Spaying your female pet: Why it is so important to consider
Spaying your female dog before one year of age will reduce their chance of getting mammary (breast) tumours by over 90%. Uterine cancer is also prevented successfully by sterilization at an early stage.
Sterilisastion surgery is a very common procedure. There should be nothing to fear if your pets are in optimal health.
Your vet will advise you to present the patient on an empty stomach (no food 6 hours prior to surgery) on the day of your appointment.
Generally your pet will be discharged on the same day, after they have fully recovered from the anaesthetic. After the surgery your take-home instructions will be to keep the patient indoors for a few days.
* There should be a slow return to normal routine (feed small amounts at first)
* Keep the wound clean and dry, and inspect the wound site daily for swelling, bleeding or discharge.
* Do not allow your pet to lick/scratch at her stiches, and do not allow your pet to swim or get the wound wet until the stitches are removed (10-14 days after surgery).
Preventing pregnancy or rather unwanted puppies and kittens is perhaps one of the more obvious reasons to spay your pets.
Population control ties into disease control by limiting the exposure of privately owned pets to stray dogs and cats, and therefore limits their exposure to contagious diseases.
Sterilization removes all reproductive hormone production in the female body and therefore alters the course of any disease or condition related to the effect of oestrogen in the body. This affects the behaviour of your female pets that allows them to be much happier pets in an enclosed environment. It reduces aggression toward other dogs and cats, or even humans.
It reduces the willing wondering of female pets as they actively search for males during their heat cycles.
These heat cycles, that occurs several times a year, will be eliminated and the inconvenience of cleaning blood-stained carpets or tiles will be over.
There are more serious medical conditions that are also affected by the action of oestrogen in the female body.
Spaying your female dog before one year of age will reduce their chance of getting mammary (breast) tumours by over 90%. Uterine cancer is also prevented successfully by sterilization at an early stage.
Most veterinarians will advise you to spay your pets before their first heat cycle. This would be at an age of 6 months for most pets.
Uterine infections (pyometra) is another life threatening condition that un-spayed female pets contract. Spaying your pets early in life reduces their chance of uterine infection by 100%.
Most of the benefits that are applicable to female pets would also be true in male dog and cat sterilislzations/neutering.
(Information compiled and supplied by Parys Dierehospitaal)
