Spaying a French bulldog might sound like a cruel procedure, but in fact, it can bring a lot of benefits to your pet’s health. Besides preventing uterine infections, unwanted pregnancy, and reducing the risk of mammary cancer, a spayed Frenchie will be calm, and less prone to behaviors triggered by the heat cycle.
At what age should you spay a French bulldog?
Vets recommend performing a spay procedure when a dog is approximately 6 months old. This surgical removal of both ovaries and uterus might sound scary, but in fact, it brings a lot of benefits. Six months of age is the best period to ensure the health and safety of your furry little friend.
If the puppy is younger than 6 months, there’s a concern for anesthesia. Since anesthesia reduces body temperature, smaller puppies might find it difficult to regulate their temperature during surgery. In shelters, puppies are spayed even earlier, when they’re approximately 3 months old. Highly-trained vets perform thousands and thousands of such procedures a year.
What to expect after your Frenchie is spayed?
Although this type of surgery doesn’t require a long recovery, your little Frenchie princess will need some time to get back to normal. The period of 2 weeks would be enough for the wound to get healed. Besides restricting your Frenchie from activity, the following tips are of great importance too.
- Put the Elizabethan Collar around your dog’s neck. It will keep the wound safe from licking and forcible removal of stitches.
- To make sure your dog’s incision stays clean and healthy, monitor it daily for swelling or redness. If you notice any discharge from the site of surgery then contact a vet immediately as this could be an indicator that something more serious is going on inside their body! Internal hemorrhaging is a very serious complication that can happen at any time. This occurs if stitches placed inside (in procedures where the ovaries and uterus are removed) become loose or fall off. That’s why it’s important not to allow your dog to be too active in the first 2 weeks.
- Monitor your Frenchie’s bathroom habits. If a dog didn’t urinate in the first 24h after the surgery, then there’s probably a hidden complication going on in your dog’s body.
- Your dog might require a different diet. During the first days after surgery, your Frenchie should eat less and avoid food that can cause bloating and gasses. Ask your vet what food to give your little batpig to avoid abdominal pains.
- Pain medications can help your dog feel relaxed and calm. Besides, some pooches may need antibiotics to prevent infections, especially diabetic pooches who have a problem with slow wound healing.
- Bathing a French bulldog is not allowed during the recovery procedure. Stitches and staples should be removed and the wound should be fully healed and dry from blood and lymph.
- Excessive water drinking is not recommended in the first hours after surgery because your pooch had anesthesia. Drinking water and eating can lead to pulmonary aspiration and potentially block the airways. Ask your vet when is the right time to give your Frenchie food and water and in what amounts.
Why spay a French bulldog?
As we already mentioned, spaying a Frenchie will help prevent breast cancer, uterine infection, and many other illnesses related to females. Since these conditions end up fatal in almost 90%, spaying a Frenchie before her first heat will be a sort of protection.
Spay surgery will also protect your furry princess from males. She won’t go into heat that occurs every six months. Besides, she will much better behave. Female dogs can also experience PMS syndrome that can be followed by aggression toward male dogs, clingy behavior, and excessive licking of the genital area.