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Dog Spay Neuter Cat Spay Neuter by Dr. Maria Overmeyer
Hi, I am Dr. Maria Overmeyer of Shorewood Animal Hospital in Shorewood, Illinois. I am here today to speak about spaying and neutering your pets. Spaying and neutering your pet has considerable benefits that far outweigh not spaying or neutering your pet.
Dog Spay Neuter Cat Spay Neuter – Female Benefits
For example, for female pets, getting them spayed will prevent unwanted pregnancies and help alleviate the problem of pet overpopulation. It will prevent the dogs from developing a pyometra which is an infection of the uterus as she gets older. Obviously, since the ovaries are removed we do not have problems with ovarian cysts or irregular cycles as the dog ages since dogs do not tend to go through menopause like women do. For the female cats, in addition to the benefits of preventing unwanted pregnancies, pyometras and ovarian cysts, there is the behavioral benefit. Since cats will go through heat cycles every 21 days all throughout the summer you don’t have a cat that goes away trying to find a mate every 3 weeks all summer long.
Dog Spay Neuter Cat Spay Neuter – Male Benefits
For the males, the benefits are partly behavioral. Male dogs and cats that are un-neutered tend to be a little less dominant. Neutering does not change their main personality. It just changes their tendency to be dominant towards other animals and aggressive for the male dogs. In male cats, neutering will also prevent spraying for the most part. Spraying is a marking behavior that intact male cats do to mark their territory and to let female cats know that they are around. Neutering cats before their sexual maturity at around 6 months old will almost eliminate all problems associated with spraying. In females as they get older, spaying eliminates irregular cycles and prevents unwanted pregnancies especially when dogs are older.
Dog Spay Neuter Cat Spay Neuter – Best Age
For the cats, we’d like to spay or neuter them anytime after 3 months of age. For the dogs, we like to spay the females anytime after 3 months of age. If they are a toy breed, which means they are 5 pounds or less at maturity, we like to wait until they are a little bigger when they are at least 6 months old. For the male dogs, neutering them anytime after 3 months of age is appropriate. There are two schools of thought on this matter. Some people like their male dogs to reach sexual maturity so they become more muscular and more “boy-looking” like some people say. That is OK. Just keep in mind that some behaviors like marking and some aggressive tendencies cannot be eliminated once they start showing. For the females, when we spay them we do remove the uterus and both ovaries. The recovery is a little bit longer than the males because they have an abdominal incision. As for male dogs and cats, since the testicles are in the outside of the body the recovery period is very quick and they tend to do very well after the procedure.
Dog Spay Neuter Cat Spay Neuter – Exceptions
Occasionally, a dog or a cat will retain a testicle inside the abdomen or just underneath the skin. These animals do need to be neutered no matter what because the retained testicle can become a tumor later down the road. These testicular tumors from retained testicles can cause problems. Basically, they secrete estrogen so that a male dog can look like a female dog. They can induce development of the mammary glands, even lactation in some animals and they are cancerous and could spread to other organs. These are the benefits of spaying and neutering.
Register at www.ShorewoodVet.com for Dog Spay Neuter Cat Spay Neuter
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Youtube Title: Spay and Neuter by Veterinarian in Shorewood IL 60404
Spay Neuter (part of responsible pet ownership) may have many benefits including lower veterinary health care costs and reduced pet cancer risks..
