According to a recent report released by the American Humane Society, animal shelters across the country euthanize 2.4 million healthy dogs and cats each year due to pet overpopulation. No one steps forward to adopt these animals in the organization’s time limit and a staff member has to euthanize him or her to make room for other homeless pets. This equates to one healthy animal losing his or her life every 13 seconds in America alone. While this is a sad and frustrating statistic, it’s also preventable with spay or neuter surgery. Neutering a male pet means he can’t impregnate a female while a spay surgery in females renders them infertile.
What Happens During a Spay or Neuter Surgery Appointment
Prior to the procedure, the doctor on your furry friends' case will perform a pre-surgical physical exam. Our spay and neuter packages also include pre-anesthetic labwork. This is to ensure that your pets liver and kidney function is good and it is safe for your pet to go under anesthesia. Your pet will also be on IV fluids their stay to make sure that they stay hydrated and their blood pressure is stabilized.
Veterinary staff carefully monitors your pet’s vitals throughout the entire procedure. Our neuter and spay packages also include all post-surgical care. Your pet will stay with us for the majority of the day while they recover from the anesthesia. (This is a perfect opportunity to get your pet microchipped if they are not already! Click here to learn more!) Our knowledgeable technicians will provide pet owners with home care instructions once the pet comes out of surgery.
Benefits of Spaying
An unaltered female cat may go through several heat cycles each year. Intact female dogs usually go into heat two times each year. A cat becomes fertile well before she reaches one year old, which means she could produce dozens of litters of kittens during her lifetime. Cats in heat have loud vocalizations and can act aggressively to try to gain the attention of male cats.
Spaying a dog reduces her desire to roam free. If an unneutered neighbor male dog gets near a spayed female dog, he won’t attempt to mate with her. In addition to preventing litters of puppies and kittens that may not find a home, spaying a cat or dog decreases her risk of developing uterine, ovarian, and mammary gland cancer. The risk decreases the most for dogs and cats who have the surgery before they would have gone into heat for the first time.
Benefits of Neutering
Both dogs and cats can engage in aggressive behavior and roaming when they have not yet undergone the neutering procedure. The aggressiveness can surprise their human family when the dog attempts to bite or even act in a sexual manner towards people. Unneutered pets also spray their urine to claim a territory as their own. This odor is not only extremely unpleasant, it can be difficult to eliminate as well. After neutering surgery, the risk of testicular or prostate cancer in male pets drops significantly.
Neutering or spaying a pet increases his or her lifespan by an average of three to five years. One last thing to consider is that people with altered pets make better neighbors and are less likely to encounter the dangers of roaming because their pets are much more likely to remain in the home or yard.
