# Experiences with laser neutering?



## Sitz&Platz (Oct 20, 2012)

I'm a bit of a nervous wreck, since Dexter is being neutered right now.  We opted for the laser neuter, and I've been reading conflicting things. Some people say the recovery takes longer than the traditional scalpel method. I've only been able to find information on laser spays, so I'm interested in any laser neutering experiences. How long did it take for your dog to recover and for the incision to heal? 

Btw, I wanted to wait longer - he's 7 months, but he's been trying to procreate with my unspayed Maltese quite frequently during the past week.  I definitely did not expect him to start experimenting with her, he's not even lifting his leg yet. Geez, I felt like a mom who found dirty magazines under her teenager's bed!


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## POWERSCOL (Jan 3, 2013)

I hope things go well. I also know about the dirty mags under the bed from experience with one of :crazy: my kids at way to young of age.

Its amazing how we can relate life experiences with family back to our dogs as they grow up.


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## Sitz&Platz (Oct 20, 2012)

Thank you, Dexter is doing great, the incision is tiny and looking great so far. Now, I can move on to the question of how to keep him entertained, as he's back to normal. Back to normal for Dexter means: Play, play, play, nap - no, I'll play instead.


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## Draugr (Jul 8, 2011)

Laser is definitely the way to go. They can make a smaller incision with less traumatic injury.

The only downsides is that it tends to leave more of a visible scar than traditional surgery (not a big deal to dogs, and either way it's especially unnoticeable on males), and the _healing_ process (as opposed to the recovery process) can take a bit longer to fully complete since the laser is burning/cauterizing flesh, instead of just cutting it (from what I understand of it). I don't think the time difference is very significant though.

Laser all the way!


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## Discoetheque (Nov 2, 2011)

My fiance had his female laser-spayed. He was pleased with how it went.
As Draugr said: the incision was much smaller, and healing did take a little bit longer (I think she took about the whole two weeks to heal fully, if not a little bit more), so definitely take care to make sure that for those first few days, they aren't licking or fussing at the area (I think that was part of her problem. Her muzzle was long enough to get around the e-collar and she got at the incision site really early on).


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## ugavet2012 (Apr 15, 2010)

How in the world are your people's vets neutering these dogs that they leave such huge incisions??? For a very large adult dog I still only need to make maybe a 1.5-2 inch incision if that. A laser neuter would not be much different at all from a regular neuter, the incision site should be the same size, you still have to make it just big enough to squeeze the testicles out. For many medium sized puppies who only have peanut testicles, my incision site is maybe 1/3-1/2 inch??? The only difference is using a laser instead of a blade. The price difference is not worth it to me since a neuter isn't all that painful anyway. The vast majority of dogs are trying to run around like hellions the next day like nothing ever happened. When I neutered my own 1.5 yr Malinois, only due to aggression to a new dog in the house that I was desperate to do anything to decrease at all (which did not work ), he was trying to run around after toys like normal the same night. I had to sedate him for the whole healing period, and no, he is not high energy/hyper like people think of the breed as, he's got a great off switch and is more medium energy.


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## Sitz&Platz (Oct 20, 2012)

Dexter wasn't even sent home with a collar, the vet said he didn't need one. I remember that my traditionally neutered Lab didn't get a cone or e-collar either, and that was over 10 years ago. Not sure how the vet determines that. 

He hasn't been licking the incision, he really doesn't seem bothered by it at all. Knock on wood.


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