My walking lampshade

Strider has been having a bit of a rough week. Our dog breeder and vet had both recommended we hold off getting him neutered until he was 12-24 months old. Vets used to recommend getting a male dog fixed around 6 months of age, but some of that idea has been changing in recent years. With a slow-growing breed like a labrador, it is now recommended that you hold off getting a male fixed as long as you can so that they have a chance to really fill out - and they need the testosterone to fully mature. Both our vet and breeder said to only do this as long as Strider wasn't having any behavioural issues, and until recently, he's been perfectly fine.

Unfortunately, in the last few weeks, his hormones have kicked into overdrive a bit and he's getting a wee bit amorous with other dogs, which can cause other males to be aggressive, result in unwanted puppies, etc., so we decided to get him fixed asap. This was especially pressing as we're leaving soon on our cruise and he'll be in a kennel for 10 days, and we didn't want him to have to be kept separate from the other dogs.

So off to the vet he went - the surgery went fine, but the recovery hasn't been easy on any of us. Unfortunately, labs tend to be one of the worst breeds for fussing with incisions, etc., so he had to wear a 'cone' for a week, plus he had to be sedated for more than 5 days (at home) so he wouldn't do anything to rip the stitches or go nuts trying to reach the incision. At first, we just had him sedated for the day after the surgery, but he then kept trying to lick the incision, and as he had a big cone on his head, he ended up rubbing the edge of it against his, uhm, sensitive boy parts... so he was a bit tender.

Poor little bugger ended up on antibiotics, the five days of sedatives, a cream to sooth things, and reduced activity. He's doing amazing now and the stitches are due to come out in a few days and he'll be all healed by the time we leave on Thursday morning.

Here's a picture of the poor pathetic walking lamp shade - isn't he adorable though?