Why Your Female Dog or Cat NEEDS To Be Spayed

Bob Barker. Who out there remembers the many wonderful years he hosted The Price Is Right? I watched it daily as a child, dreamed of being on the show one day, and will always remember how he ended every show with reminding everyone to spay and neuter their pets.

What an important subject. One of the most important topics in Veterinary medicine in my opinion! This post will solely be about Spaying your Female dog or cat. Click on the link to read my corresponding post on Neutering your Male dog or cat.

Let’s cover a number of topics in this post……the important reasons why spaying your dog or cat is essential, the timing of when to do it, the recovery time afterward, and changes in your dog or cat’s diet after the procedure.

Okay, why should you have your pet spayed (removal of the ovaries and uterus)? I could talk ALL day about the benefits of this procedure, but let’s just highlight a few of them. First, there are way too many homeless animals in animal shelters.

Due to careless breeding, and therefore overpopulation, animal shelters are often overflowing with dogs and cats, leading to the gut-wrenching decision to euthanize homeless animals WEEKLY because space is limited in these facilities. These poor animals sit in metal cages, hoping and hoping every day that the human that walks by their cage will pick them and take them home. Do your part to fight overpopulation and just spay your dog or cat!

Next, the health benefits to your pet. Two of the biggest diseases we can prevent by spaying your dog or cat is breast cancer and pyometra. Female dogs and cats get breast cancer just like us.

But, if you could prevent it with almost 100% certainty, wouldn’t you do it! The choice is EASY! If you spay your dog or cat BEFORE their first heat cycle (which may happen between 7-10 months of age), the chance of future breast cancer is almost 0%. But even waiting to spay until after the first heat cycle, the chance of future breast cancer can go up by up to 20%, and then increases with every heat cycle they go through after that. Scary stuff! So, don’t delay, SPAY! Breast cancer in dogs is usually 50% benign and 50% malignant, but in cats it is typically only 20% benign and 80% malignant. Surgery to remove the affected mammary tissue is expensive, and at times may not be enough due to metastasis (spread) of the cancer, leading to early euthanasia.

Pyometra is a completely preventable uterine infection. The risks for pyometra greatly increase with age in the intact (not spayed) female dog or cat. Pyometra occurs when the uterus becomes infected secondarily due to elevated hormones in the dog or cat’s body. This usually occurs 1-2 weeks after a heat cycle in the older female pet. The horns of the healthy uterus in the dog are typically no wider than your pinky finger.

But, when Pyometra occurs, these horns can stretch to more than 4 inches DIAMETER, filled with pus, and ready to BURST. Take a look at this HUGE uterus in the x-ray on the left!  This is a medical emergency and requires immediate surgery. Oftentimes people would say that they couldn’t afford to have their dog spayed, and I unfortunately have to tell them that this surgical procedure will now cost 5-10x what the spay would have cost when the dog/cat was young.

Okay, now that you are convinced of the AMAZING reasons to have your female dog or cat spayed, let’s talk about timing. The best time to do this procedure is when your pet is 5 ½ to 6 months old. Yes, many animal shelters will have this procedure done by 8 weeks of age, prior to adoption, and that is not wrong. But, in a perfect world, it’s best to do it around 5 ½ to 6 months.

This is so your pet is a bit larger, has matured somewhat, and can tolerate the anesthesia more safely. Again, the first heat cycle may start between 7 to 10 months, and you want this procedure done before that. My one exception to this is if you have a small breed dog. If that is the case, I try to schedule them between 6 ½ to 7 months, purely to check their teeth at the same time as the spay procedure. Why? Many small dogs have trouble losing their baby canine teeth. These teeth typically fall out at 6 to 6 ½ months in smaller breed dogs (earlier in larger breed dogs), and if they are stuck in the mouth behind the adult teeth that have already erupted, I can pull them while the dog is under anesthesia, thus saving them from needing another anesthetic procedure. Crowded teeth lead to tartar build up, crowding, and an unhealthy mouth. Spaying these smaller dogs in this timeframe still gets them spayed prior to 7 months of age.  Click here to see my post on baby teeth.

Next, you’ve given your pet the wonderful gift of being spayed. THANK YOU! How about that recovery time? This is major surgery. Did you know that it is one of the most challenging surgeries we Veterinarians do? I’ve done thousands of them, and not a single one is the same as the previous one.

Your pet may have an incision that is between 1 inch and 6 inches down the center of their belly. This incision needs time to heal properly before you allow your pet to do those hot laps outside again. The typical healing time is 14 days. Did you know that there is really NO strength across the incision line in the first 7 days? The body is cleaning up the incision line in preparation for healing in the first week. The bulk of the strength across the incision is returned in the second week. So, give your dog a full two week break before exercising again. I love to hear that my patients were “back to normal in no time,” but cringe when the owner shows me pictures of them sliding down snow banks on their belly just two days after surgery! Cats are a bit tougher to control as they love to jump, but please do try to limit them for the first couple weeks.

Finally, a note about feeding after the procedure. It’s okay to follow the recommendations on the pet food bag for the first couple months of your pet’s life. They are growing rapidly and need those increasing caloric amounts in their diet for this growth.

But, after they are spayed, and the bulk of their growth ceases around 10 months, their metabolism drops by about 30%. If we continue to feed them the same amount, they will get heavy very quickly. Click here to read my post on why an Overweight Pet is an Expensive Pet. I try to remind all of my pet parents that after a spay or neuter procedure, they need to reduce the food by approximately 30%. The pet food bags will not tell you this!  Cats are easier. The average cat only needs 1/4 Cup of food twice daily as an adult to maintain a good weight.

A quick note about breeding (though this is a HUGE subject).  If you decide against spaying your female dog in the hopes of breeding instead.......this should only be done after you have done all of the research you can possibly do about your breed of dog.  You need to research common diseases for the breed, possible orthopedic problems, consider your dog's personality, whether or not they have an allergic condition, etc.  Dogs should only be bred to BETTER the breed, not just because puppies are cute.  Do the appropriate heart, eye, orthopedic, and thyroid testing prior to picking a mate for your dog, and make sure they have done the appropriate testing as well.  If you are going to be a breeder, be a breeder of EXCELLENCE.

Call today to make an appointment to have your new pet spayed. The health benefits are countless and they will be forever grateful!