We took our dog Bonnie to the local vet today to have the spaying procedure done. It is the same vet that we've taken another dog and a cat to and everything went as expected before. Not so in today's attempt.

After we dropped Bonnie off for the surgery, we headed out to do some shopping and returned an hour later expecting her to be stitched up and ready to take home. When we got there, the vet informed us that he could not complete the procedure, even though he had opened her up and attempted it. The vet said there was too much fat and he could not reach the vital bits to do the task.

Bonnie is a little over 20 kilos / 45 pounds and from the looks of her, she could stand to be a few kilos lighter, but she does not look extremely obese. This is the same dog I recently posted about that has a 'junk' food habit that we are working on curbing.

This vet has been in the business for a few decades and said he had only come across one other case where he could not complete the procedure. At first he told us he was able to do enough to keep her from becoming pregnant, but that she would still have periods. Then after he stitched her up, the story changed to not being sure that she can't become pregnant. He only charged us for the drugs and not the labor. His suggestion, if we wanted to pursue the spaying further, is to contact a veterinary hospital such as Kasitsart to see if they can complete it.

We took Bonnie home in her drugged state and now 8 hours later she is still sleeping it off. It may take a few days before she's back to a normal level of activity. She has not lost any of her appetite though, as she's been eager to eat even though she's still in a stupor.

We'll have to make a decision at some point on how we want proceed. I'm not keen on her having to go through another surgery procedure soon. One alternative, at least temporarily, would be to give her more periodic injections to keep her from going into heat.

We'll keep working on her food intake to try and curb the 'junk' food habit and not over feed her at home to try to get her weight down to a healthier level.

Here's a photo of Bonnie wrestling with the muzzle on the first day I put it on her before the daily walk. The reason for the muzzle is to try to keep her from scavenging for food while out and about: