Everything You Need to Know About Dog Spays and Neuters at DePorre Veterinary Hospital
What is the difference between a dog spay and a dog neuter?
Generally, the term "spay" is what we use for an ovariohysterectomy, which is the removal of the ovaries and uterus from a female dog. While the term "neuter" is what we use for male dogs when we do an orchiectomy, which is the removal of the testicles.
What are the current recommendations for the age to spay or neuter dogs?
The recommendations for the age for spay and neuter have actually been gradually changing a little bit as we've developed new information and more studies have been done. Generally, for smaller dogs, there hasn't really been much of a change. We still recommend spay or neuter sometime after 6 months, or around the 6-month age mark, after they've had all their vaccines and we've done their pre-anesthetic blood work to make sure that everything looks good.
Larger breed dogs have seen some change, where we're starting to push those procedures back a little bit until they get a little bit older. Depending on the breed and the size of the dog, as well as some individualized patient factors, we might decide to wait until the dogs have gone through their first heat for female dogs, which can put the spay procedure usually somewhere between 12 and 18 months. For male dogs, we might decide to push it back to somewhere after a year, in the range of one to two years. It's less of a set thing for male dogs because they are not going to have a heat cycle, so it's more of just what works best for timing for you as the client.
What are the health benefits of spaying and neutering a dog?
The health benefits for spaying and neutering are mainly two categories:
- It helps to reduce or eliminate some behavioral concerns or unwanted behaviors. It obviously helps to prevent, in the case of female dogs, them from going into heat on a regular basis.
- From the medical side of things, there are several types of cancers where the risk is lowered by spaying and neutering. The most prominent one on the female side of dogs is mammary cancer. Dogs that are unspayed have a much higher risk of developing mammary cancer at some point during their lives than dogs that are spayed. Unspayed dogs are also more likely to develop potential complications related to infections of the uterus, such as pyometra. On the male side of dogs, neutered dogs will not develop testicular cancer because we've removed the testicles. They also have a lower incidence of prostate issues if they've been neutered later in life.
What are the risks associated with spaying and neutering?
The risks associated with spaying and neutering, as far as the procedure itself goes, would be the very small risk of surgical or anesthesia complications. We always check generalized blood work and make sure that it looks good, and do a full physical exam when pets come in for surgeries to make sure there are no predisposing factors that we would be concerned about with surgery. So generally, that risk is really low.
The other risk you need to consider relates more to the timing of when we're doing spays and neuters, especially for larger breed dogs. If they're spayed or neutered earlier in life, that does actually increase the risk slightly of certain types of cancers, especially a type of bone cancer called osteosarcoma. It could also increase their risk of certain joint orthopedic disorders. When we're looking at when to spay or neuter your pet, we want to consider those risks of certain types of joint disorders or cancers and also consider the risks of other types of cancers that are higher by not spaying or neutering them. We try to develop an overall risk score for when and if to do the spay and neuter. Generally, like I said before, that leads us to doing the spays and neuters for larger breed dogs sometimes between 12 and 18 months, and for smaller breed dogs, usually around 6 months or so.
What happens on the day of my dog's surgery?
Generally, on the day of surgery, we have our patients drop off between 7:30 am and 8 am. When they come in, either the doctor or the technician will go over the procedure with you, check about any questions, make sure we have good contact information, and get your pet all checked in. Then we'll do a full physical exam to ensure they're healthy that day for surgery. If they've had blood work done and it's all normal, then we're all set. If not, then we can do the blood work the day of surgery.
Your pet will generally stay most of the day for their surgery. We will keep them here, do the surgery during the day, and the doctor will call you when the surgery's all done and they're awake from anesthesia, just to let you know that the surgery went really well, they did great, and they're awake. We like to keep them here for a while afterward to make sure they're recovering well, ensure their pain is well controlled, and they're not too groggy when they go home. We usually send most of our surgeries home sometime between 3 and 5 in the afternoon.
What should pet owners be aware of after the surgery?
After your dog goes home from the surgery, the two biggest things for you to watch out for are:
- Make sure they're not able to lick or chew at their incision. We are going to send home some type of device to help prevent that. Usually, that involves a cone. Thankfully, we have softer, more fabric cones that are a little more comfortable for pets and a little easier to use. Sometimes, in addition to the cone, we will also send home a surgery suit or a onesie for small dogs, and that can help prevent access to the incision as well.
- Try to limit their activity for the first 10 to 14 days after surgery. This can be difficult with young puppies that have lots of energy. We understand that, and we know you won't be able to limit their activity completely, but we do want to keep them from doing anything too strenuous. Generally, we will send home a medication called trazodone or gabapentin that will help provide some sedation during the recovery period so that they're not quite as energetic as they otherwise would be.
So, the biggest things to watch out for after the surgery are making sure your pet cannot lick or chew at the incision and keeping their activity fairly limited. In addition, for the recovery period, we will usually send home a pain medication, an anti-inflammatory to help keep them comfortable, and keep their healing process going along well.
Will there be any changes in behavior after the surgery?
Generally, we don't see much change in behavior with spay and neuter in the long term. One noteworthy thing is that after spay and neuter surgery, their metabolism does go down a bit, and they're also usually at the point where they're becoming pretty much full-grown. So switching to an adult diet at that point or potentially reducing how much they're being fed can help. But overall, the changes in behavior that we would potentially see are usually pretty minimal after the spay and neuter surgery.
Dog Spay & Neuter FAQs Answered
How are dog spay surgeries performed?
A dog spay is an ovariohysterectomy, which means that both the ovaries and the uterus are removed. The procedure involves making an incision on the midline of the abdomen. Once inside the abdomen, the ovaries and the uterus are located and removed. Dogs have a right and a left side, called horns, and a cervix. Everything above the cervix, which is both ovaries and the uterus, is removed. The abdomen is then closed up with a three-layer closure once the spay has been performed.
How are dog neuter surgeries performed?
Dog neuters, unless the dog has a retained testicle (known as prepped orchid), are not performed inside the abdomen. Instead, a small pre-scrotal incision is made, from which both testicles are removed, double-ligated, and then the incision is closed.
Will the spay or neuter be painful for my dog?
We take great care to ensure all our surgeries are pain-free. We use local blocks, such as Lidocaine and Bupivacaine, as well as preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative pain medication. We also provide medication for the dog to take home. This ensures our patients are extremely comfortable, and usually, it's all the pet parents can do to keep them quiet because they feel so good.
Are there any complications to a spay or neuter surgery?
Although there's always a possibility of complications during any surgical procedure, the chances are usually very low. The most common complication we see is during the recovery period. If the owners don't put the cone on their dogs when unattended, the dogs may lick their incisions, attempting to alleviate the itchiness of the healing process. This could potentially introduce infection or even open up the incision.
How long does a dog spay or neuter take?
Dog spays typically take around 20 minutes on average. The time varies depending on the size of the dog; smaller dogs take less time, and bigger dogs take more time. Dog neuters, on average, take about eight to 10 minutes, as we don't go inside the abdomen for these procedures.
What are some misconceptions about the spay and neuter process?
One common misconception is that many clients don't view it as a major surgery, while in reality, it is. For females, we are removing body parts, and the same holds true for males. Ensuring that the dogs are calm and resting during the recovery is very important. Some clients don't believe in spaying and neutering for various reasons, but there are many health benefits to spaying or neutering your pet.
At DePorre Veterinary Hospital, your pet is our priority. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call our team at (248) 609-1625, or you can email us at [email protected]. Our staff would love to talk with you!
Don't forget to follow us on social media: Facebook, Instagram.