while operating but I think once the antibiotics have been in place for a while, it should be ok.  Then again, unless things have changed since we had a dog with it, it was a loooooong haul on antibiotics (something like 8 weeks) so perhaps she needs to be on them for a long time before the infection can be considered controlled.  Whatever happens, good luck dealing with the situation! No fun to be in the middle of a pack of males with a female in heat!

Her diskospondylit is was apparently really progressed since it has been misdiagnosed and mistreated three times. When he first diagnosed her with it he just said we couldn't spay her until it was under control, which we took to mean the three months she has to be on antibiotics, but after talking with him more in depth (and practically begging), he said that since she responded so well to the antibiotics it should be fine. So yay!

And the neighbor dog is neutered, and he's still like this! I went and talked to the next door neighbor last night. I never pointed fingers or anything, I never said it was his dog digging the holes, I just said that we have a few holes between our fence and I didn't have anything to patch them, so if he had anything just laying around, would he mind? I was pretty darn proud of myself I did say something about Laika being in heat and the holes getting a lot deeper all of a sudden, and he said "Oh, my dogs are neutered, so it could have absolutely nothing to do with her being in heat." I just said something about how Kingsley was neutered, too, and her being in heat was still messing with him, but he said "No, no, my dogs are neutered." Buuuut the fence is patched so I don't really care

[Miranda]

Okay, I dropped Laika off at the vet's office this morning

When we got there, the tech told me that we absolutely should not get her spayed while she was in heat. She said the risk was too great she could bleed out and we should just reschedule. Completely opposite of what they told me on the phone. Sooo I told her we wouldn't get her spayed today, but I still needed to talk to the vet about getting her meds refilled. So the vet came in, and he told me that yes, the risk was slightly increased, but he wouldn't offer the service if he wasn't completely confident and he didn't foresee any problems. He said as long as we did a coagulation test and kept her on an IV drip, it'd be absolutely fine. So I went ahead and left her there. Now, of course, I'm at home beating myself up over the decision. Should I have left her there? I trust this vet, but that tech was so adamant about not doing it...ugh!!! Is this one of those subjects that nobody ever agrees on, like docking tails and ears?

[Kermit]

That vet tech was TOTALLY OUT OF LINE saying something like that to you. That is out of their scope of practice to make recomendations like that, even worse that it was against the advice of the Veterinarian they work with!!!
Personally, I would make a complaint.

Laika will be fine. Dogs can easily be spayed when they are in heat. It happens all the time. Sometimes people don't even know that their dog was in heat until after the spay, and the vet says "by the way, she was in heat!" It's all good. Don't worry!

[Miranda]

Thank you sooo much!! That eases my worry a LOT.

You could tell the vet was kinda stuck in the middle...he said that he wished I remembered the girl who told me there was absolutely NO elevated risk, because he said that he wanted people to know there was some, but not as much as what the tech was saying.

Poor Kingsley's freaking out. He keeps running over to me and trying to get my attention and then running to the front door like "Mom, I know she's out there, go get her!" (back door is the potty door, so that's not what's going on)

[Miranda]

Thanks for the reassurances, everyone!

I'm just hoping the puppy next door calms down a bit! I just noticed that he tore out the covers the neighbor put over the holes!

Question...wil l Laika still have raging hormones for a little bit after she's spayed, or will she come out of the surgery and no other dogs will be able to tell she was in heat just a few hours ago? Also, I know that she marked our backyard quite a bit (all the dogs in the neighborhood know that  ). How long will it take for that scent to go away? Should I run the sprinkler on the lawn or something for awhile?

[Luvmydanes]

Don't forget to let us know how Laika is doing when she gets home! I hope everything goes well. I remember how stressed I was when we got Jasmine spayed...I was a mess!

[Moni]

Good luck with Laika. I hope she comes through safely, its always scary when they have to go in for surgery.

As far as your neighbor saying it didn't matter since since his dogs are neutered... LOL

Mojo(aussie) was never around any females in heat until years after he was neutered.  Then one day he was working with me in the barn and I turned around and he was GONE!  This is a dog who wouldn't move 5ft away from me ever.  I ran outside and my father drove up on the tractor and I asked if he had seen Mojo.  He started laughing and said,
"Oh YEAH!  He's at soandso's house with Sabrina getting a piece of -blank-"

I thought he was joking since Mojo had been neutered for awhile... Nope, I went to our neighbor's house and sure enough he had tied with her pitbull, Sabrina.  I will spare you the horrid stories about this poor dog, but yes she kept her chained outside while she was in heat.  So it still is possible.. yikes!

~moni

[Miranda]

Nice job Mojo!!! That's hilarious!

Laika came through the surgery just fine. I picked her up this evening. She's still really groggy and definitely very unhappy, but we put her in her crate and she seems to be happiest there. Haha...they gave me one of the cones, and I just had to laugh. It's huge!!! My neighbor's miniature poodle is Laika's age and her cone was so tiny!