Can you walk a dog after Desexing? Get Your Pet Thinking

Dog walking after neutering and spaying: recommended timeline

Even minor surgeries such as neutering and spaying are invasive to pets, and it’s important they be given time to heal and rest once they’re home. This will mean putting some restrictions on their physical activity after surgery.

In most cases, you should let your dog rest for 24 to 48 hours after the procedure. Your vet will stress not allowing your dog to run around or jump up on couches or other furniture during this initial recovery stage.

Risks of Walking Your Dog Too Early

Neutered male dogs live 18% longer than uncastrated ones. Part of that benefit is knowing how to care for your pet to avoid post-surgery complications. For this reason, it’s crucial that we understand the risks associated with walking neutered dogs right away.

If your neutered dog strains itself from walking, it may suffer from increased swelling, which would delay the recovery process. Consequently, we risk opening the wound, resulting in your pet getting replacement stitches.

Just like female dogs and spaying, male dogs are at high risk of infection after the neutering surgery, which means insisting on going outside exposes the body to plenty of bacteria. Similar to female dogs, your dog may experience fatigue easily, causing its muscles to break down. All of these can increase body pain, preventing your dog from recovering properly.

Recommended Timeline for Dog Walking After Neutering

Dogs that recover immediately can do light walks indoors within the first week. Even so, there’s still a chance for pets to cause self-inflicted trauma to the surgical site by licking or scratching the sutures. Sometimes, even low-impact movements may cause stitches to open.

This timeline shows how we can slowly walk our dogs within the first weeks after the neutering surgery. It offers a better understanding of what the dog is going through so that we can take good care of our pets until they regain strength for routine walks.

First 24 Hours: The dog will be most uncomfortable during the first day after the surgery. It may feel drowsy due to the anesthesia and stitches, so it would be unwise to force the dog to take walks at this stage. Besides, the dog won’t have the energy to move, as it most likely would want to rest.

Two Days After: I generally recommend that dogs take complete rest up to 48 hours after the surgery. While some dogs may regain strength at this point, there’s still a risk of infection due to the fresh stretches. If your pet exerts too much effort in walking, you also risk the chance of the incision to open and cause bleeding.

Day 3: I usually schedule a post-surgery checkup 3 days after neutering. While the incision may be healing nicely at this stage, we still have to monitor your pet’s health and stitches. Depending on your dog’s energy, we may try reintroducing short walks inside your home.

Day 10: During the 10-day period, make sure to avoid leaving your dogs alone and put them on light exercises in a controlled area. You can also start walking for short distances, although you have to be careful about over-exertion. Depending on your neutered dog’s recovery, we can give the all-clear to continue routine walks.

How soon can I walk my dog after neutering?

The recovery time for a dog after being desexed is dependent on whether they are a male or a female. The desexing operation for a female dog is more involved and recovery time will be longer.

It is important for both genders to limit activity such as walking, running, playing and jumping after being desexed to avoid injury or tearing their stitches. Light exercise can actually help with the healing process.