Desexing Your Pet: What You Need to Know
Desexing Your Pet: What You Need to Know
There are pros and cons to be considered regarding desexing your pet and the timing of the surgery:
- Desexing is a surgical procedure where males have their testes removed and females have their ovaries and usually their uterus removed). It is generally a straightforward procedure and our modern anesthetics are very safe but complications such as excessive blood loss, infection and drug reactions do occasionally arise. In pre-pubertal animals (where the development of the reproductive tract is minimal), the procedure is generally quicker, easier, and less stressful and there is a faster recovery.
- Desexing is used as an invaluable tool to help combat pet overpopulation, which is a huge animal welfare issue worldwide. An underlying theme in our society is that quality is exchanged for quantity and the massive number of animals that are abandoned, aren’t adequately cared for or can’t be rehomed by animal shelters leads to millions of dogs and cats being euthanized each year.
- Except in very tractable and well-behaved animals, dogs and cats (especially males) who have not been desexed are very driven by their sexual hormones to roam seeking mates, aggressive behavior when defending their territory, or generally, and inappropriate urination or territory marking. Frustration often ensues because the animal’s need to express sexual behavior is not met which often escalates to destructive behavior. These behaviors are not only largely unacceptable in our society, but they often lead to injury. Further medical considerations for desexing are mammary cancer, uterine infections, prostatic disease and hormonal imbalances. Although they have multifactorial origins, a desexed animal has a much lesser risk of developing these conditions.
- With desexing there is concern about some of the long-term health risks of removing the benefits of hormones produced by the reproductive tract. Research has indicated that a desexed female dog is more likely to suffer from urinary incontinence and for dogs bigger than 20 kg there is an increased risk of joint disorders (hip dysplasia, cruciate ligament disease and elbow dysplasia) if they are desexed before 1 year of age. It has also been suggested that pre-pubertal desexing of dogs causes an increased incidence of bladder infections and cats are more inclined to be shy and obese.
For the pet population as a whole, it is clear that desexing at a young age is an important practice that is adopted by animal shelters globally to help improve animal welfare. When considering desexing your pet and the many factors relating to their specific needs as individuals, it is important to obtain guidance from your vet to help you to make the appropriate decision for their long-term health.
Our female dog is nearly 6 mths old, a German Shorthaired Pointer x Huntaway.. We are thinking of desexing her in the next few months but after reading this article I am not so sure. Should we get her “fixed” within the next few months so she is still in the pre-pubertal stage when the procedure is “quicker, easier, less stressful and with a faster recovery rate” but risk potential “bladder incontinence/ infections, hip dysplasia, cruciate ligament disease and elbow dysplasia” as she is now over 20 kg? Or wait until she is a year old and lessen the odds of all these complications, even though surgery may be more time consuming/stressful and recovery slower. It seems like a no-brainer to me, now I think we will wait until she is a year old.