Spaying or neutering a dog | Dog castration – Vet Advice
#spayingadog or #dogneutering is the key to controlling the number of unwanted pups. But owners still need help and advice from their vet with issues including castration. In this video, Shadow the male Yorkshire Terrier cross has been showing a little too much interest in the female dog he now lives with and has arrived at Abbey House Veterinary Hospital to be castrated. Vet Laura Smith explains what’s involved in neutering dogs and bitches. The veterinary advice given in this video is of a general nature only. If you are concerned about your own dog’s health, always take them to your vet. It’s commonly recommended that bitches should be spayed and male dogs should be castrated. Here at the Abbey House Veterinary Hospital in Leeds neutering operations occur daily.
Shadow is a cross bred Yorkshire Terrier and was a present from Victoria’s grandma. Although she’s confident that getting Shadow neutered is the right thing to do Victoria hasn’t taken the decision lightly.
We recommend neutering of all dogs. In some situations obviously it’s not practical. If you’re wanting to breed from your dog. But otherwise there are many health benefits from it. Castrating male dogs is something that can affect their behaviour, so if you’re worried about any aggression or any roaming, looking for a female, then castration will obviously prevent this. Spaying your dog can stop the risk of any mammary tumours developing. If you have your dog spayed when she is very young, it almost eliminates that possibility. When they got older, female dogs often suffer from something called pyometra, where their uterus fills with pus. Obviously if your dog has been spayed, then this rules this out ever happening. And if it does happen, then it can be fatal. Both operations are something that we do routinely, so we do several a day, so your own vet will be very experienced in this. The castration isn’t as invasive as the spay is for the female, but again it is something that is done all the time.
A castration operation is carried out under general anaesthetic. Both testicles are removed through a skin incision just in front of the scrotum. The scrotal sack is left in place but this usually shrinks with time. Vet Laura then sews up the wound using dissolvable stitches. Although some vets will use stitches that need to be removed ten days after the operation.
You can have your dog castrated from about six months old depending on the breed. Dogs start to become sexually mature from around six to nine months old and this is when some behavioural problems can start.
The scrotum is very sensitive and can swell so it’s important to make sure your dog rests. Exercise your dog on a lead until any stitches have been removed. If you think your dog is likely to scratch or lick the wound it’s probably best to put him in a surgical collar.
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