Look I have booked my girl in for a spaying, as he had an accident mating and I rushed into to having her spayed.

She is booked in for Wednesday, but since I have arranged it, I am having second thoughts and just wanted some avice.

The Cons of getting her spayed are;
Its cost, it will cost me £245 to have her routinley spayed, and with the way the credit crunch is, money is getting tight.
The fact that her weight will have to be monitored, and her coat may become dull like my other bitches did, but she had to be spayed due to Pyometra.

The Pros, are:
Will be no mess every 6 months! but I do have another female here so whats the difference!
I dont want to breed from her again.

Thats all I can come up with.
I do have an entire male here, and although we had an accident mating last year, I could organise for my male to go on holiday while she is in season I suppose, and would certainly be even extra careful next time round!

And my thoughts on the hyigeine (sp) pants, seems like a great idea to keep the house clean and be extra protection through the vital time.

Reading this back, it does seem that I have made a decision, but would love to hear your opinions, and experiences.

I love my girl and want to do the best for her at the end of the day, and really dont know what is best, ,,,,,

Personally , i would spey to avoid pyo .
My old mongrel put on weight after her spey , but i would rather put a dog through the op when healthy than when ill and it was neccesary .

Zoe,

It look like you have already made the decision. I can't see anything from what you've put of any real negatives in getting it done.
Whats the difference in having the injection due to the accidental mating going to cost in difference?

I think everyone will be behind you what ever your decision is going to be.

Good Luck

I wouldn't. I've had 3 of my girls spayed and will not spay my two youngest. I feel that the cons well out way the pros. It's not just a case of weight gain and poor coat it goes far deeper than that.

If you have an entire male then serious 'man management would be needed but you say you could 'organise for your male to go on holiday'.

You already have one female that has her seasons and don't find the mess a problem so one more won't make a lot of difference. How old is your girl?

I know you've had an accidental mating and I don't know enough about breeding to know whether there is still time to do something about that.  Brainless gave me a really good link to some literature on the pros and cons of spaying and neutering, if I knew how to do it I'd show you the link but I don't. Hopefully she will come along with some advice.

I would imagine after the realisation after an accidental mating that you would panic and want to get things sorted very quickly, but just take 5 because once it's done you can't go back.

I hope that those why know far more than me on this subject will come along soon to advise you.
xx

You don't want to breed from her, you don't want her to get pyo, she will be able to be walked safely all year round, it will not upset your male dog, it will reduce her chance of mammory tumours. She won't get phantom pregnancies.  Not all dogs get fat after spaying if they get the same exercise.  Mine never have, vet says they are a perfect weight and they have lovely coats.
I personally would have it done I can see no contest.

Here are some pros and cons.  http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongTermHealthEffectsOfSpayNeuterInDogs.pdf

Generally there are more pros for bitches.

personally I would spay, have to say mine are spayed and they have glossy coats and although labradors have not gained weight and are still on the same food etc, but I am  concious that weight gain could happen so am watchful but at present nothing is changing it has been over a year since they were spayed

> Generally there are more pros for bitches.

It is not the number of pros and cons it is the weight of them surely, you could have one massive con that outweighs twenty pros :-)
It is a handy article in listing what they all might be but I don't believe it provides a definitive answer.  I think it varies with each persons circumstances.

this seems alot of money to me for the spaying.
I've just asked my local vet for a price and they quoted £150 for a medium breed, i use them all the time their very good vets.
also if money is tight at the moment have you asked the local RSPCA, they quoted me £92, a few years ago i had a bitch sprayed by them and everything went very well.

My girl that is speyed has put on weight despite getting as much exercise as she did before but she was very prone to weight gain before the spey, I've had to put her on a different food to manage her weight better, also it has made a difference to her coat but it is managable.

Personally I would have her spayed .. I have had 2 bitches with Pyo and it isnt nice ( one girl we almost lost ) Onne bitch we have here is 3 now and we are going to get her spayed incase she gets the same , we dont want to breed from her so we think its best . £245 seems a bit high a price though , For our sheltie it was half that at our vets, When our girls ( we have collies ) It was almost £600 to get one girl better and the other girl was £450  but the money isnt a concern , we have had 6 extra years with one and 3 extra years with the other and hoping many more to come .. the health of our lovely girls is important  and we wouldnt want our sheltie to be sick like them.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

fiona x

my bitch has had a lot of health problems over the years and many of these could be linked to hormonal causes.  I can't say for sure that they would not have occurred if I hadn't tampered with nature and got her spayed but there may have been a link.  OTH, she had a bad phantom on her first season and these are likely to have got worse or at best continued if she wasn't spayed.  I guess each has it's pro's and con's.

>Its cost, it will cost me £245

And a litter will cost ALOT more then that and due to the crdit crunch, money is tight, which may mean you won't be able to sell all puppies....

Weight is easy to control in a dog, just keep cutting her food back and she'll not put any weight on (wish someone would do that for me!). I really think there's no excuse for an overweight dog, it's not like they can go to the fridge and help themselves whenever they feel peckish so that's not an argument :-)

I've never found my bitches coats got dull when spayed, thicker yes but still shiny, maybe this is a breed specific thing?

I would always recommend spaying a bitch that wasn't being bred from to decrease the chance of mammary tumours and to avoid pyometra.

Have you phoned around to see if there is a cheaper vets to neuter? Here in Edinburgh there is a discount neutering clinic, it's used as practice for the students form the vet school - with full supervision of course. There may be something like that near you?

it's not like they can go to the fridge and help themselves whenever they feel peckish so that's not an argument

Would you like to tell my two GSPs that please?  :-) Fridge doors, oven doors, anything without a child lock on is fair game here!

>it's not like they can go to the fridge and help themselves whenever they feel peckish so that's not an argument

Hmmmmm our setters can help themselves!  We had to go out and buy a child lock for the fridge so they can't get in!

Although of course had they been foudn to have taken something, they got less dinner :)