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To spey or not to spey

21.05.2004

I have a 5 month old labrador bitch and am a bit confused about conflicting advice about whether to or when to have her speyed. Some friends say let her have one season, some say she will be incontinent if we spey her and some say spey her before her first season. What are the pros and cons for this?





Dear Sophie,

Thanks for your question - though it is not a quick question to answer!

Traditionally vets have always advised waiting until after a bitch has had its first season, but there is little evidence to support this.

Bitches speyed before their first season generally carry much less fat, particularly internally around their organs, which makes the operation easier and safer.
Speying early greatly reduces the risks of mammary (breast) cancer - 100x less likely if speyed before the first season, around 10x less likely if speyed between first and second seasons, and with no sparing effect if speyed after the third season. It therefore stands to reason that if you are going to have your bitch speyed, do it sooner rather than later.

In all speyed bitches there is a small risk of urinary incontinence after speying, no matter what age they are speyed at. This is due to lack of female hormones, and usually responds well to medication (which may need to be lifelong).

The other disadvantage of speying is weight gain - feed your speyed bitch about 25% less food than before the op to prevent obesity, or swap to a 'light' version of her food.

Advantages include removing al the problems of seasons - unwanted attention from male dogs, unwanted pregnancies, bleeding on the carpet, false pregnancies, and over-amourous housemates. Womb infections are also avoided, along with the mammary cancer effects.

In conclusion, there are pros and cons to speying, but if you are going to have your bitch speyed, get it done sooner rather than later. Incidentally there is no truth in the old-wives tale that it is better to let a bitch have a litter first(nor is it true that having a litter prevents womb infections or false pregnancies).




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