I would go with what your vet recommends.

Tala had a keyhole ovariectomy and it went very smoothly. She was out and about running around the very next day.

Keyhole surgery is used all the time for humans so why would it not be appropriate for dogs? The bigger the wound the more risk of infection etc.

to be honest I like to try and keep my dogs "quite sedate2 for a couple of days as there are ligatures on blood vessels that may slip.Ive seen it happen and believe me you could be in a life or death situation( not trying to frighten any one) and all because someone treat their standard poodle as normal allowed it to run up and down stairs and zoom around from the word go,after all it is abdominal surgey and care must be taken. By the way the dog was fine, but it did entail
further surgey at 1am to find a bleeding blood vessel.

Tupacs took the words straight out of my mouth I was also going to say from the amount of bitch spays I've seen and assisted in I would always opt for the open procedure as opposed to keyhole. Experienced vets will only tend to leave around a 2 - 3 inch wound on a large bitch. Less experienced vets will generally operate through a larger hole.

Yes the post op recovery may be quicker, but with adequate pain relief pre and post op, she should feel ok regardless

isnt it funny that all of us who work/have worked in vets would not want "key hole" perhaps we know too much!!!

They do say knowledge is dangerous and ignorance is bliss

..and now we have moved I am planning on having my youngest bitch done at the local vets and they are very very nice, and they know what my job was and I have over twenty years worth of watching and assisting in bitch spays to know every minor detail..my panic button has already been pressed yes i totally agree knowledge is dangerous

I can only relate it to humans and gall bladders at one time took an hour or more on the op table and at least a week in hospital with a long recovery at home before returning to work , keyhole surgery really helped with recovery and patients were back at work in a couple of weeks,

I suppose the considerations for a dog would be , is the vet an expert in keyhole surgery , does the breed or maybe an underlying medical conditons warrant as short an anaesthetic as possible , is keyhole surgery going to give the least risk and best outcome for the dog if so , Go for it !

no matter what type it was she shouldnt of been!

my chikka wanted to.. no chance!

This was as instructed by the vet who operated. I expect he knew what aftercare to recommend as he was extremely experienced in this procedure.