Hi. I wonder if you can settle a discussion for me! We have decided not to have our bitch spayed till after her next season, but when we were going to my vet suggested 3 months after the end if her season making sure everything had settled, however my friend is getting her bitch spayed 3 months from the start of her season! Which one do others think is the right time?

ive always gone from the start but im sure others will do it different :)
xxxx

Both should be fine, but a lot depends on the individual bitch. For one that has a shorter cycle then 3 months from the start is probably fine. For one that has a longer cycle then three months from the end would suit. Either way there must be no signs of phantom pregnancy, so leaving it a little longer is erring on the side of caution. Presonally I tend to do it three months from the end, but my bitches have always had 8 month cycles.

Your friend,

You always count from the start of season, and in humans 'period' when dealing with time between cycles.

> Presonally I tend to do it three months from the end, but my bitches have always had 8 month cycles.

Now mine have had as short as 16 weeks between the first few seasons, generally sorting themselves out to just over 6 months, though I now have one that goes 9 months and one 6 - 7 months..

Thanks. I am glad we are waiting now till she has one more so at least we will know how far apart she has them.

>You always count from the start of season

I asked about this at work, and the consensus is that you count from the end of the season; the reason being that at the beginning of the season the hormone levels are still rising fast, whereas at the end they're falling, which gives the bitch more time to get to her 'resting' level.

I meant counting, you count from start to start.

Counting for what? :consused: You count from the start of each season to determine the length between them, but for the best time to spay you count 3 months from the end of the season. This means that those bitches who have long seasons are less likely to be spayed too soon.

Counting length of time between cycles.

I always spay 12 weeks from last sign of the season.
:-)

I always spay 12 weeks from the first day of season.  Mine mostly go 6 months or slightly less.

The theory is that it should be midway between seasons - ie, midway in the gap between the seasons; halfway between the end of one and the start of the next (which obviously you can't know without knowing the length of her cycle!).