I rarely have time to watch T.V. during the day, but on a recent visit to my parents, I caught a little of the Price is Right. At the end of each show, I remember Bob Barker reminding people to have their pets spayed or neutered. This gave me inspiration for this month’s article, the benefits of spaying and neutering your pets, going beyond the obvious benefits of decreasing the number of unwanted pets.
Sterilization surgery for males is neutering or castration. There are many benefits to neutering a dog. The primary health benefits include a decreased risk of prostatic enlargement and infections. Behaviorally, after neutering, there is a decrease in urine marking, aggression, and roaming. When I practiced emergency medicine, most dogs I saw that were hit by a car were male dogs that weren’t neutered. The urge to find a girlfriend is very strong and male dogs can smell a female in heat from long distances.
The main medical advantage to neutering a cat is a decrease in fighting, so less abscesses and less spread of diseases such as Feline Leukemia and Feline Immunodeficiency virus. Behavioral benefits are similar to dogs, the male cat is less likely to roam and there is a decrease in aggression after neutering. I have found it is much easier to convince clients to have their male cat neutered, especially if the owners have been woken up in the middle of the night to the sounds of cats fighting, or found urine marking in their home.
Female pets are spayed or have an ovariohysterectomy. This has the obvious advantage of no longer being able to have puppies or kittens. The biggest medical advantage to spaying is decreasing the risk of mammary cancer (breast cancer.) If a female pet is spayed before her first heat cycle there is no chance of mammary cancer later in life, the more heat cycles a pet has increases the risk of mammary cancer. Mammary cancer is a very aggressive disease in dogs and cats, and carries a poor prognosis, so prevention is certainly the best approach.
Another medical concern is pyometra, an infection of the uterus that, if left untreated, is life threatening. Basically the uterus fills up with pus, usually after the pet has a heat cycle. She doesn’t have to be exposed to a male dog to get pyometra. In fact, most cases I have seen weren’t around males at all. The treatment for pyometra is an emergency spay, which involves much more risk than a routine spay on a healthy animal. All female dogs and cats that are not intended for breeding should be spayed to prevent this life threatening disease.
Female dogs also have a bloody discharge during each heat cycle every 6-8 months. This goes away after surgery. Female cats do not have discharge but when in heat are very vocal and have strange behavior, such as rolling on the ground, rubbing on the furniture and elevating her hind end. Every veterinarian has a story of a frantic call from a client thinking their female cat is dying, when actually she is just in heat and showing the typical behavior.
The typical recommendation for age of surgery is 6 months, although there are cases where we may recommend performing surgery at an earlier age or we may want to wait until the pet is older. As long as the pet is stable for anesthesia, it is never too late to spay or neuter. A common misconception is that spaying and neutering will make a pet fat and lazy. The change in a pet’s metabolism is more likely due to becoming mature and a decrease need for calories, then a change in its reproductive status causing weight gain, but because they are roaming less and less worried about finding a date, there may be a decrease in activity. It is always best to monitor a pet’s weight and feed accordingly as they mature and related to their activity level.
All in all, spaying and neutering has many advantages, including decreasing the overall pet population, long term health benefits and a decrease in behavioral problems. I hope this answers some questions for those of you that may have been on the fence with a decision to spay or neuter your pet. I didn’t address the question of anesthesia; I don’t have the space in this article. However, you can find my previous article on anesthesia on my website, www.wildernessvet.com. Look under the “hot topics” button for copies of my previous articles.
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. In addition I am scheduled to be at a booth at the Maple Valley Farmer’s Market on October 3rd.
