Topics On This Page:
- A Responsible And Caring Spay And Neuter Clinic
- What is the Difference Between Dog Spaying and Neutering?
- Reasons For Spaying And Neutering
- Do I Have To Spay Or Neuter My Dog?
- Misconceptions about Spaying and Neutering Dogs
- Will My Dog Stop Running Away if I Neuter Him?
- What Will My Veterinarian Need to Know About My Dog Before Spaying or Neutering?
- Neutering A Dog
- Spaying A Dog
- Will the Spay or Neuter Be Painful For My Dog?
- My Dog Urinates All Over the House. Will Spaying or Neutering Help?
- Are There Any Complications to a Spay or Neuter Surgery?
- Home Care Instructions For Recovering From Neutering Procedures
- Home Care Instructions For Recovering From Spaying Procedures
- How Long is the Recovery After a Dog's Spay or Neuter?
Dr. Ned Trathan
Oakdale Veterinary Group
If you have owned an animal, or if you know anyone who has, chances are you have heard of the terms spay and neuter. Spaying is a term that describes the ovariohysterectomy, or the removal of the ovaries and sometimes part of the uterus. Neutering is a term that describes the castration, or the removal of the testicles of a male dog. Veterinarians perform these surgical procedures to render dogs incapable of reproducing.
Over the past several decades, our veterinary team has successfully performed spay and neuter procedures on countless male and female dogs of all breeds and ages. While we do not consider spay and neuter procedures to be "routine," and all general anesthesia procedures have a risk of complications, spay and neuter procedures are considered safe and are strongly recommended by all major veterinary organizations, including the ASPCA and the Animal Humane Society.
We believe in compassionate dog care and are, therefore, adamant about educating people on why spay and neuter procedures are integral components of responsible dog ownership. We have compiled some of the most frequently asked questions to help you learn more about this vital service.
A Responsible And Caring Spay And Neuter Clinic
For most people, the thought of their puppy going through a surgical procedure while under sedation can be frightening. We understand that this can be scary for caring dog owners, and we want to assure you that your puppy will be cared for by the most capable and caring medical professionals.
When your puppy enters our doors, we treat them with the utmost compassion and concern for their comfort. Our nurses will treat your puppy as their own. We provide all puppies with pain medications before the procedure begins. We tailor our anesthesia and patient care protocols to your puppy's breed and size. While your puppy is under anesthesia, our veterinary staff will monitor many vital signs, including body temperature, blood pressure, oxygenation, and anesthesia depth. The procedure will be performed by our veterinarians who have many years of surgical experience.
Postoperative nursing care and pain management medications will be administered to your puppy to ensure that their recovery is painless. We also continue to closely monitor them until we feel it is safe to send them home. Our veterinary staff will review postoperative instructions with you at that time so you can feel comfortable bringing your puppy home to complete their recovery.
What is the Difference Between Dog Spaying and Neutering?
A spay is for a female dog, and a neuter is for a male dog. In a spay, we remove the ovaries and sometimes part of the uterus. In a castrate or neuter, we remove the dog's testicles.
Reasons For Spaying And Neutering
There are many valid reasons to spay and neuter your dog. First and foremost, AmericanHumane.org estimates that 3.7 million animals are euthanized at shelters annually due to the sheer fact that there are not enough willing adopters. Spay and neuter procedures ensure that you are not adding to this number.
For any purebred dog owners who believe that purebred equals profit or desirability, please understand that approximately 25% of all shelter animals are purebred. Unfortunately, there are just not enough good homes for needy dogs, purebred or not.
There are also many health issues that we can prevent with spaying and neutering, and it's much better for your pets to prevent disease than it is to treat it when it happens. One of the most common things we see in a female dog is breast cancer or mammary tumors. These are very expensive to remove, and, in some cases, they get too big, and we can't remove them at all. Many pets suffer because, as the tissue becomes swollen, it ulcerates, and the female dog can get very sick. This can also eventually spread and metastasize through the body. There is another widespread condition called pyometra, which is an infection of the uterus. It occurs after their heat cycle. It's life-threatening and can kill them within a few days. It’s very preventable with a simple spay procedure.
In male dogs, when they don't have testicles, they obviously cannot get testicular cancer. Older male dogs can also get a condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia. The enlarged prostate makes it very uncomfortable for them to urinate or defecate. We can fix that by castrating them, but it takes a few months for the prostate to shrink, and they suffer throughout that period. Neutering can also prevent straying. Intact male animals are more likely to go and look for a female. They can get into trouble fighting other neighborhood pets—spraying, marking the territory, and getting into road traffic accidents. Unless you're breeding or have a police dog, working dog, or a field trial pet, there's no reason to leave your pets intact. They’re also more baby-like and more fun to be around after being fixed.
Dr. Ned Trathan
Oakdale Veterinary Group
Do I Have To Spay Or Neuter My Dog?
At this time, there are no states with compulsory spay and neuter laws. However, spay and neuter procedures will ensure that no unwanted puppies are produced and will make it easier to train your puppy.
Over the years, many dog owners have come to us with misconceptions about the effects of spay and neuter procedures on dogs. While these misconceptions generally have no factual basis, a couple of them are prevalent enough that we would like to address them for you below.
Misconceptions about Spaying and Neutering Dogs
Misconception #1: Spay And Neuter Procedures Cause Dogs To Become Overweight
Neutering a male dog will reduce testosterone levels in their body, which has a positive impact on weight control. You can also keep neutered and spayed dogs fit with simple portion control and a regular exercise program. Lack of exercise and overfeeding will cause your dog to pack on the extra pounds—not spaying or neutering. Keeping your dog fit is very much under your control. There are many athletic dogs that are castrated or spayed that are not overweight. But you do have to watch what you feed them when they're not growing like puppies anymore.
Misconception #2: Spay And Neuter Procedures Will Cause Severe Changes In Demeanor
Although neutering will reduce aggressive tendencies in male dogs, the fear that you will be getting back a dog with a significantly different personality after surgery is just not factual.
There are effects of hormones on personality. The main thing we lose on a male dog is testosterone. Generally, testosterone is what leads to aggressive behavior. So dogs tend to be more compliant and easier to handle. If they have learned behaviors, then that doesn't change. It doesn't take away their drive to play and have fun.
There are a few cases in which we would not recommend castration on a male dog, such as with active, working police dogs or any high-performance dog. The lack of testosterone could remove that drive. But the average dog that lives in a house is generally going to be easier to manage. They're going to mark fewer things and be less likely to run off.
In female dogs, we really don't see any changes in behavior. Some people believe they need to have one litter to get a pleasant personality, but we've never seen that. There are many nice dogs that have never had puppies.
Misconception #3: I Should Let My Dog Have a Litter Before Spaying Her
This is a question that veterinarians hear a lot. There's no health advantage to letting your dog have one litter. It's human nature for us to like to keep our dogs looking and acting like puppies. If you let them have litters, they're less puppy-like. There is also a significant increase in the risk of mammary tumors in pets if you wait for them to have a heat cycle. The published rate goes from about 99% down to 95% to prevent breast cancer if you wait for them to have the heat cycle.
Will My Dog Stop Running Away If I Neuter Him?
If you have an intact male dog and there's a female in heat down the street, your dog may want to pay a visit. But if your dog is repeatedly trying to escape and run away, they’re more likely telling you that they're bored, and you need to take them for a walk to get some energy out. Neutering is not going to help with their need to get outside and exercise.
What Will My Veterinarian Need to Know About My Dog Before Spaying or Neutering?
Part of any surgical procedure involves a pre-anesthetic veterinary appointment. We'll do a nose-to-tail exam, checking for any other signs of disease or heart murmurs that would affect the anesthetic or surgical recommendations. We also check to see that a male dog has two testicles, and we look for signs of mammary tumors in a female dog. We'll also do some screening blood work to check for underlying kidney or liver problems and clotting diseases. We can now offer an ECG or EKG to screen for heart disease, which is a lot more common than we previously realized.
Dr. Ned Trathan
Oakdale Veterinary Group
Neutering A Dog
The generally accepted age for neutering a dog is between 4-6 months. We recommend that you wait closer to 6 months.
Recently, clinical evidence has suggested that male dogs of certain large breeds may benefit from waiting to neuter until the dog has reached 10-11 months of age. There has been some evidence that this can reduce the risk of some types of cancer in certain large breeds. However, several other factors, such as aggressiveness, potty training, and reproduction, must be considered. While these updated guidelines have given us cause to extend the acceptable age for neutering some large breeds of dogs, the recommendation to eventually neuter the dog remains.
Neutering a dog consists of the following surgical steps:
- Pre-anesthetic exam
- We administer pain medication
- Our veterinary team will induce your dog into a safe state of general anesthesia
- The attending staff monitors vital signs, including breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, state of anesthesia, oxygenation levels, and body temperature
- The surgeon makes a small incision in the front of the scrotum
- We remove each testicle and tie off the blood supply and vas deferens (spermatic cord)
- The veterinarian closes the incision with surgical glue or sutures
- We give your dog postoperative medications and postoperative care continues until he completely recovers from the anesthesia
- We will keep your dog hospitalized until he completely recovers and is safe to send home with aftercare instructions
Spaying A Dog
The generally accepted age for spaying a dog is between 4-6 months. Spaying a dog once she is an adult is acceptable as well. However, there's a slightly higher risk of postoperative complications in older dogs as well as in dogs that are overweight or that have existing health problems. Therefore, spaying a dog when she is still a puppy is recommended in most cases.
Spaying a dog consists of the following surgical steps:
- Pre-anesthetic exam and pain medication are administered
- Our veterinary team will induce your dog into a safe state of general anesthesia
- The attending staff monitors breathing and heart rate blood pressure, anesthetic plane of anesthesia, oxygenation levels, and body temperature
- The surgeon makes a small incision near the umbilicus on the abdomen
- The ovaries and uterus are removed
- The veterinarian closes the incision with surgical glue or sutures
- Our staff gives your dog postoperative medications and we continue postoperative care until your dog completely recovers from the anesthesia
- We will keep your dog hospitalized until she completely recovers and is safe to send home with aftercare instructions
Dr. Ned Trathan
Oakdale Veterinary Group
Will the Spay or Neuter Be Painful For My Dog?
Surgery is painful. We provide post-surgical pain relief for all dogs getting spayed or neutered. It's the same if you went for a lump removal or went for any surgical procedure yourself. You'll be provided with peri-operative pain relief and also pain medication to take afterward. So their pain is minimal, and the benefits vastly outweigh the small discomfort they get from surgery.
My Dog Urinates All Over the House. Will Spaying or Neutering Help?
Possibly. There could be a medical issue with your pet. It could be a urinary infection, bladder stones, or anxiety. There are many reasons that spaying or neutering would not help but, if they are marking, then yes, changing their hormones could help with that. After a full medical workup, we may recommend spaying or neutering to help stop these accidents.
Are There Any Complications to a Spay or Neuter Surgery?
There certainly can be. Just as with people, every anesthetic carries a risk. We can reduce that risk to a tiny percentage with good surgical patient selection. Part of the procedure will involve a pre-anesthetic exam, blood work to check for underlying health issues, and we also recommend an ECG or an EKG to check for underlying heart disease. Occasionally, there will be a little bit of bruising or swelling in the scrotum on a male dog, particularly on a larger, intact male dog that is more mature. We can get a bit of clipper burn. Shaving the wrinkly skin on the male dog scrotum can be very challenging. The female dogs have nice, flat abdomens, so it's much easier to shave them, and we don't get issues with clipping them. Occasionally, you’ll see the infection of the incision if the pet is chewing. To minimize that, we put a cone on them, which we recommend you keep on them for two weeks until we do a final checkup.
There are more significant complications that are incredibly rare, and we have been lucky enough or, instead, we try to be skilled enough that you don't experience coming here. You could get damage to another structure in the abdomen if the surgeon is not experienced. Again, these things are pretty unlikely, but it is an excellent reason to go to a veterinary hospital versus a low-cost clinic. The significant advantage of a full veterinary hospital versus a low-cost clinic is the anesthesia. We have a dedicated, registered veterinary technician with each patient the whole way through the procedure. We don't line up seven pets side-by-side and walk down a conveyor belt. That's a big difference at a low-cost center that doesn't have one-on-one care. And we strongly recommend the blood work and all the pre-anesthetic screening.
Home Care Instructions For Recovering From Neutering Procedures
Our veterinary staff will also provide post-operative instructions for you to follow at home. This home care includes a continuation of pain management to minimize post-op discomfort. We provide you with post-op pain medication for your dog, as it's standard of care. Every pet that has a surgical procedure during which we cut with a scalpel, we consider that painful. They have an injection at the time of surgery, and then we send them home with four days of pain medication on top of that.
Some of the steps you can take at home to help facilitate a safe and comfortable recovery include:
- Providing your dog with a quiet place to recover indoors and away from other animals
- Preventing your dog from running and jumping for 5-7 days following surgery
- Preventing your dog from licking his incision site, which may cause infection, by monitoring your dog, using his crate, and using an Elizabethan collar if you can't otherwise prevent licking
- Avoiding bathing your dog for at least seven days after surgery
- Checking the incision site daily to confirm proper healing
- Looking for any redness, swelling, or discharge at the surgery site or, if the incision is open, contacting your veterinarian
- Calling us if your dog is lethargic, has a decreased appetite, is vomiting, and has diarrhea, or if you have any other concerns following surgery
Home Care Instructions For Recovering From Spaying Procedures
Our veterinary staff will also provide post-operative instructions for you to follow at home. This home care includes a continuation of pain management to minimize post-op discomfort. We provide you with post-op pain medication for your dog, as it’s standard of care. Every pet that has a surgical procedure during which we cut with a scalpel, we consider that painful. They have an injection at the time of surgery, and then we send them home with four days of pain medication on top of that.
Some of the steps you can take at home to help facilitate a safe and comfortable recovery include:
- Providing your dog with a quiet place to recover indoors and away from other animals
- Preventing your dog from running and jumping for seven to ten days following surgery
- Preventing your dog from licking the incision site, which may cause infection, by monitoring your dog, using her crate, and using an Elizabethan collar if you can’t otherwise prevent licking
- Avoiding bathing your dog for at least ten days after surgery
- Checking the incision site daily to confirm proper healing
- Looking for any redness, swelling, or discharge at the surgery site, or if the incision is open, contacting your veterinarian
- Calling us if your dog is lethargic, has a decreased appetite, is vomiting, and has diarrhea, or if you have any other concerns following surgery
How Long is the Recovery After a Dog's Spay or Neuter?
When your dog wakes up after surgery, we extubate the tube in their throat for the anesthetic. As soon as that's out, we'll give you a call and let you know that they're safely awake. They'll spend three or four hours with us at the hospital, so we can continue to observe them to ensure a smooth recovery. They'll then go home that afternoon.
It takes about two weeks for them to fully heal with the incision, either on their abdomen or on the scrotum. They need to be confined on a leash during those two weeks when you take them out to the bathroom. You don’t have to confine them while in the house. They can run around, but they will need a cone to stop them from chewing on their incision.
If you still have other questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (209) 287-3222, you can email us, or you can reach out on Facebook. But please do reach out, and we'll get back to you as fast as we can.