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In addition to preventing unwanted pregnancies, there are significant medical and behavioral reasons to spay or neuter your dog or cat and to do so when he or she is young.
There are important medical reasons to spay your young female pets. Spaying a female dog or cat when she is young is much easier for the animal and prevents future potentially deadly illnesses. If left unspayed, in middle to older age, your female cat or dog can develop pyometra, a serious infection of the lining of the uterus that can be life-threatening. She may become feverish, unusually thirsty, lethargic, have decreased appetite, and need to urinate more often. If she is not treated quickly, she may die. The treatment is spaying, but in a very sick, older animal, this is not an ideal surgical scenario. Older unspayed female animals, in addition to being at risk of developing pyometra, also are more likely to develop breast cancer.
There are important medical and behavioral reasons to neuter your male pets. Male cats and dogs that are neutered while young will be completely free of testicular cancer risk and much less prone to prostate cancer. Also, an unneutered mature male cat may become territorial and aggressive. If he somehow gets outside (which he will try to do), he is apt to fight, which can lead to wounds and abscesses and increased exposure to a myriad of contagious, life-threatening diseases, much more common in the unneutered cat world. An unneutered male cat also may develop a strong, distinctive and offensive odor to his urine, which he will use to mark his territory, including indoor walls and furniture. An unneutered male dog may pick fights with other male dogs and may also mark territory. Unneutered male dogs also are much more apt to become biters (of people).
The very important procedure of spaying or neutering your young dog or cat is not only crucial to help reduce the unwanted pet population but also can give your pet many more years of a healthy and happy life.
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