What would you say is the importance of why we spay and neuter our pets?
I recommend spaying and neutering because there are a lot of things that we're trying to prevent as pets get older, especially male dogs. Prostate problems are a big concern when they're older, so that's definitely a big reason why I recommend neutering them. Prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and the same thing with females. There's obviously an increased risk of breast cancer if they're not spayed. Uterine and ovarian cancer are also potential risks, so that's why we recommend spaying and neutering dogs. Also, with females, they're coming into heat cycles, which can be kind of messy, so that's another reason to do it and to prevent overpopulation and strays and things like that as well.
When it comes to spaying and neutering, does it change their personality?
No, and this is definitely one of the most common questions I get! People think that their pet’s personality is going to change. I think that most of the time when we are spaying and neutering them, they tend to be kind of out of puppyhood and getting into their teenage years, if you will, so they're more mature, so they calm down a little bit. It often coincides with the spay and neuter, so that's why people think their personality is changing, but their core personality is who they are. They're not going to change, but they might be starting to settle down temperament-wise anyway at that age just because of their age in general, so it has nothing to do with the procedure itself. They will be the same dog or the same cat.
Speaking of age, when would you say is a perfect time to spay or neuter your cat or dog?
With cats, in general, I'll recommend spaying and neutering them anytime between three months of age and up to a year. Cats, particularly males, will start to produce pretty pungent, yucky-smelling urine after they get to be seven or eight months old because they're starting to mark their territory. It's their pheromones, and they're really pretty yucky smelling, so I highly advise neutering your cat before they're seven or eight months old because you can avoid that. Likewise, with female cats, they will go into heat as early as four months old and be able to have kittens, so if they escape, that's very commonly why they're trying to escape is because they want to try to have relations with a male cat so they can have kittens. Spaying and neutering cats is way more urgent than spaying and neutering a dog. With dogs, it generally goes by size. For the smaller breeds up to about 50 pounds, I'm definitely recommending doing it anytime after six or seven months of age. There's no reason to wait. With bigger dogs, large and giant breeds particularly, like Great Danes and some labs and the bigger Bernese Mountain dogs, things like that, they do recommend waiting if you can until they're skeletally mature because there have been studies showing that animals are less likely to have orthopedic problems if they're allowed to fully mature before they're neutered or spayed, so I do try to wait. Still, sometimes things pop up that make us want to do it.
What are some of the concerns about aftercare?
Aftercare is really important, and it is all about what type of procedure your pet is having. Male dogs do not have as invasive of a procedure. Female dogs have an abdominal incision, and we're going into the abdominal cavity versus male dogs, where we're just going pre-scrotal in the skin, so it's a way different recovery time. I always recommend resting for seven to ten days afterward, so we're not jumping, we're not playing, we're not going to the dog park. If we have another dog in the house, we're not playing with that dog. We're just resting, and we're going for short little leash walks to pee and poop because we don't want to be doing anything that's putting stress on that incision while it's healing. Less activity is better after healing, just like if we had to have surgery. The other big thing that must be done after because, unfortuantley, we can't just tell dogs, "Hey, don't bother your incision…" and dogs tend to want to lick their incision or scratch with their incision, so using things like the cone of shame or now there are surgical suits that are similar to a onesie that can keep the incision covered—something to prevent them from bothering it for at least seven to ten days.
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