The Health Benefits of Spaying or Neutering Your Pet

  • Your female pet will live a longer, healthier life. Spaying helps reduce or eliminate the risk of mammary gland tumors, ovarian and/or uterine cancer, especially if done before the first heat cycle.
  • Neutering provides major health benefits for your male. Besides preventing unwanted litters, neutering your male companion prevents testicular cancer and decreases incidence of prostate disease.
  • Your spayed female won’t go into heat. While cycles can vary, female felines usually go into heat four to five days every three weeks during breeding season.  In an effort to advertise for mates, they’ll yowl and urinate more frequently—sometimes all over the house!
  • Your male dog will be less likely to want to roam away from home. An intact male will do just about anything to find a mate! That includes digging his way under the fence to escape from the house. And once he’s free to roam, he risks injury in traffic and fights with other males.
  • Your neutered male will be much better behaved. Neutered cats and dogs focus their attention on their human families. On the other hand, unaltered dogs and cats may mark their territory by spraying strong-smelling urine all over the house. Many aggression problems can be avoided by early neutering.
  • Spaying and neutering will not make your pet fat. Lack of exercise and overfeeding will cause your pet to pack on the extra pounds-not neutering. Your pet will remain fit and trim as long as you continue to provide exercise and monitor food intake.
  • It is highly cost-effective. The cost of your pet’s spay/neuter surgery is a lot less than the cost of having and caring for a litter.  It also is less than the cost of treatment if your unaltered dog or cat escapes and gets into a fight with the neighborhood stray!
  • Spaying and neutering your pet is good for the community. Stray animals pose a real problem in many parts of the country. They can prey on wildlife, cause car accidents and frighten children. Spaying and neutering reduces the number of animals on the streets.
  • Spaying and neutering helps fight pet overpopulation. Every year, millions of cats and dogs of all ages and breeds are euthanized or suffer as strays. These high numbers are the result of unplanned litters that could have been prevented by spaying or neutering.

Because of the above benefits of spaying and neutering your pet your dog friend can expect to increase his life an average of 1 to 3 years and your feline friend an average of 3 to 5 years. By making this choice for your pet, you are giving your pet and yourself many long and happy years together and that in itself is the number one reason to spay or neuter your pet!