Having Your Bitch Spayed

Nowadays having your bitch spayed (removal of overies and uterus) is a safe and reliable way of controlling a bitch's fertility. The advantages of this operation are:

• Elimination of unwanted pregnancies.
• Elimination of ovarian disease, and if performed before 1 year old; reduced risk of breast cancer.
• Elimination of uterine disease (the commonest reason for major surgery in elderly dogs).
• Elimination of false pregnancies (a very common precursor to uterine disease).
• Elimination of messy seasons and the undesirable attentions of stray dogs.

A 2nd means of controlling fertility involves giving hormones by injection or by mouth at regular intervals throughout the bitch's life in order to prevent seasons or reduce the duration of the season. In our opinion these alternatives are in the long term expensive, relatively unreliable means of control with the ever present risk of undesirable side effects. As such they are not recommended by the practice for routine or long term fertility control.

A 3rd alternative is to keep your bitch tightly under control when she is in season (especially from the 9th to the 15th day of her season when even highly trained dogs may run off!) This may be a real alternative if your bitch has light seasons and no other dogs stay nearby. Beware, however of assuming that this will be the case – most mis-matings are presented to the practice with a story of a dog appearing from nowhere.

Remember: Bitches come into season all their life, they have no menopause!

So before making the decision to allow your bitch to remain intact consider these questions:

• Do you feel that the health benefits for her in being spayed outweigh any advantages in being left intact?
• Do you intend to breed with all that entails in time, expenses, risks and finding homes for up to 14 pups?
• Is your garden escape / entry proof or can you afford to make it so?
• Can you cope with unexpected seasons while visiting friends and relatives or when on holiday?
• Can you cope with the potential blood staining caused by blood when she is in season?
• Will you change our mind and decide to have her spayed later when she will have lost major benefits of being spayed, such as minimising the risk of breast cancer.

The Myths & The Facts

There are many myths about the effects of having a bitch spayed:

Weight Gain

Yes! Bitches do tend to put on weight when spayed, but only if they are overfed. We recommend that owners reduce their spayed bitch's food intake by 20% – for most bitches this simply means no table scraps or tit-bits. Where a bitch is already overweight we recommend that she be dieted to her healthy weight prior to surgery.

Temperament

No! Spaying does not adversely affect a normal bitch's temperament. One limited survey did suggest that aggressive or vicious bitch's behaviour may become marginally worse, but as the bitches in this survey were immature it seems likely that this class of aggressive dog's behaviour would have become worse anyway. Where a young bitch is considered vicious we would suggest behavioural therapy be the priority and that spaying be delayed.

Coat Texture and Tint

Yes! Coat texture and tint may be influenced by spaying but this effect is minor and it is debatable.

The Operation

Spaying is the surgical removal of both ovaries and uterus under a general anaesthetic. Following surgery one can expect a bitch to be subdued for 24 to 48 hours before becoming progressively more active and returning to normal routines within 7 to 10 days of the operation. Over the last 10 years we have developed regimes of anaesthesia and surgery to ensure that from arrival within the surgery through initial pre medication and induction of anaesthesia; surgery and post operative recovery our patients are not stressed, excited or in anyway distressed. By using the latest pain killing drugs; reversible sedatives and gas anaesthetics and by monitoring patients throughout anaesthesia with electrocardiography we ensure the highest possible level of comfort and anaesthetic safety. Patients can be expected to return home alert and mobile by late afternoon on the day of the their operation.

To avoid the irritation of skin stitches we do as a matter of routine use dissolving sutures which are placed under the skin surface. Experience has shown that these are much more comfortable and greatly reduce the risk of patients interfering with their stitches. We do not use nylon stitches in the lower layers of the wound as these materials, although cheap leave the patient with a permanent scar line of disfiguring stitches which can cause problems even years later and are always felt on the animal's abdomen.

Please contact us if you have any questions about having a bitch spayed.