Spay procedure on the 19th... Need advice

I'm having my 16 week old pembroke corgi spayed on the 19th of this month, and I had a long talk with a vet friend of mine about the procedure and now I'm a little paranoid. She told me that her office does the following for every single spay surgery:

physical exam before the surgery

blood panel work up

iv fluids during procedure

continuous pulse ox and blood pressure monitoring during procedure

pain meds for after, and to take home

She told me all the reasons why they do each of those things and of couse it's all about preventing the worst case scenario. So I called my puppy's vet and asked what they do for the procedure, and the only difference is that for healthy, young dogs the blood panel and iv are optional and you have to pay extra. I'm seriously considering opting in on the iv fluids at least. Am I being to paranoid? Should I trust the vet and just opt out of both? Any opinions?

Heather

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Comment by Beth on January 9, 2011 at 9:04am: I pulled Maddie's spay record and it makes no mention of an IV drip, so I don't know if one was used or not. I would not do any surgery without a blood panel. I have a work colleague whose healthy pup had liver issues that they were unaware of. They put off his neuter for 6 months til his liver panels stabilized. Since liver and kidney function impact how the anesthesia clears from the body, an unknown problem there could cause a major issue. Plus, the blood panel was $9; it seemed pointless to me to skip it. My vet lets you skip it but you need to sign a waiver to opt out, stating you know the risks.

Is there a medical reason why they are spaying at 4 months? It seems about 2 months too young. I know that rescues spay early and my cat was done that young, but my vet won't do earlier than 6 months if there is not a problem.

Comment by Ray Cronin on January 9, 2011 at 7:10am: It is major surgery, but the chances of problems are fairly remote. I'd do the blood panel and skip the iv; For Torri, we skipped both. She needed pain meds only the first night and was pretty nearly her normal self within 36 hours. We abandoned the lampshade collar after about three days; she never tried to get at her incision.