Spaying and Neutering

When your pet needs surgery, you need to find a practice that can administer both gentle and effective treatment to your beloved companion. From routine procedures, such as spaying or neutering, to more advanced operations, your pet may need to undergo surgery for any number of reasons. Our staff at Vine Veterinary Hospital is trained to give your pet the care and compassion they need to not only successfully make it through the operation but also to lead a healthier and happier life when they return from our facilities.

According to a recent report released by the American Humane Society, animal shelters across the country euthanize 2.4 million healthy dogs and cats each year due to pet overpopulation. No one steps forward to adopt these animals in the organization’s time limit, and a staff member has to euthanize him or her to make room for other homeless pets. This equates to one healthy animal losing his or her life every 13 seconds in America alone. While this is a sad and frustrating statistic, it’s also preventable with spay or neuter surgery. Neutering a male pet means he can’t impregnate a female, while a spay surgery in females renders them infertile.

An unaltered female cat may go through several heat cycles each year. Intact female dogs usually go into heat two times each year. A cat becomes fertile well before she reaches one year old, which means she could produce dozens of litters of kittens during her lifetime. Cats in heat have loud vocalizations and can act aggressively to try to gain the attention of male cats.

Spaying a dog reduces her desire to roam free. If an unneutered neighbor male dog gets near a spayed female dog, he won’t attempt to mate with her. In addition to preventing litters of puppies and kittens that may not find a home, spaying a cat or dog decreases her risk of developing uterine, ovarian, and mammary gland cancer. The risk decreases the most for dogs and cats who have had surgery before they would have gone into heat for the first time.