I was posting yesterday about Bonnie being spayed. She's doing really well today, after a bit of a dazed evening! She's had a wee, eaten a little, had a drink and is pottering around---she even had a bit of a waggy tail this morning !
What I'm confused about is that on the care sheet I was given when I picked her up from the vet's it says that she had her ovaries removed---now I thought spaying meant removing the uterus as well??
This presumably means that she is still at risk of uterine cancer (though I believe this is rare)
Is it normal practice just to remove the ovaries?

A spay should be an ovariohysterectomy.  Both ovaries and uterus being removed.  I cannot see why they would remove just the ovaries, though of course without the ovaries there would b e no hormonal action on the uterus which is what predisposes to uterine infections (Pyometra).

Query it but I expect they have just not put the full details on your receipt.

Hi Barbara. Just spoke to the receptionist and she said the vet just removes the ovaries. Apparently the royal college of vets feel this is preferable as it's less invasive. The vet is going to give me a ring later to discuss it. I'll let you know what he says.

Surely they should have informed you if they were only removing the ovaries BEFORE the op?

That is a totally new one on me.  I had thought perhaps with the uterus in place it would prevent urinary incontinence by supporting the bladder, but then remembered the canine womb is like two pieces of string and not a fist sized organ as in humans, and that it is the lack of hormones (produced but the ovaries) that is the cause of spay incontinence.

I only had one of mine spayed less than a year ago and it was definately a full ovario-hysterctomy.  If it si just Ovaries it cannot really be called a spay operation.

Found this: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1532-950X.2006.00124.x?journalCode=vsu  To view the whole article you ahve to subscribe but there is an extract.

Abstract
Objective--To determine if ovariectomy (OVE) is a safe alternative to ovariohysterectomy (OVH) for canine gonadectomy.

Study Design--Literature review.

Methods--An on-line bibliographic search in MEDLINE and PubMed was performed in December 2004, covering the period 1969-2004. Relevant studies were compared and evaluated with regard to study design, surgical technique, and both short-term and long-term follow-up.

Conclusions--OVH is technically more complicated, time consuming, and is probably associated with greater morbidity (larger incision, more intraoperative trauma, increased discomfort) compared with OVE. No significant differences between techniques were observed for incidence of long-term urogenital problems, including endometritis/pyometra and urinary incontinence, making OVE the preferred method of gonadectomy in the healthy bitch.

Clinical Relevance--Canine OVE can replace OVH as the procedure of choice for routine neutering of healthy female dogs.

I think it is because it is a less invasive procedure as it is done by keyhole surgery.

My question would be why they never did it this way before if ti is as effective, and I would hope that people are told that their bitches still have their uterus just in case of a problem there in future.

Those like JG working at a Vets could you find out what the current thinking is?

I thinking keyhole surgery is quite a new thing in the UK rather than 15 years for human keyhole surgery and so many vets are not necessarily trained in this area.

If I remember my vets have recently got into keyhole surgery.

Thanks Barbara. The summary of that paper is very reassuring. The surgery was not 'keyhole' but she has a small incision (very neat) about 2" long, with a dissolving subcuticular suture.
I must say that I have every faith in the vet and have never heard a bad thing said about him (unlike one of the other vets locally)
He seems very up to date with current research  and truly loves his animals--- when I take Bonnie in he gets down on the floor with her and lets her have a good sniff around his face and gives her those expensive liver treats. He is also very supportive of my fears and questions about over-vaccination (having lost my last GR to AIHA at a young age)
I wait to hear from him when he's finished his morning clinic!
BTW Bonnie is certainly recovering very quickly and I have to put her on a lead in the garden because last night she ran down the garden and leapt down 3 steps after a fox !!!!

This has got me thinking, as my bitch was spayed last week and the incision is so small, only about 1 inch, maybe she has only had the ovaries removed not the uterus! The vet did not say and I just assumed it was both, but maybe with such a small incision the uterus could not have been removed, will have to check when she has her stitches out tomorrow!

Ok-the vet just rang. He said he's been doing it this way for about 2 years and it's been done this way on the continent for many years. He decided on oophorectomy only because of research done in the vet colleges and of the 7 main professors teaching this subject 4 advocate oophorectomy alone and 3 say ooph/hysterectomy. He said he doesn't normally discuss it beforehand as it's a hard enough decision for most people to have their dog spayed without then burdening them with the choice of technique. He also said that the recovery time is much quicker and it's a much safer operation. The uterus, without the effect of hormones just shrinks down and doesn't cause any problems.
I'm sure i've opened up a whole can of worms now and everyone will want to know what op their girl had !

>Those like JG working at a Vets could you find out what the current thinking is?

I'll ask this afternoon if there's time - but I'm 99.9% certain our vets take out the whole lot because of the pyo risk - even after a 'full' spaying there's still the occasional case of stump pyo.

I am in Italy and our vet also removes just the ovaries.She says the uterus atrophies in time after the op,removing the risk of pyometriosis. She said in a younger, healthy dog the uterus is usually  left,but in older fmales who likely have more fibroids etc,they will also remove the uterus .

This is very interesting. I have booked Bodhi to be spayed next month and now I will be asking my vet which method he will be doing.  I always assumed that the vet takes both the uterus and ovaries out.

Our dobe bitch had his done last year and at the time I did post about it being a choice for us and asked if it had been heard of before? Although unheard of on Champdogs it has been a great success IMO. Dobe bitches, I'm told, are prone to spay incontinance and I voiced my concerns about this to my vet, who said she would check the uterus first, and if it was nice and healthy, she would leave it and only remove the ovaries. I was overjoyed when this was done as there is a scar, but no incontinance at all.