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4 Things You Should Understand About Spay Surgery

Aug 05, 2021

As delighted as you may feel to own a cat or dog, you may feel somewhat less happy about hosting litter after litter of puppies and kittens. If you own a pet that's capable of getting pregnant, you owe it both to that pet and to yourself to look into the important benefits of spay surgery.

Spay surgery, also known as ovariohysterectomy, involves removing internal female productive organs such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus. This relatively low-risk procedure can enhance your pet's wellness even as it prevents conception. Check out these four key points about spay surgery.

1. Spay Surgery Helps the Animal Community

Even the most committed animal lovers may pass on the idea of caring for more than a small number of household pets. You may feel that your home simply lacks room for so many furry family members, or you may worry that you can't provide good food and proper veterinary care for multiple animals.

Many pet owners faced with unexpected pet pregnancies must give up the resulting babies, either by rehoming them or by turning them over to animal shelters. Unfortunately, shelters can also struggle to accommodate more than a set number of residents.

When you spay your pet, you do your part to keep unnecessary euthanasia from occurring. At the same time, you help local shelters distribute their limited resources as fairly as possible to help the pets already in their care.

2. Spay Surgery Lowers Certain Health Risks

Surgery that removes your pet's reproductive organs also removes the risk of health risks that affect or originate in those organs. When you spay your pet, you no longer have to worry about that pet developing uterine or ovarian cancer, for instance. Spay surgery also greatly reduces the risk of a pet developing breast cancer.

In addition to medical benefits, spay surgery offers some healthy behavioral benefits. A spayed pet won't suffer from the hormonal shifts that make them aggressive or from the mating urges that can push them into unfamiliar, possibly dangerous situations.

These benefits can have profound implications for your pet's longevity. Research indicates that, on average, spayed dogs live 23 percent longer than sexually intact ones, while spayed cats live 39 percent longer than their intact counterparts.

3. Spay Surgery Can Vary in Length and Complexity

Spay surgery usually takes more time and effort than neuter surgery, since removing a male animal's testicles often takes only a couple of minutes. Your veterinarian will need to make an incision into your female pet's abdomen to remove the reproductive organs, making spay surgery a more invasive operation.

Spay surgery in dogs may take anywhere from twenty minutes to 1.5 hours. An uncomplicated feline spay surgery usually takes only 15 to 20 minutes. The procedure tends to prove lengthier and more complex for adult pets, pets who struggle with underlying medical conditions, and animals currently in heat.

4. Spay Surgery Should Take Place Sooner Rather Than Later

Some pet owners don't think about sterilizing their animals until at least one pregnancy has already occurred. While you might think to spay your pet before it can give birth to a second litter, you might be better to spay your pet before puberty sets in.

Many of the health benefits associated with spay surgery, such as reduced breast cancer and uterine cancer risks, require removing the internal sex organs before hormonal changes have a chance to raise those risks. For this reason, veterinarians recommend scheduling spay surgery during the first few months of life.

Most puppies and kittens can undergo spay surgery from the age of eight weeks onward, although animals this young require even more careful anesthesia monitoring. At the very least, have your pet spayed before its first heat, which typically occurs at the age of four months in cats and five to six months in dogs.