01948 662424 Whitchurch

01270 652121 Wistaston     

24hrs

Neutering dogs and cats has a number of benefits for the pets and their owners.

Unwanted Puppies and Kittens

According to the Dog’s Trust there were over 100,000 stray dogs picked up in the UK last year. Over 7000 were unfortunately unnecessarily put to sleep. Finding suitable homes for kittens and puppies can prove to be very stressful and may reduce the chances for a perfectly healthy dog in a rescue centre from finding a home.

Kittens can get pregnant under a year of age and can have multiple litters very quickly. Leading independent lives as they do it is very hard to know whether a female cat has been ‘caught’ or not and the first thing people realise is a litter of kittens have arrived.

Health Issues

Mammary Tumours

Spaying female dogs before they have their first season has a 100% protection rate from mammary tumours later in life. This falls to 80% after the first season and then after the 3rd or 4th will have little to no effect.

False Pregnancies / Ovarian or Testicular cancer / Womb Infections.

None of these conditions can occur in neutered animals as the tissues involved are no longer present.

Behavioural

Castration can help with the following problems:

Cats

1. •Fighting - cat fights increase the chances of cat bite abscess, infectious diseases and roaming.
   

2. •Spraying - territorial urine spraying is far more common in entire toms.
   

Dogs

1. •Aggression - entire male dogs are more likely to have aggressive issues towards humans or other dogs. Castration alone cannot prevent aggression in dogs and we advocate proper training to teach dogs appropriate behaviour.
   

2. •Roaming - Entire male dogs are more prone to wandering, to find on-heat bitches to mate with.
   

3. •Humping legs / furniture / whatever - Unwanted sexual behaviour can be a problem with some entire male dogs. Castration will usually stop these from happening.

Cats - 4 months of age for both sexes. We try and avoid spaying females when in heat as this makes the surgery a little more involved. Males can be done anytime.

Dogs - 6 months of age for both sexes. We used to recommend letting bitches have one season before spaying but research now suggests its better to do them before. Once a bitch has had a season we must wait for 3 months to pass before we can spay her to prevent her developing a false pregnancy. Males can be done at any time.

Your pet will have to stay with us for the day at the practice.

Its important that it arrives at the practice with an empty stomach. This means taking up any food overnight (do leave adequate water down though or else your pet may become dehydrated).

All pets will go home the same day. Cats should be kept indoors for the first night. Dogs should be lead exercised only for the first week.