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. If no one adopts these pets within the timeline, they are euthanized. 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 spaying or neutering. Neutering and spaying mean that the pet can no longer produce offspring. It may also reduce the chances of developing reproductive cancers later in life.
What Happens During a Spay or Neuter Surgery
At Lake Forest Animal Clinic, we perform lab work on all pets before any surgical procedure. Our veterinarians review the lab work. We then sedate and anesthetize male female dogs and cats for spays an neuters.
Spaying refers to a surgery where the ovaries and uterus are removed through an opening in the dog or cat’s abdomen.
Neutering a male pet, refers to a surgery, where the doctor removes both testes and ties off the vas deferens. Testicles are removed through a small incision in front of the scrotum.
Veterinary staff carefully monitors a pet while they are under anesthesia. They also provide pet owners with home care instructions once the pet comes out of surgery.
Benefits of Spaying and Neutering
Spaying and neutering pets reduces their desire to roam free. In addition to preventing litters of puppies and kittens that may not find a home. Spaying or neutering a cat or dog decreases the risk of developing uterine, ovarian, mammary gland cancer, and testicular or prostate cancer. The risk of developing reproductive cancers is greatly reduced, when pets are spayed or neutered while young. In females, this is ideally done prior to the first heat cycle. In males, this is ideally performed within the first year. Our veterinarians will advise you on what age your pet should be spayed or neutered.
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.
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 male pets may spray their urine to claim a territory. This odor is not only extremely unpleasant, it can be difficult to eliminate as well.
Neutering or spaying a pet increases his or her lifespan by an average of three to five years!
Call us at (251) 625-1950 with any questions you have about spaying or neutering your pets with Lake Forest Animal Clinic.