Help your dog recover from neutering

These are top tips to help your dog recover from being spayed or neutered:

• Preventing your pet licking their stitches is really important because they will introduce infections, cause swelling and may even require further surgery to repair the damage. Ways to stop them interfering are buster collars, blow-up ring collars (although these aren't always enough for long-nosed breeds) or 'medical pet shirts' which are a doggy bodysuit.
• Keeping them calm is often the bigger challenge! If you can't exercise their bodies, exercise their minds instead. Use Lickimats and snuffle mats for meals and play some chilled-out games at home to keep them occupied.
• It's also really important, particularly for the girls, that they don't jump or climb stairs as that will put the stitches in the muscle under a great deal of pressure. This can be challenging, so at the very least try to keep it to an absolute minimum, especially for the first few days.
• You'll be able to take them for walks but, particularly in the early days, keep them short and let them sniff. We call these 'sniffaris'. Dog's love to have a good snuffle. Aim for a couple of short walks a day and go to different areas in your neighbourhood, so there's always something new for them to discover.
• As the healing progresses, you will be able to go further but keep to a walking pace until they have been fully signed off by your vet.