I feel so irresponsible for my girl. Yesterday, we left the patio door open so my in season bitch and her 5 month old pup can go in and out for wee wees in our "secure" garden while we were upstairs decorating. I am always so careful with her whilst she is in season. Anyway after over 1hr we went downstairs to find next door's male staffie in the garden. Apperently he had jumped through the front window and escaped. I blame myself for not double checking our garden and not next door. As she was on about day 9 she is off to the vets tonight for the morning after injection as we have no way of knowing whether a mating took place or not.
I was always against spaying her - but am now seriously thinking I should as I am planning no more litters from her.
I would apreciate your thoughts on spaying.
Thanks, Aimi.

Hi Aimi,
I know this will sound very much like 'shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted', and I don't mean to rub salt in, but this is why we always stress that people should never leave their in-season bitch unattended, even in their own garden. This is where most of the unplanned litters are conceived!

I'm assuming your 5-month old pup is a bitch, because if it was a dog it is perfectly possible at that age for him to sire a litter on his mum, and they shouldn't be together while mum's in season. So as you have two bitches, you will have the same problem regarding supervision when the pup has her first season. If you are not going to breed from either of them, and you can't guarantee that they will not be unsupervised when in season, spaying may well be the sensible thing to do.

If you do a search on this site you will find umpteen threads listing the pros and cons of spaying.
Good luck!
:)

Sorry things went wrong for you and I guess you know you could have done better, but, there for the grace of God, go most of us. Sure your girl will be OK and that your story may well stop it happening to several other people.

Just be grateful you saw the other dog in your garden, or she may have been too far gone by the time you noticed to do anything about it.  You are doing the right thing now and know what to do in the future.  As for spaying, my XB bitch was spayed a year old with no complications, I did a lot of shows when she was younger and she had long seasons so that decision was best for us, you need to decide what is best for you and your dog

All the best, Hayley

Thanks,
Have read old threads on spaying - most bitches were done at an early age. Any of you had complications with the spaying of an older girl. Lou is 4 now.
Aimi.

No have never spayed my bitches until they are very well into middle age and would rather have an animal neutered when they are well and truly fully grown both in body and mind, than too early before the hormones have had time to do their job.

My two year old Sibe girl is spayed. I bred a litter from her but after that decided it was time to spay her, seasons were very hard to look after as we have two mix breed males outside and now we have her 10 month old son living in the house, too. It was just the right thing for me to do. Now we don't have to worry about it again.

A friend of mine had a 9 month old Sibe bitch who was having her first season. The owner was something of a fool and figured that the bitch was finished with her season because she wasn't bleeding anymore. She obviously didn't know very much about dogs because when a bitch stops bleeding, it usually means that she is at the point that she is ready to mate. My friend stupidly put the young bitch in the pen with her own sire. Naturally, the father and daughter were found stuck together ten minutes later. So, the result was that a 9 month old puppy was pregnant with her father's puppies. It was a horror story.

Luckily, as the story ends, the fool of a friend took my advice and turned into a good dog owner. She had the 9 month old bitch spayed completely so she didn't ever need to worry about something like that happening ever again. I was sure to let my friend now how disappointed I was in her, the puppy was after, from the litter I bred myself. Thank goodness everything turned out just fine. Other bitches aren't always that lucky. :)

I have spayed two of my bitches at the end of their breeding life, and am about to get one spayed on Monday as it will be the right time before she is due in season again after her litter, who are now 11 1/2 weeks old.

You are likely to find she will ahve a heavy coat shed a few weeks after.  In my own double coated breed I find that their coats are not quite as waterproof after spaying but do not change significantly enough to be noticed by someone else.

With some breeds spaying can cause some very negative coat changes, especillay in the Spaniel breeds who grow unruly difficult to groom coats, with excessive undercoat.

Some short coated breeds can end up with areas in their coats a bit thin of fur.

You should see what it does to Newfies coats. Have to say my Elli's coat has changed in that it has developed a wave that was never there before she was spayed but Fred also an Elkhound had a lot of trouble with his and they both seemed to get sensitive skins.

Dear All,
Just thought you should know that I have talked the whole thing through with my vet and his advise which I have taken is to spay in 3 weeks time - this will kill 2 birds with one stone - no point going through injections (not 100% anyway) then spaying later. He said she would be a bit mixed up hormonally for a while and to expect some coat loss - will this be like the shed that bitched get after whelping?
Thanks for your support - will go down the same road with her pup (once she is old enough and has bred her litters).
Now our garden is like a fortress - baby will not be out of my site when she comes into her season.
Aimi x

Aimi,

Unless you can be 100% sure this would not or could not happen again I would spay her. 

Good luck , Pam