Fix what? She ain't broken!

You want to do what?!

It's currently about 9:30 on Friday morning. Quan and I dropped Boykins off at the vet this morning. She's getting fixed! Eeee!

When we first took Boykins to the vet here, he recommended that we have her spayed around six months to prevent her from going into her first heat. Apparently, dogs who undergo this procedure before their first heat have a significantly decreased risk of breast cancer (in dogs? who knew?) and other reproductive cancers and diseases. I just didn't expect six months to be here so quickly.

To prepare her for surgery, we had to be sure to cut off food by 8:00 last night. We went out to dinner with friends last night, which meant we had to feed the girl a bit earlier than usual...And since she wasn't able to eat anything before we went to the vet this morning, she was obviously hungry after she woke up. We got a lot of suggestive trots over to the water/food bowls, with longing glances thrown at whichever one of us happened to be closest.


Maybe there's food in here...

I'd been doing a bit of research online as her appointment got closer. Since frenchies are among a group of dogs categorized as "brachycephalic," there are important things the vet has to consider when she is being knocked out. Most importantly, because her head is all squooshed up (that's what brachycephalic means; look it up in your Funk & Wagnall's), her upper-respiratory system is a bit compromised. The vet has to use a smaller-than-usual tube when intubating her, and has to be very careful about what drugs he uses.

When we arrived at the vet, Quan and I had a chance to meet the doctor who'd be doing Boykins' surgery. He was very nice, and I told him I had a couple of questions about how he planned to do the procedure. I warned him that I'd been doing some research online, which I'm sure vets love their owners to do, but that wouldn't presume to tell him how to do his work. I was just curious to know what he'd do.

He went into a lot of detail about frenchies, risks involved in putting them under general anesthetic, and certain things they are predisposed to (elongated soft palates, stenotic nares - blockages in their nasal cavities) and how these can further compromise an already compromised respiratory system. He was really nice, very understanding, and he made me feel a lot better about leaving her.

I'm still worried, of course.

The whole thing should take less than an hour once they start the operation, and they'll give me a call this afternoon to let me know how she's doing. I'm sure she'll be fine. I would guess we'll have a pretty mellow puppy on our hands once we get her home.

I wonder if she'll have to wear a lampshade around her neck to keep her from her sutures!

Oh, and we asked them to weigh her for us, since we really had no idea how much she weighs these days. She's 17 pounds! When people ask, I've been guessing 14. Whoa! I've been way off. I suppose I should have known better, since the girl is ravenous around her food, and wolfs down any cookies we give her. But 17 pounds?! She's almost fully-grown!


Why won't you feed me?!

UPDATE: 10:00. I just got a call from Dr. Parker, the vet who did Boykins' surgery. She's all done, everything went just fine, and she's already waking up a bit. She threw up a bit and they noticed food in the vomit, so I was asked if we'd fed her. No! I wonder if she had a stash in her crate that we didn't know about!

I have to call them around 1:00 to find out when it will be okay to pick her up. Thank goodness everything went okay!