HEALTH BENEFITS OF PET DESEXING
Our featured pet at CareVets this month is Ollie, whose recent experience with a uterine infection can serve as a good example for pet owners of why desexing is recommended. Preventing unwanted puppies and kittens is of course one good reason to desex, but there are very real health benefits as well that some pet
owners may not be aware of. Ollie is a chocolate Labrador who can often be found taking in the sun outside of Jan’s Cafe in Paraparaumu Beach, where she sometimes amuses the public by holding three tennis balls in her mouth at once! Unfortunately, she recently became very ill and started refusing food - always a sure
sign of trouble in a Labrador.
She was brought in to CareVets Kapiti and after a number of tests was diagnosed with pyometra - a severe, life-threatening
infection in her uterus. Surgery was performed to remove the infected uterus and Ollie is back to her old tricks, but desexing earlier in life would have been a much less traumatic surgery and would have spared her the discomfort and risk of death that accompanied
the pyometra.
For female cats and dogs, the health benefits of speying include total prevention of pyometra, and significant reduction in the
risk of mammary (breast) cancer later in life - a well-known study has shown that female dogs desexed before their first heat cycle are over 100 times less likely to develop mammary tumours at some point in their life, as compared to unspeyed females. The percentages are not as well-studied for female cats but speyed females are at least 10 times less likely to get mammary cancer
than unspeyed females.
For male dogs, the health benefits of neutering include reduction in the risk of
prostate diseases and reduction of roaming and aggressive behaviour,
which can in turn reduce injuries. For male cats, there are not as many direct health benefits but the dramatic reduction in unwanted behaviours such as urine spraying and fighting makes desexing essential in a nutshell, unneutered male cats are
not pleasant to live with!
Like any surgery, desexing does carry a small amount of risk, but the benefits to both humans and animals far outweigh the risks, especially if the surgery is performed
while the pet is young and healthy. In Ollie’s case, the surgery to remove her infected uterus was far more complicated
and risky than a spey for a juveline dog would have been, with a much longer time spent in surgery and recovery. Because of
this, it also ended up costing about five times as much as a juvenile spey!