Spay & Neuter Services
Spaying or neutering provides long term health benefits to your dog or cat and helps avoid certain problematic behaviors, such as roaming or urine marking. It also helps reduce the number of unwanted pets.
Deciding when to spay or neuter your pet depends on several factors, such as breed and lifestyle. Many pets are spayed or neutered at about six months of age, but for others it may be beneficial to wait until they have finished growing. We will guide you to the recommended time to have your pets’ surgery.
Spaying
Female dogs go through a reproductive cycle, or “heat,” approximately every six months.
The entire cycle may be as short as several days or as long as four weeks. During heat cycles, female dogs produce a bloody discharge and often exhibit personality changes, such as becoming short tempered or anxious.
Female cats enter their reproductive cycles every three to four weeks during certain times of the year, primarily in the spring and summer. Many female cats become nervous during these heat cycles and exhibit unusual behaviors, such as rolling on the floor, hiding, or begging for constant attention. They also become quite vocal, meowing loudly. Cats are “induced ovulators” which means as soon as they are bred, they come out of heat. Often the owner has not seen a heat cycle as the queen came into heat, found a male immediately, and came out of heat. Their first indication of a pregnancy is her expanding abdomen.
Spaying of female dogs and cats, called “ovariohysterectomy,” is the surgical removal of the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus. Female dogs and cats are often mature enough to reproduce at 6 months of age.
Spaying your pet eliminates all heat cycles and the accompanying bleeding in dogs, personality changes, and desire to mate.
Neutering
As they mature, male dogs and cats “mark” their territories by spraying urine on furniture, walls, trees, and sometimes even people.
This tendency is greatly reduced when the pet is neutered. Neutering may also reduce aggressive and roaming behaviors.
Pets who wander are exposed to diseases more frequently, and get injured in fights and traffic accidents more often than pets that do not wander.
Neutering of male dogs and cats, called “orchiectomy,” is the procedure of surgically removing the testicles.
Studies show that neutered dogs are less likely to develop diseases of the prostate gland, and both dogs and cats who have been neutered are no longer at risk for testicular cancer or infections.
If neutering is done at an early age (6 months or younger), it reduces undesired behaviors often related to reproduction such as urine marking and roaming.
Once a male cat begins to mark his territory by spraying urine, it may become a learned behavior that continues even after neutering.