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Ursula
Cape Town, South Africa

Until recently it was an article of faith among veterinarians that spaying and neutering dogs and cats is always in their best interest. That faith has been shaken somewhat in recent years, but it is my opinion that the benefits of spaying your dog likely will outweigh the possible negative factors.

Spaying your dog will eliminate her risk of pregnancy, uterine cancer, and ovarian cancer. She will be less likely to get lost or be struck by a vehicle while seeking trysts. She will be less likely to be injured in fights or while mating. Spaying your dog will prevent her from contracting sexually transmitted diseases (it’s true–dogs can catch VD!). She will be less likely to suffer from a common and deadly infection of the uterus (or remnants of the uterus) called pyometra.

Dogs that are spayed before their first heat cycle have their risk of breast cancer reduced by nearly 100%. It is too late for your dog to reap this benefit, but it is an important piece of information.

Be aware that spaying is not completely risk free. Spayed dogs may be at higher risk of obesity and urinary incontinence. Some studies have linked surgical sterilization to increased rates of knee injuries (although not in Pekingese) and certain types of cancer. The surgery itself carries a very slight risk of complications.

Like so many things in life, the benefits of spaying your dog must be weighed against the risks. In my experience, the benefits of the procedure decisively outweigh the risks for the vast majority of dogs. I suspect that yours is among them. If you’re not planning on breeding her, then I would recommend that you have her spayed.

Spay/Neuter Bill Returns

California state senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, reintroduced legislation that requires pet owners to have their cats and dogs sterilized. The bill requires that dogs be spayed or neutered unless the owner gets an unaltered dog license. Roaming cats would have to be spayed or neutered.

Julie Mancuso, founder of Social Compassion in Legislation said the bill would cut euthanasia ratios and save taxpayer dollars.

Bill Hemby of PetPAC, a group that helped defeat a similar bill last year said the legislation arrives during financially tough times for the state, making enforcement a challenge.

Kim
Pennsylvania

Female dogs and cats do not technically menstruate. Intact female pets often experience mild vaginal bleeding when they are in heat, but the bleeding is different from menstruation. The bleeding in pets occurs during ovulation, when the pet is most likely to become pregnant. In people, the opposite generally is true–menstruation usually occurs midway between ovulation cycles.

Nonetheless, although Basset Hounds don’t actually menstruate, they do experience cyclical hormone surges during heat cycles. The surges can lead to behavior changes. The surges are especially strong prior to and during heats. The effects of hormone surges on personality can resemble premenstrual syndrome.

Spayed pets do not experience hormone surges and do not have heat cycles. Preventing canine or feline PMS is not by itself a good reason to spay a pet. However, spaying has many other documented health benefits. The elimination of hormone-induced personality changes is simply a fringe benefit.

Steph
Kansas City, KS

Cats and dogs often cough for several days after surgery or anesthesia for dental work. This occurs for two reasons. First, to safely perform anesthesia, a special breathing tube must be inserted in the throat. The tube ensures that animals are able to breathe properly. It also protects the lungs from foreign material during the procedure. However, it occasionally causes minor irritation to the windpipe that leads to coughing for several days.

Also, remember that all major medical procedures are stressful. Stress weakens the immune system and makes pets more susceptible to minor respiratory ailments.

In either case, the coughing should not be accompanied by symptoms such as lethargy, weakness, loss of appetite, or difficulty breathing. If you see these symptoms, or if the coughing persists for more than a few days, contact the vet who performed the surgery.

Pets that undergo spay or neuter surgeries before puberty should not experience permanent personality changes. In fact, one of the benefits of early spaying and neutering is the prevention of undesirable personality changes that occur at puberty.

Temporary personality changes can occur after surgery, especially if proper pain management isn’t utilized. Aggression can be a sign of pain in both cats and dogs. I strongly recommend that you talk to your vet as soon as possible about your cat’s new aggressive tendencies.

It should be noted that when pets are spayed after puberty personality changes are not uncommon. The most frequently encountered changes are decreased levels of aggression and decreased interest in sexual activity.

Photo: Zipper shows off the site of her spay surgery.

Nikki
Los Angeles

I realize that the title of this post is only tangentially related to Nikki’s questions. I will answer all of the questions in this post, but Nikki’s e-mail reminded me of an article that appeared in the November, 2008 NAVC Clinician’s Brief.

The article discussed the tendency of pets to gain wait after they are spayed or neutered. The authors of the article reached a conclusion that is relevant to Nikki and to anyone whose pet has recently been spayed or neutered: the key to preventing obesity in spayed and neutered pets appears to be keeping them slim in the time period immediately after surgery.

Nikki, your cat does not need a special diet as he is recovering from surgery. However, be careful not to over feed him for the next several months. Monitor his weight, and cut back his food if his body fat increases.

There are several other steps you can take to help prevent complications during your cat’s recovery. All pets should be kept quiet for at least a week after undergoing spay or neuter surgery (cats should be kept indoors and dogs should be kept on leash). Prevent your cat from licking the incision excessively–in some cases, an Elizabethan collar is necessary. Unless a pet is thoroughly soiled, it should not be bathed until the incision has completely healed. This can take up to two weeks.

Finally, be sure to follow any post-operative instructions that your veterinarian may have provided.

Photo: Tiger is looking sharp in her Elizabethan collar.

Laura
NY

The lumps are probably a normal consequence of the surgeries.

Spaying a cat or dog involves surgically removing the uterus and ovaries. These organs are located inside the abdomen.

To access the abdomen, the surgeon must first cut through the skin on the animal’s underside. Beneath the skin is a layer of fatty tissue, which is cut through next. Finally, the surgeon makes an incision in the muscle that lies beneath the fatty tissue. At that point he or she is able to operate inside the abdominal cavity.

When the surgery is complete, the surgeon must close the openings in the three layers mentioned above (muscle, fatty tissue, and skin) with stitches. The most important layer is the muscle layer. If it comes open for any reason serious complications can occur.

Therefore most surgeons are very aggressive about suturing (stitching) the muscle layer. This may lead to bunching up of the muscle. The bunching is not painful and does not hurt the animal in any way, but it can cause a lump to develop underneath the incision.

I suspect that the lumps you have noticed are the result of normal postoperative tissue bunching. But there is only one way to be sure. I’d recommend that you have a vet take a look at the areas to confirm that nothing is wrong.

About the photo: Lillian shows off her spay incision.

Feline adaptability and survival skills have led, unfortunately, to a tremendous amount of suffering in cats. Enormous populations of feral cats live in every town and city on the fringes of society. Thomas Hobbes wouldn’t have hesitated to refer to their lives as nasty, brutish and short.

Cat advocates in the United States have largely embraced trap-neuter-return (TNR) as a means of alleviating feral cat suffering. TNR programs attempt to stabilize feral cat colonies by catching cats, surgically sterilizing them, and returning them to the environment.

TNR has not been universally accepted by animal welfare experts. Some people point out that TNR programs have failed to achieve a measurable reduction in feral cat populations. And an exchange of letters to the editor in the October 1, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAVMA) drew attention to another possible shortcoming of TNR programs: inadequate postoperative pain control.

Feral cats are completely unaccustomed to handling by humans. To safely perform any form of medical treatment on a feral cat, the cat must be anesthetized. This means that oral pain medications generally are not administered after surgical sterilization. Most cats in TNR programs receive a solitary injection of pain medicine at the time of surgery and are released a few hours after they wake up. The author of a letter to JAVMA pointed out that this is, definitively, inadequate.

Is there a solution? Perhaps. Some pain control medicines are flavorless and can be administered in food to a hospitalized cat–if the cat is willing to eat while hospitalized. Some are, but many aren’t. To provide pain control in this fashion would require that feral cats stay in the hospital for several days after surgery–something that many feral cats would find exceptionally stressful.

Like so many issues surrounding feral cats, the provision of adequate pain control during TNR programs is an ethical minefield. I suspect that this controversy will prove to be as intractable as the problem of feral cats.

Vets and animal lovers have been dreaming for years of a simpler way to prevent pet overpopulation. Sadly, that dream is nowhere near reality.

However, a philanthropic organization has taken an important first step towards the goal. Following the successful example of the Ansari X prize, the organization is motivating people to find a solution to pet overpopulation using a tried-and-true tactic. They are offering a huge wad of cash to the person or group that develops a simple, safe, easy to administer, single dose pet sterilization technique.

You can read more about the prize (called the Michelson Prize) here.

The reality of such a technique is still far away. However, I suspect that the Michelson Prize help motivate researchers to achieve the goal.

Kym
Caldwell, Ohio

The knot in the middle of the stomach sounds suspiciously like the infamous canine umbilicus, or belly button. I discussed canine and feline belly buttons in a recent post.

However, the mass adjacent to the nipple is more troubling. It may a mammary tumor. Malignant mammary tumors are known as breast cancer.

Female dogs and cats have very low rates of breast cancer if they are spayed before their first heat cycle. However, older, unspayed females develop mammary tumors at relatively high rates.

Most mammary tumors in cats are malignant. In dogs, many mammary tumors are less aggressive. But no matter what, the mass needs to be checked by your vet.

You say that your pet will be going to the vet to be spayed soon. The veterinarian should assess both areas before surgery. He or she will probably want to remove any suspicious masses at the time of the spay surgery. If a mass is removed, a laboratory pathologist will be able to analyze it to determine if it’s dangerous.