Our Dobe bitch is due her spay op, but her Daddy(sweetheart) is worried sick. He has been putting it off for her last 2 seasons, even though we have no intention to breed. He seems to find a valid reason to say, "no not this time." every time.

Tonight though, he was very, very brave and he spoke to our vet She has tried her best to reasure him and has told us that they'll look at Rowans uterus first and if it's healthy, she'll only remove the ovaries and leave the uterus in situ, therefore lessening the major in what is, a major op. Intrestingly enough, she's also said that this course of action lessens the chances of Rowan becoming incontinent after the spay or in later life.

Has any of the Champogs ever heard of this op before, because I havn't? 

No, and I really can't quite see the point.  The minimal extra risk of tying off and removing the uterus seems well worth the removal of all chance of pyometra or endometrial cancer.  Can't really understood why it would lessen the chance of incontinence as I understand this was hormone led which, of course is dicatated to by the ovaries and not the uterus although I could be wrong and perhaps it is a positional thing although, as in humans, I imagined the horns of the uterus would be quite small when not pregnant.  Also if you are so unfortunate as to induce incontinence this can be well controlled with drugs.

No, it sounds very odd. I think in humans they remove the UTERUS and leave the ovaries for hormonal benefits. But since spay incontinence is meant to be hormonally driven I would have thought it would not make any difference if the uterus is left in as the ovaries are what produces the hormone.

Actually in humans they don't always remove the whole lot, my mum had cancer a number of years ago and they didn't do a full hysterectomy.  Although she's had a number of scares over the years, touch wood, it has never returned.

I think they are far more likely to leave ovaries when removing a uterus than the other way round as there is so little point to it but it's different in humans anyway because we are never having them removed purely for neutering purposes :)

I think it's a silly idea.i would just get her in and get the whole thing over with :) I hate half jobs :D

Leaving the uterus still leaves her susceptible to pyometritis.

For me the main reason for spaying my adult bitches is to prevent Pyo in later life when it might be more hazardous to their survival to have to do an emergency spay on an older sick bitch.

When is an egg not an egg.

A hysterectomy is different from an oopherectomy.  Not all women have the same op for differing reasons. Cannot see why I would not remove the uterus from a dog myself.