Laurel got spayed!

[Alusdra]

So this poor kiddo has been egg-bound three times (and laid a few eggs without problems) in the past few months... and her first birthday is in August! This latest one was bad, she was straining and screaming. We tried oxytocin, warm soaks, some 'homeopathic' thing (I was sort of desperate) but in the end, there was nothing for it. It had to be surgery. The vet just called and said there was a huge egg in there adhesed to the oviduct and nasty goo everywhere. Ew. But she came through the surgery ok! Woo hoo!

I think I have maybe the third spayed gecko in the country. (Third because this vet has done two before).

Wish me luck on getting her infection under control and her weight back up! She's going on antibiotics and I'll keep up with the slurry feedings until she will eat the roaches again.

 

[Obsidian Tears]

Aww poor baby, good luck with the infection. I hope everything continues to go ok

 

[Ehatcher]

Good luck with her.

 

[Alusdra]

Here's a pic of Laurel's incision. Good thing her good looks are from the top. :main_laugh:

 

[Adinar]

Aww, poor girl! I would be a mess if that happened to one of our girls. Good luck with everything, and hopefully this will be the end of her problems.

 

[GeckoGal]

aww, poor thing! I hope everything turns out ok!

 

[Haligren]

Aww. Best of luck! She's lucky she has an owner like you.

 

[Crasher_Insane]

Forgive my curiosity, but will the spaying prevent her from producing more eggs?

 

[JordanAng420]

Forgive my curiosity, but will the spaying prevent her from producing more eggs?

Yep. The surgery is equivalent to a hysterectomy in a woman. The ovaries and oviducts are removed and the animal can no longer reproduce. For the record, egg retention (or 'egg binding') can be preovulatory, where ovulation doesn't occur and the mature follicles remain in the ovaries, or postovulatory (which sounds like her case) where the shelled or nonshelled stay within the oviducts.

As mentioned by the OP, there are many things that are usually tried before making the decision to go to surgery. In her case, it was the only option left... Alusdra is lucky to have a confident herp veterinarian and wonderful technicians that are able to perform this microsurgery.

I'm glad the surgery and recovery all went well so far. The incision looks great. (I love surgical glue, lol...imagine having to suture the poor thing and then having to make her sit still while they're removed later). Best of luck and warm recovery wishes!

 

[gothra]

I had a gecko spayed before too, your's incision wound look so much better than mine! Good luck, I hope your girl will fully recover soon!

p.s. mine was pre-ovulatory, her follicles prevented her from eating, causing her to threw up everything including shed skin and slurry.

 

[catvettech]

So this poor kiddo has been egg-bound three times (and laid a few eggs without problems) in the past few months... and her first birthday is in August! This latest one was bad, she was straining and screaming. We tried oxytocin, warm soaks, some 'homeopathic' thing (I was sort of desperate) but in the end, there was nothing for it. It had to be surgery. The vet just called and said there was a huge egg in there adhesed to the oviduct and nasty goo everywhere. Ew. But she came through the surgery ok! Woo hoo!

I think I have maybe the third spayed gecko in the country. (Third because this vet has done two before).

Wish me luck on getting her infection under control and her weight back up! She's going on antibiotics and I'll keep up with the slurry feedings until she will eat the roaches again.

Amazing - a leopard gecko spay! I would have liked to been in that sx room assisting.

 

[Saphira]

wow..... That is incredible! Yeah..that you could have it done for her....

I would have liked to be in the room too...

 

[stellascura420]

Wow, poor little girl! But what a very good vet for pulling it off with no problems!

 

[Alusdra]

I am super lucky to have a vet who was confident enough to do the surgery and have it be so successful. She is really skinny so I was worried she wasn't going to make it, but apparently her fat pad is still quite substantial so she should be fine.

We were going to spay her anyway, since it kept happening, when this incident forced our hands. It's technically an ovarihysterectomy (ovari= ovaries, hyster= uterus, ectomy= take out surgically). And besides that, she is one messed up gecko from other unrelated genetic issues, so she was never a candidate for breeding (prime example is you can see her deformed tail in the pic of her incision).

I would have LOVED to be in the room for the surgery, too. I was booking it at work to try to leave early, but of course it had to be the day when something broke down, the deliveries were late and in general all hell broke loose. :main_no:

 

[russe306]

Izzie got spayed also

My super snow blizzard had to be spayed to save her life also. A week ago she was struggling to lay huge eggs that were no good. She was two weeks over due and was loosing weight. She did give me some great babies though. She had no problem laying until her 13 and 14 egg of her first season. I understand how scary it can be. She is still not out of the woods.

 

[animeavatar]

I never knew geckos could be spayed!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I have had this surgery performed on 3 of my geckos over the years, and I want to give you a big heads up. Every one of mine had complications when they went through their first shed where they pull out their stitches thinking it's skin. Two eviscerated themselves and died, the other wound up with a pretty bad hernia and required a second surgery to repair. I also know of two other people who had this surgery performed on their females, and the same thing happened. Very tragic.

Watch her very carefully for signs she is getting ready to shed and if possible remove the shed manually, being careful around the incision. You can take some small cuticle scissors and cut the dead skin around the incision leaving only a minimal bit near the sutures. The incision will be glued with surgical adhesive, but it does take more than 4 weeks for the skin to start growing back together.

Best of luck for a full recovery!

 

[russe306]

I know. My female is stable now. She is almost 100 percent healed but now that you mention it she does look like she might have a hernia. Either that or a lot of swelling still.
She is eating good, going the bathroom and has gone through a few sheds. She did rip out her stitches and i had to get her stitched back up. Now she has gained more weight and is doing good.

I hope she can enjoy her long retirement. She is with me to the end.