Spaying Your Female Dog – Pros and Cons
  (for MALE dogs, click here)

Puppies are adorable! But there are already more than enough puppies in our world. Too many dogs desperately need homes. Please don't take homes away from those dogs by creating more puppies.

You might be wondering, "Should my female dog have one litter before being spayed?"

No. Your female does not – absolutely does not – need to have puppies in order to be happy or healthy.

In fact, just the opposite is true. Female dogs carrying puppies or trying to birth puppies can suffer infections and complications that can make them miserable or even kill them. Imagine the guilt you would feel, losing your beloved dog so unnecessarily.

So no, you shouldn't breed your dog – not even once.

The next question is, "Should female dogs be spayed?"

In most cases, yes. For many reasons, which I'll explain in a moment. But first we have to take care of another myth.... which is WHEN to spay.

When you look at the current research on spaying and neutering, the AGE at which it's done turns out to be vitally important to your dog's future health. For example, your female should NOT be spayed at 6 months old. We'll talk about that in a moment, too.

First, let's look at the positives – the advantages of spaying your female.

Good reasons to spay your female dog

You can call it spaying or neutering or de-sexing. All three terms refer to a hysterectomy – removing the ovaries and uterus so your female no longer comes into heat and cannot have puppies.

Funnily enough, some people mispronounce spaying  as spading , which is what you do in a garden!

A dog who is NOT spayed is also called intact.

Spaying prevents the nuisance of heat periods.

• Heat periods can be messy and embarrassing. Your dog's genitals swell. She will have a bloody discharge, which can stain your carpets and furniture. She may spend a lot of time licking her private parts. She may flirt with other dogs (male or female), presenting her rump and encouraging other dogs to mount her. She may even mount other dogs herself or hump pillows or stuffed toys. Of course she will always choose to do this when Grandma happens to be visiting!
• Heat periods require vigilance and confinement. A female in heat can be smelled from a long distance away and fences mean nothing to a lust-crazed male. You shouldn't leave her alone in the yard for a single minute. Indeed, you may have to stop walking her completely.
• Heat periods can upset your own plans. Vacations and trips may have to wait. Friends and relatives won't appreciate a visit when your dog is bleeding or will leave tempting scents in their yard. And leaving an unspayed female with a pet sitter or boarding kennel is risky.

Spaying prevents deadly infections of the uterus.

Nearly 1 in 4 intact females will develop an infection called pyometra. The uterus swells with toxic pus and the only cure is an emergency spay. The surgery is dangerous when a middle-aged or elderly dog is already sick from the infection.

Many beloved dogs die from pyometra, which can be completely prevented by spaying while your dog is still young and healthy.

Spaying offers partial protection against breast cancer.

If your dog is spayed before 2-1/2 years old, she is less likely to develop mammary tumors (about half are malignant).

Spaying prevents not only real pregnancy, but also false pregnancy.

A few weeks after a heat period, some intact females act as though they're going to have pups. Their nipples produce milk and they become obsessed with stuffed toys as puppy substitutes. It sounds harmless, even amusing. But the hormonal changes associated with a false pregnancy can throw your dog's metabolism out of whack, causing health problems.

A 9-year-old dog named Caina developed a false pregnancy, followed by infection of her mammary glands. The infection spread through her bloodstream, and even with antibiotic treatment, Caina died.

Spaying prevents real  pregnancy.

Your dog can die trying to give birth, or shortly after birth from infections. Your beloved dog was happy and healthy, then suddenly she's gone, just because you wanted puppies. Imagine how terrible you would feel.

Also, dogs are put to sleep every day because there are not enough homes for them. Any puppies created by your female will take homes away from the poor dogs who are already here.

What if your female passed along genes for a health problem? A dog who is allowed to breed must first be tested and cleared of certain health problems known to be hereditary. Imagine a puppy living with a painful health problem because your female had that problem in her genes yet was allowed to breed. You would feel sad and guilty.

Finally, responsible breeding requires too much knowledge and expense. You need to learn about canine genetics and researching pedigrees. You need to pay veterinary costs, and if anything goes wrong during the pregnancy or birthing or with the puppies, vet costs go up really fast. Breeding is simply not worth it.

Possible disadvantages of spaying your female dog

Most of the following statistics come from a 10-year study at the University of California (Davis) Veterinary Teaching Hospital, headed by Dr. Benjamin Hart.

Spaying doubles the risk of obesity.

Extra weight leads to debilitating joint disease, arthritis, heart disease, pancreatitis, and diabetes.

Spayed dogs become overweight when owners feed the same amount of food as before their dog was spayed. Spaying, you see, changes a dog's hormonal make-up and metabolism so she doesn't require as much food.

Monitor your dog's shape and adjust the amount you feed so she stays on the slender side. Also provide plenty of exercise. Then your spayed dog will not become fat.

Spaying increases the risk of a deadly cancer called hemangiosarcoma.

Apparently the reproductive hormones offer some protection against this cancer, because spayed females are twice  as likely to develop hemangiosarcoma of the spleen and five  times as likely to develop hemangiosarcoma of the heart, compared to unspayed females.

Hemangiosarcoma is much more common in certain breeds, especially the Afghan Hound, Belgian Shepherds, Bernese Mountain Dog, Bouvier des Flandres, Boston Terrier, Boxer, Bulldog, Doberman Pinscher, English Setter, Flat Coated Retriever, French Bulldog, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Labrador Retriever, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rottweiler, Saluki, Scottish Terrier, Skye Terrier, and Vizsla.

Spaying triples the risk of hypothyroidism.

The loss of reproductive hormones appears to upset the endocrine system. This can result in low thyroid levels, which causes weight gain and lethargy. Fortunately it can be treated with a daily thyroid supplement for the rest of your dog's life.

Spaying is major surgery requiring general anesthesia.

Studies show that about 20% of spay procedures have at least one complication, such as a bad reaction to the anesthesia, infection, abscess, etc. But most of these complications are minor. Less than 5% are serious, and the death rate is less than 1%.

If done at the wrong age, spaying increases the risk of hip dysplasia, torn ligaments, bone cancer, and urinary incontinence.

The reproductive hormones help your dog's bones, joints, and internal organs to develop properly. If you remove those reproductive hormones too early, they don't have enough time to complete their valuable work.

• Early spaying causes the leg bones to grow unevenly. This leaves your dog more vulnerable to hip dysplasia and torn ligaments.
• Early spaying triples the risk of bone cancer, a deadly cancer that mostly occurs in large and giant dogs.
• Early spaying causes urinary incontinence in up to 25% of spayed females. If your dog is spayed before her bladder is fully developed (which requires the presence of reproductive hormones), her weak bladder muscles may start to leak in middle age. This is stressful for both you and your dog, who is understandably upset at "having accidents" when she can't control it. Lifelong supplementation with estrogen will be required and getting the medication properly balanced can be tricky.
• Early spaying can affect the size and shape of a female's "private parts." The vulva of a dog spayed early remains small and may even be recessed inside her body instead of protruding as it should. An abnormal vulva has folds of skin that can trap bacteria, leading to recurrent infections.

The moral is.... Don't spay before your dog's reproductive hormones have had time to do their valuable work. And when is that? We'll talk about that in a moment.

So....should you spay your female dog?

My answer is YES.

Uterine infections are very, very bad. Mammary tumors are bad.... false pregnancies are bad.... heat periods are a nuisance to live with.... and it can be harder than you think to prevent accidental breeding. Lusty males can smell a female in heat from a mile away.

And you really don't want to breed on purpose. You don't want to risk your dog's life to bring more puppies into the world, taking homes away from the poor dogs who are already here.

So yes, I recommend spaying.

The only breeds I might hesitate to spay are those most prone to hemangiosarcoma (scroll up to yellow box), since spayed females are the most likely to develop this cancer. But I believe I would still spay – at the right age – and then cross my fingers.

WHEN to spay....

Spaying at the wrong age can have unwanted consequences for the rest of your dog's life. So don't hurry your dog off to surgery. Get the facts first.

Remember, your dog can develop health problems if spayed too early. She needs her reproductive hormones for some time so her bones, joints, and bladder can develop normally.

How long it takes for the reproductive hormones to do their work depends to some extent upon breed,  but can be estimated fairly accurately by size.

• Dogs less than 30 lbs should be at least 9 months old.
• Dogs between 30 and 50 lbs should be at least 12 months.
• Dogs over 50 lbs should be at least 15 months.

Obviously I'm talking about adult  weight – the weight you expect your dog to be when she is mature.

As you can see, these time frames are far removed from the "Spay at 6 months!" advice routinely given by many vets, animal shelters, and rescue groups. Their "hurry up and spay" advice is predisposing young dogs to health risks that could have been avoided simply by waiting until maturity.

Even worse, some shelters and rescue groups are actually spaying puppies as young as 8 weeks (!) because they don't trust the adoptive parents to follow through with the surgery at a later age.

The intentions of these groups is good. They're trying to ensure that their dogs don't end up adding to the overpopulation problem.

Unfortunately, the owners who adopt those dogs will be forced to deal with the resulting health problems later on. And if those owners are responsible people who would  have had their dog spayed (at a safer age), they're understandably upset at seeing their beloved dog now struggling with a health problem.

Some breeders  have also hopped onto the "pediatric spay and neuter" bandwagon. Mostly their motives are aligned with the animal shelters and rescue groups – honestly trying to curb pet overpopulation.

Other breeders, however, do not have entirely pure motives. From a marketing and financial perspective, it's better for them  if they're the only ones producing a given breed in a given area. So it's good for them  to require their buyers to spay every pup an early age. But again it's the new owners (and of course the unfortunate dog) who will have to deal with the health problems caused by the too-early surgery.

How your dog's heat periods affect when to spay

Most female dogs have a heat period every 6 months. But some have a heat period every 5 months, or every 7 months.

Each heat period lasts about three weeks, during which there is a discharge (varying from bloody to clear) and you need to keep your girl away from intact males. But even after that 3-week period is over, it takes some time for her reproductive system to completely settle down.

Don't spay a dog during her heat period, or immediately before, or immediately after. There's too much activity going on in her reproductive system. Give her body time to settle down (I wait a full 6 weeks after a heat period is over) before spaying.

Thus, when deciding when to spay your dog, you must take her heat periods into account.

For example...

Suppose your little dog, Pumpkin, has her first heat at 5 months old. A little precocious, but it certainly happens in small breeds! You decide to spay her at a safe age of 10 months old. You make an appointment at the vet's.

Except.... the day before her surgery, Pumpkin comes into heat for the second time. Cancel the surgery. Allow 3 weeks for the heat period, and another 6 weeks for her reproductive system to settle down. That means Pumpkin won't be spayed for another couple of months.

That's fine! In fact, now the surgery will be easy  to schedule because her second heat won't arrive for another 5 to 7 months. You can fit the spay easily between the second and third heats.

Spaying between heats is much easier than trying to schedule the spay before  your dog's first heat... because you can't know when that first heat will occur. Typically it's between 6 and 15 months old, but that's too great a range to guess at.

It's easier to simply WAIT until the first heat has come and gone. Then WAIT another 6 weeks. Then spay. Perfect timing.

Let's see how that plan works for Ashley, a medium-sized dog. Ashley has her first heat at 10 months old. You want to spay her after 12 months old. You wait out the 3 weeks of her heat period, then give her another 6 weeks to settle down, and spay at just over 12 months old. Perfect.

Next is Rae, a very big girl! You don't want to spay Rae until at least 15 months old. She has her first heat at 9 months. You wait out those 3 weeks and another 6 weeks to settle down. So now Rae is 11 months, still too young to spay. You want her to be at least 15 months.

Should you make a vet appointment for 15 months? Wait... oh no!... since Rae had her first heat at 9 months, her second one is due at 15 months – exactly when you were hoping to spay her. Rats!

But the solution is simple. Wait through Rae's second heat period, too. Then give her 6 weeks to settle down, and you'll be spaying her around 18 months old. That's just fine.

Don't be in a rush to spay. Let your dog's adult size and heat periods guide you to the best time for surgery. Let her have at least one – even two if needed – so you can ensure that the surgery is scheduled in-between them.

Just make sure the surgery takes place after 9 months  for small dogs (less than 30 lbs at maturity), after 12 months  for medium-sized dogs (30-50 lbs at maturity), and after 15 months  for large dogs (over 50 lbs at maturity). Your dog should have had at least one heat period by then. The numbers aren't cast in stone, but they're pretty good.

Dr. Lynne Friday DVM says about early spaying:

"Many female dogs are spayed too young, resulting in underdeveloped muscles and supporting tissue that control the bladder. In these cases, the muscles and excretory openings from the bladder may not mature sufficiently for a lifetime of control. The muscles are matured by ovarian hormones. They become stronger if the female is allowed to have its first season before being spayed."

And Dr. Richard Pitcairn DVM says:

"The best time for surgery is after sexual maturity, which insures the least effect on the neuro-endocrine/metabolic system and allows full development of a normal adult body shape. For a female, this means after her first heat."

Safe surgery and anesthesia: 7 questions to ask your vet

Neutering is major surgery requiring general anesthesia, and general anesthesia is never routine.

There are steps your vet can take to make anesthesia much safer and more comfortable for your dog. But many vets won't take all these steps unless you specifically request them.

1) Ask the vet.... "Which gas do you use as the anesthetic?"

You want sevoflurane (see-vo-FLOOR-ane), isoflurane (eye-so-FLOOR-ane), or desflurane, all of which are inhaled gases.

The gas is delivered through a tube down the dog's windpipe and the dog just drifts asleep. The vet can continuously adjust how much anesthetic your dog is getting by turning the vaporizer knob.

As soon as the vaporizer is turned off, 99% of the gas in your dog's body is quickly exhaled through her mouth. She will be awake within a few minutes and moving around within a half hour.

This is a huge improvement over older gases such as halothane, which hung around for hours, delayed recovery, and eventually had to be processed through the liver, where it could do damage if your dog got too much.

Sevoflurane, isoflurane, or desflurane. Those are the only acceptable answers for me.

2) Ask the vet.... "Which sedatives do you use for induction?"

Inducing anesthesia means "getting it started." You can't just turn on the gas and aim the nozzle at the dog's face! Instead, the dog needs a tube down her throat, through which the gas can be continuously administered.

The problem is, to insert this tube, the dog must be very relaxed. One way to relax a dog long enough to get the breathing tube down her throat is to administer a short-acting sedative, either by injection or through an IV.

The induction sedative I prefer is propofol (PRO-po-fol). My second choice is a combination of diazepam (also known as valium) and ketamine.

Some vets use other sedatives such as acepromazine, xylazine, or medetomidine. These can work well, but I'm less comfortable with their safety profile and would prefer they not be used on my dog.

No barbiturate sedatives. Barbiturates have al  at the end of their name: Thiopental. Thiamylal. Methohexital. Pentobarbital. Barbiturates are too easy to overdose, too hard on the liver and kidneys, and recovery time is unnecessarily long.

What about the "masking" technique, which avoids any induction sedatives?

It is possible for the vet to sedate a dog (just long enough to insert the tube) without using an injected or IV sedative. For some dogs, the best "sedative" is just the inhalant gas (sevoflurane or isoflurane) itself.

Yes, the inhalant gas can be used as BOTH the sedative and the actual anesthetic. Here's how:

The gas mask is held over your dog's face for a few seconds. She will breathe in the gas and doze off enough for the vet to insert the breathing tube. Then the dog can be maintained the rest of the way with the regular inhalant gas from the vaporizer.

This technique is called masking.  The vet might say, "I won't need to give her a sedative if I induce by masking."

So instead of this: sedative → throat tube → gas, the vet does gas → throat tube → gas.

A potential problem with masking  is this:

Some dogs struggle when the gas mask is placed over their face. A struggling dog can be hard to control and her heart rate and blood pressure will go up. Fear and stress are not what you want right before surgery!

However, masking can work well for calm, quiet dogs. Ask your vet if your dog is a candidate for masking with gas? If he is reluctant, and if he has propofol or ketamine/diazepam for the sedative, that's fine.

3) Ask the vet.... "How will you maintain my dog's body temperature during surgery and afterwards in recovery?"

Anesthesia and surgery cause your dog's temperature to fall, sometimes dangerously low. Therefore it's very important that your vet take precautions to keep your dog's body temperature UP.

Typically this is done by performing the surgery on a heated table, and/or by wrapping your dog in thermal blankets both during the surgery and during recovery. Make sure this will happen.

Ask the vet.... "Which monitoring devices do you use during surgery?"

Your dog is less likely to die under anesthesia when the most modern technology is used to monitor her vital signs. These are the monitoring devices I want my vet to use:

• pulse oximeter – monitors pulse rate and oxygen level
• ECG heart monitor – monitors heart rate and heart rhythm
• blood pressure monitor
• body temperature monitor

My dogs don't go under anesthesia without all those monitors.

And speaking of monitors, ask the vet...

"Will there be a vet tech in the room watching the monitors?"

Major surgery should not be a one-man job.

Ask the vet.... "Will you run a blood panel before surgery?"

Running a blood panel  simply means drawing blood to make sure your dog's liver, kidneys, and other vital organs are healthy enough to withstand the double stresses of anesthesia and surgery.

The blood panel can be done the same day as the surgery if the vet has a testing lab right there at his office. Otherwise the blood will need to be sent to a third-party lab and the results will take a day or two to come back.

Always, always, always have your vet run a blood panel before anesthesia and surgery.

Ask the vet.... "Can I bring my dog home the same day?"

If your dog did fine through the surgery, and

if your dog wakes up normally, and

if you will be home to watch over her for the rest of that day and the entire following day....

You SHOULD NOT need to leave her at the vet's overnight.

Think about your poor dog. She will be feeling discomfort from the surgery. She will be feeling confused and anxious. Even if there IS someone at the vet's office overnight (and often there isn't!).... that person would simply check your dog's vital signs and move on.

No, I take my dogs home, where they feel calm and secure in their familiar surroundings. For overnight, I put them in their crate right on (or beside) my bed, so they know I'm there.

"But my vet told me it was office policy for all dogs to stay overnight after neutering!"

Yes, some vets have office policies that are one-size-fits-all, and most owners follow them without question.

But YOU are a special owner.

YOU have done research that other owners haven't.

YOU are more involved in your dog's safety and welfare.

YOU don't just hand your dog over and wave goodbye, giving up all participation in decisions about what's best for her.

Unless your dog did poorly during the surgery and needs ongoing treatment... or unless no one will be home at your house to watch over her... she doesn't need to stay at the vet's overnight for "routine monitoring."