Incestuous Relations

"They wouldn't do that! They're brother and sister!"

No, it's not some twisted new reality show. Or Flowers in the Attic. It's the littermates in the kitchen.

News flash- seeing incest as wrong is a human issue. Your pets don't care. Sure, given the oppurtunity, a group of animals may instinctively seek out a non-relative with whom to procreate- that way they get the genetic diversity that can help increase the groups ability to survive. But the cats in the neighborhood or the dogs in your yard just don't care.

All they know is that there is a female in heat, rarin' to go. And that testosterone is saying- let's do it!  There is no yuck factor for your pets. There is only urge. They don't think it through. They just act.

Hormones are strong, as we can all attest, right?  And without the social mores, without the ability to think a situation through, there is no reason not to act on those hormones.  This is how we get inbreeding.

In all honesty, inbreeding is how we have gotten many of today's recognizablw breeds of dogs and cats. People deliberately bred siblings, or mothers and sons, or fathers and daughters. They did this to try to preserve desirable traits in the dogs or cats. They did it often enough that they got consistent results- and viola- Labradors. Or Siamese. Or whatever.

One can argue that this inbreeding- be it many generations ago- is why purebreeds are more prone to certain diseases. They have less genetic diversity.

The point is this- if you have not spayed or neutered in the mistaken belief that "they won't do that," you are in for a surprise. Spay. Neuter. Save yourself a shock to your system. Save your vet a rant.


Enjoy your pets!

Orchiectomy

"His are mine."

OK, boys. Please don't tell me that you really take this seriously. I had a client once tell me that he did not want to neuter his dog because "his are mine." I really wanted to show him that that was not true- that each of them did, in fact, have their own separate set of testicles. I held my tongue.

There is an overpopulation of pets. This is generally accepted. Male cats and dogs play a pivotal role in continuing population growth. True. A male can inseminate many females, where a female is limited by heat cycles an pregancy to a finite number of offspring a year. Cannot be debated. But as I have said before, there is more to the story.

Orchiectomy- to remove the testicles. Neuter. Alter. Fix. Unman.

Poor things. They will miss all that testosterone, the need to fornicate with any willing female.

HUH?

Imagine you are a housedog, male, over 6 months of age. Now imagine that while you have your testicles intact, your people have no intention of letting you breed. They know all about pet overpopulation problems, do not want puppies themselves, but don't want to deprive you of your manlihood.  How frustrsted are you? No sex? A pillow? No wonder you attack everyone and everything in sight. And now it's spring (or fall) and the pheromones (scent hormones) flying through the air from that female in heat 3 streets over, and those up to a mile away, are in the air. They are driving you nuts!

So you pace the fence. You bolt out the front door. You actually make it out of the yard and into the street and.....BAM!

Never saw the car coming, did you?  You were so crazy with the genetically programmed, hormone driven need to procreate you just got maimed. Or killed.

I'm not kidding. The drive is strong. To be neutered is safer. And seriously, the dogs and cats don't mind.

Here's a story...when I met my husband, he had an adult male Americal Bulldog named Sabo (named for the depleted uranium tank missiles, not the baseball player). Sabo was a great dog, one of the best personalities you'd ever hope top meet. Finally, after a couple years of asking, my husband let me neuter Sabo. Jeff was concerned. He didn't want to lose his macho protection-trained dog and gain a couch potato. But he wanted the best for Sabo's health. So he was neutered. About six months later I asked Jeff- "So, what do you think? Do you regret letting me do that?"

Jeff's reply, "He's the same dog he ever was." And after that, Jeff became the champion of the neighborhood recommending sapy and neuter to anyone who would listen.

What happens if you don't neuter? Besides frustration, the increased likelihood of injury? Well, the boys can get cancer, too. In the testicles. Or around the anus. Nasty, life-threatening, painful, testosterone driven cancer.

Please. For their health. So you can enjoy him longer. Neuter.

Enjoy your pets!

Ovariohysterectomy

Whew! That's a big word for a post title! You can say spay if you'd rather- I use spay more than ovariohysterectomy myself. But I think it's a good idea to remember just what we are talking about. So let's break it down:

ovario- having to do with the ovaries (the organ that makes eggs and produces some hormones)
hyster- Greek for uterus (also the basis for words like hysteria and hysterical- think about that)
ectomy- to cut out

Therefore- an ovariohysterectomy is to cut out the ovaries and uterus. Spay. Sterilize. Alter. Fix.

Look, folks, this is major surgery. We veterinarians do it every day, in some cases dozens of times in a day. So we look at it as "routine" surgery. But it is in fact significant surgery. We open up the abdomen (belly) and take out organs. Organs that have a tendency to bleed. This takes education and skill.

I'm not here to whine, so I apologize for sounding whiny. Vets hear complaints about pricing so often that we develop some sensitivities about it. Add that to many people thinking that we are not "real" doctors and we can get a serious complex.

Here are the facts. We have a pet population problem in much of the country. One way to reduce pet population is to consistently spay and neuter our pets that are not going to be used for purposeful, conscientious breeding.

But as I have written before (and said many, many times) population control is not the only- or maybe even the best- reason to spay your pet. Health is.

Ovariohysterectomy. Removing the ovaries and uterus means we will never have ovarian cancer or uterine cancer in that dog or cat. If you spay young, preferably before the first heat, we almost eliminate the chances of mammary cancer. Yes, dogs and cats get breast cancer. It is hormone driven, and the risks increase with the first few heat cycles. If you wait to spay until they have had three or more heats, you increase the chances that they will develop breast (mammary) cancer later in life. And yes, breast cancer can kill dogs and cats.

If those reasons aren't enough, let me give you one more. Pyometra. Shall we break it down again?

pyo- pus, infected
metra- uterus

A pyometra is an infected uterus. Imagine a tube that is normally the size of a pencil swollen to the size of a summer sausage. Now imagine that sausage in your belly. Ouch and yuck, right?

Now imagine that there are two summer sausages side by side, connected at the bottom. The sausages are filled with pus, not meat. That's an infected uterus for a dog or cat. Some are closed pyometras, which means the pus stays inside the uterus until it bursts. That's awful, painful, and life-threatening. Deadly.

Or the pus can drain out. This might be a little less deadly in the short term, but imagine a constant stream of thick, smelly pus draining from your nether regions. Imagine feeling nauseous, urinating all the time, feverish, crampy, bloated....

Then imagine your doctor scheduling emergency surgery to remove this nasty, pus-filled, distended, tends-to-tear-and-leak-all-over organ. After normal hours. Or over lunch. The MDs bill would probably run in the tens of thousands range (my C-sections were each over $10,000). Your vet likely charges 1/10 of that for the emergency surgery. A "routine" spay at 4-6 months of age will cost significantly less than an emergency spay.

See why we push for ovariohysterectomies when pets are young? We want them to be well. We want to impact your budget less. Really.

Enjoy your pets!

Let the soap boxing begin!

I wrote the next few posts already, but realized I was soap boxing about the importance of spay/neuter without really linking them to the last post- the birds and the bees.

So I thought I might elaborate a little on the pet peeve issue.

5.  If you want your kids to see the "miracle of life" (and let's be honest, it's pretty gross!), there are videos, TV shows, books- heck, you can probably find all sorts of birthing videos on you-tube. Adding to the pet population and putting your pets at risk is NOT needed. Also, not a good way to teach kids responsibility- who do you think will really be the person cleaning up after a dozen 12 pound puppies?Or even a few kittens? Your 6 and 8 year olds? Good luck with that.





4.  "I want to get my money out of her." You never will. I know the ads in the paper for puppies for $500 and up look appealing, and the pet stores sell for hundreds or thousands. I know. But you are the person with the bitch, say. You are responsible for her vet care until she is old enough to breed. Then you might have a stud fee. If you do it right, you will have at least one pre-natal exam at the vet for an ultrasound or radiographs to count puppies (not always accurate, but can be very helpful, nonetheless).

   If she has a normal delivery, awesome. But if she doesn't you may have a trip to the emergency vet, possibly emergency surgery. I tell my clients they need a couple thousand dollars put aside in case of this type of emergency. Then you have puppies, yay!

  Mom generally takes care of the feeding and cleaning for the first couple of weeks. But after that, you will have more mouths to feed and more poop and pee to wipe up. Again, if you do it right you will be house training and socializing these pups. You will have company over. You will vacuum around them.

  Then they need deworming. And vaccines. Vet behaviorists tell us that pups should stay in the litter and with mom for at least 6-8 weeks, and likely would benefit from staying until 10-12 weeks old. See where this is going?

  And finally, you have to find them homes. You can hope that people will pay what you think your investment of time and money is worth. And then hope their new people are happy and don't want to return one for a refund.

  Not all roses, is it?                                         

3. Money. Yes, excellent veterinary care is expensive. But spay or neutering now will likely save significantly on expenses down the road.






2. Let me tell you a story....When I met my husband, his American Bulldog named Sabo was intact. He was concerned about neutering causing a behavior change in Sabo. Plus, I think it was a guy thing- they just like those testicles being there. Then we got a female black Labrador named Bella. Bella was spayed right away.

   When I discussed neutering Sabo, Jeff said to me, "You don't understand how I feel about it. You don't have testicles." Actually, I think he put it a bit more crudely, but oh, well.

   My reply: "True, but I do have ovaries and a uterus, and I had no problem spaying Bella!"

  Silence.  I still don't understand the connection between a man's reproductive organs and his dog's. Jeff did let me neuter Sabo. The rest of the story is included in a post yet to come.

1. Anesthesia. There is always a risk of complications, including death, with any anesthetic procedure. But here's the thing- that risk is much higher if we are forced to perform the surgery when your pet is ill. So have the procedure done while it is still "elective" rather than "emergency."

Enjoy your pets!

The birds and the bees

The top 5 things I dislike hearing from pet owners when we discuss spaying or neutering:

5. I want my kids to experience the miracle of life
4. I want to get my money out of him/her
3. I can't afford the surgery
2. It will change his/her personality; I can't take away his manhood
1. Anesthesia scares me, or, I lost a pet during surgery before and I won't go through that again

So, the topic for the month is going to be reproduction and why we should limit it. Here's a tease: it's not all about pet overpopulation!

Fair warning- this is a hot-button topic for me. These posts may have some frank discussion about reproduction, and a tendency to be a little off-color. No offence is intended, just odd humor. I appreciate your understanding.


Enjoy your pets!