How to Decide to Spay or Neuter a Pet

You should think about "fixing" your pet. No, he's not broken--it's just another term for surgically removing your pet's reproductive organs. To opt to spay or neuter your pet is a decision toward responsible pet ownership that will benefit both of you for his entire lifetime.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Understand the medical terms for the procedures. Spaying (ovariohysterectomy) removes your female pet's ovaries, uterus and fallopian tubes to eliminate the chances of pregnancy. Neutering (castration) surgically removes your male pet's testes to prevent males from reproducing.

2. Realize that pet overpopulation is a very real problem and has very real effects on the unwanted animals that result from it, including euthanasia. Also, pet overpopulation can cause a spread in animal and human diseases as the number of unwanted, unvaccinated dogs and cats that roam freely increases.

3. Take personal pride and responsibility in preventing unwanted pets one at time by spaying and neutering your own pets.

4. Help your pet fit into your family more successfully by spaying and neutering. Without the mating urges, your pet will be more relaxed and affectionate. Such a pet will be less likely roam, so the risk of being lost, injured, fighting and contracting disease are reduced greatly. Spaying and neutering also reduces sexual aggression, inappropriate spraying or embarrassing sexual displays. Spaying female pets will eliminate messy spotting, protective aggression over babies, or heat cycles that can bring swarms of males to your yard and cause dangerous fighting, injuries and noise.

5. Choose the best time to spay or neuter your pet: between eight weeks and six months of age. After that time, altering your female in heat or when pregnant can be more costly and difficult, presenting health risks to your pet. Older male pets can be neutered at any time if they are healthy.

6. Ask your veterinarian about this procedure for your pet. If budget is an issue, local animal shelters always provide this service for a nominal fee or on a sliding income scale.

Tips & Warnings

• The only reason not to sterilize a pet is for serious breeding purposes. Don't be fooled into thinking your pet is so cute, everyone will want one!
• Bring children to the pound to visit and pet all the animals. Teach them that every unwanted litter born to un-spayed or un-neutered pets adds to the overburdened animal shelter system that houses millions of homeless pets awaiting adoption or worse—euthanasia.
• Never let anyone who is not a licensed veterinarian perform this procedure on your pet! Animal sterilizations are always performed under general anesthesia by a licensed veterinarian, whether at a clinic or your vet's regular office. Some vets do make house calls to do the procedure, especially on farm animals.