Neutering and spaying is about more than reproduction – it is vital for a pet’s health. Esther van Luipen explains why.
Ask the vet
Ester Van Liuipen
I can’t stress enough how important it is to spay your cat or dog. If you don’t want any unwanted kittens or puppies, it is the only way to go.
You can spay your pet from about six months of age. However, unwanted pups or kittens are not the only reason why it is important to spay early. A lot of people think that animals, like us humans, stop cycling when they reach a certain age. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
A cat or dog can have a litter until the very end of their lives. This is what often kills older cats – reproducing just becomes too much for them.
Mammary cancer
In dogs, there are two very important reasons to spay young. First, the earlier you spay the bitch the smaller the chance is that they develop mammary cancer later in life. When you spay your bitch before the first heat, the chance of getting mammary cancer is only about 11 per cent. If you wait until after her first heat, the chances increase to 20 per cent, and this percentage increases with every heat.
About 90 per cent of the cases of mammary cancer that I find female dogs is in unspayed bitches. Sometimes I find it in female dogs that have spayed, but these animals were spayed later in life.
Pyometra
Another disease you can prevent by spaying a bitch at an early age is a condition called pyometra. This is the medical word for a womb full of puss – a condition that is as awful as it sounds. Every time a female dog goes into heat, the lining of her womb thickens – the idea is that it gets soft and comfortable for the fertilised egg to nestle in.
Unfortunately, this is not the only thing that finds the womb soft and comfortable. Bacteria also love this environment. That is why a few weeks after her heat, the womb can swell and fill up with puss. The dog goes off her food and starts to drink and pee excessively, and the condition is potentially very serious.
A few weeks ago I had a little terrier of 13 years old in with this condition. I had to operate on her immediately. Because of her age, and because she was so sick, the operation was very hard on her. However, she pulled through and now has a new lease of life. Well done Jessie!
Esther van Luipen is a veterinary surgeon in Claremorris Small Animal Practice. Feel free to contact her with any of your small-animal concerns on 094 9373955 or at living@mayonews.ie.
