LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — When you acquire a pet, the first thing you're probably told is to spay or neuter your cat or dog. You're even sometimes given a voucher.
Many animal shelters provide the surgery for free before animals after even up for adoption.
It's not just about preventing unwanted pregnancies or overpopulation. There are a larger number of reasons a pet should be spayed or neutered that can benefit the animal.
"Whether you're looking at altering your pet individually or helping the population overall, there are more advantages to having your pet altered then there are reasons not to do it," says Meghan Hawkins with the Lexington Humane Society.
Hawkins says the shelter's "Palmgreen Spay's the Way" program fixes at least 25 pets daily, yet not enough owners are educated on the importance of spaying or neutering their animals.
"It can decrease breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, as well as a plethora of infections as well," explains Hawkins. "And a lot of those diseases can be deadly if left unattended or even if they're identified later on in life."
Hannah Marquez of Boyle County is a pet owner who wasn't aware of how important it is until her four-year-old Staffordshire pitbull, Roxy, experienced a phantom pregnancy.
"Basically she was in her heat cycle and her body thought that she was pregnant," Marquez explains. "It was the saddest thing. It was heartbreaking because she would like to nudge it, to try to get it to nurse and she thought she had a dead baby. It was horrific."
According to Dr. Liz Ubelhor, a significant number of non-spayed dogs will have symptoms of false pregnancy that may include milk production.
"Then the vet told us, there's a chance she could do this every time she goes into heat, and I was like 'oh my gosh. We can't do this.' But then they also said that, because it had to do with the hormones, if we didn't get her spayed she could be at really high risk for pyometra," says Marquez.
Pyometra is a bacterial infection that affects the uterus of an unspayed female. Hawkins describes, "Pyometra is something that we have seen here a lot and often usually with female dogs, and it is something that can be prevented of course if they're spayed early on." Hawkins adds. "But a dog that goes into heat and even has puppies over and over, there's types of infections that can set up. That can sadly lead to other tissues or organs that would be removed."
There are many stories just like Hannah's. Carrie Geswein shared a story with us of a stray German Shepard puppy that was found with an injured leg. It ended up needing to be amputated and during surgery, the vet realized he suffered from cryptorchidism. Geswein was informed that if untreated, it would have caused him cancer later on. Neutering him helped prevent him from a severe sickness.
Veterinarians like Dr. Ubelhor recommend fixing your pet as soon as you adopt it. Waiting too long can lead to future complications.
"When your dog is acting different or there's something off of like take them to the vet or any change of like your dog's demeanor is not normal," says Marquez.
You can visit the Lexington Humane Society for more information.
