When we brought Harley home there was absolutely no doubt in our mind that she would be spayed as soon as she was old enough and I have done research into the different methods for spaying. We have also had the discussion with our vet. There are no vets in our city that do laparoscopic spaying but our vet has offered us the option to only have her ovaries removed. We are planning to have this done before her first season. Does anyone have personal experience with this option? And I have also read that her coat will change once she is spayed and she will become very fluffy and shed hugely. Not spaying her is not even an option, so her coat changing is just me wondering what to expect. Can anyone give me more information? The posts I found online were mostly for show dogs so the terminology was confusing. I don't know what it means for her to blow her coat? Did I even type that correctly? I suspect it means she becomes fuzzy and fluffy?
I think the fluffy coat business applies more to long coated breeds like Golden Retrievers. OUr girl certainly did not lose her glorious shiny coat and it did not get fluffy. Except when she was blowing coat which is the expression for a shed when the undercoat comes out. Males do that too, and can look fluffy, scruffy, rather awful. Chocolates may change colour a bit and seem to fade and the first hint of a shed coming with our black girl was all the brown highlights in her coat. We dealt with it by brushing, brushing, brushing. I have only had one spayed Lab but I've seen lots and none of them looked fluffy outside a shed.
Blow coat means moulting, when coat just comes loose and looks faded I didn't really see much of a coat change with Moo when she was spayed . She's old now and I have noticed she's a real hairy bear
Belle was a longish-coated collie x - She was fairly sleek when we got her, we had her spayed quite quickly and she turned fluffy for the rest of her life.
I don't think spaying affects a Labrador's coat very much. But it can have quite a dramatic affect on the coat of other breeds. I have spaniels and two of my three spayed girls have sadly lost their once sleek beautiful coats and have gone all fluffy.
Willow's coat didn't change at all. She's certainly not fluffy and doesn't shed anywhere near as much as my boy. I don't have any experience of a spay which only removes the ovaries, and haven't read up on it, but my initial thought is that it wouldn't protect her against pyometra, which apparently affects around 24% of unspayed bitches by the time they are 10 years of age (uncited, you'd have to check this yourself). Pyometra is a very serious, life-threatening disease which, if caught early enough, is easy to cure, by removal of the uterus, but the symptoms are sometimes very subtle, in which case, it's very dangerous indeed. I'll re-emphasise that I've not studied this, so do your own research, but off the top of my head, if I were spaying, I'd be inclined to have the uterus removed for this reason.
Neverr noticed any difference to any of my girl's coat after a spay or differencephalitis to colour. What can be noticeable is the change from soft puppy coat to their adult.
Thanks for the reply. I read up on pyometra last night and it is an awful illness and we want to protect her as much as possible against all and everything. I will read up and chat to the vet again. We have a few months before she goes in for her spay but also not too many, time goes so quickly.
I know! I can't believe how big Luna is getting. I'm not rushing into spaying her - I regret having Willow done before her first season - and am undecided as to whether I will spay her at all, especially with my intentions to show her. If I do, though, my choices are fairly limited where I live, so if I wanted anything other than a standard ovariohystorectomy, I'd have to travel for it.
DH is absolutely dead set against Harley having a season before spaying. He is convinced she is going to end up pregnant. With our 8ft walls it will be a determined mating but I also see his point and Harley is not pedigreed, nor will it be our intention to breed. In South Africa it is standard to have a ovariohystorectomy at 6 months for a female dog. Our vet has recommended that we wait until about seven months but as I said, DH is nervous about that. One of that cats has a weepy eye that hasn't cleared up with standard drops so he is going to the vet tonight. We will chat more about Harley and the options then.
Hehe, some people do seem convinced that immaculate conception is rife in dogs. I had Willow done at 6.5 months. It may have nothing to do with it, but she is very rangy compared to her litter mates who were spayed later. I think you just have to make the best decision you can, based on the advice of your vet and your own research. Pregnancy is very easy to avoid in unspayed bitches, just through normal management. I'm still dreading Luna's season, though.
We just had an ovariectomy done with Poppy's spay. I asked the vet the very same question; he assured me that there is virtually no danger of pyometra after an operation leaving the uterus intact, since it shrinks to next to nothing and pyometra only occurs when the hormone progesterone is created by the ovaries. Interestingly, he said that there is actually more danger of a stump granuloma when the uterus is removed, because a small stump is left, which can become infected.
Another thought - our surgeon said he would take a good look at the uterus during the operation, and if there were any indications of abnormality or change, he would remove the uterus as well. But he was of the opinion that the less invasive an operation is, the better. Of course, Poppy is almost five years old, so that might be a bit different to the same operation on a puppy. During a normal spay, the ovaries are torn from the wall; with a laparoscopic spay the ovaries are cauterized and cut away, which also reduces the pain and bruising, making the recovery quicker. Also interesting - he didn't prescribe her prophylactic antibiotics either, since he says this causes more problems than it helps. Certainly the last time she had antibiotics she ended up with a raging yeast infection in her ears...
Thanks so much for that info Karen. I always appreciate first-hand experiences. Our vet mentioned that the removal of ovaries only will be less invasive, I just wish that the laparoscopic option was available but I will be grateful for what we have at least. We have been with the same veterinary practice for 8 years and I have a lot of faith in them, also they know us well. For instance, Harley is currently teething. DH mentioned to me that she doesn't have top and bottom canines on the right side. Interestingly enough she didn't have them as deciduous teeth. So we do the thing we do...which is to talk until we both convinced ourselves that Harley may have teeth growing into her jaw and we must have her x-rayed as soon as possible. So I phone the vet and the receptionist kindly listens to my whole explanation and gently suggests that we wait just a little to see if she develops teeth. By this week both top and bottom canines have erupted Point of tangent - I know that they will understand the barrage of questions and will ensure that we have all the information needed to make an informed decision.
Milly had an OVE, it’s fairly standard in Europe when spaying animals without uterine disease. She was 6.5 months. It’s obviously important to do your own research and make your decisions based on what’s best for you and your circumstances. One of the many articles I read during my research on OVE : http://www.cliniciansbrief.com/site...nts/MOO_Ovariohysterectomy or Ovariectomy.pdf (Attention!! there are op pictures) Animals that undergo OVE with a healthy uterus are unlikely to develop such uterine diseases as cystic endometrial hyperplasia or pyometra later in life.
Millie was a rough haired terrier , before her spay, her coat was silky, but within a short time , her coat had turned quite wiry and thick .
Molly's coat didn't change after being spayed. She had the standard (uterus removal) spay and it was a small incision and she recovered quickly. An advantage of early spaying is that it protects against mammary cancer. Molly was not spayed until she was nearly two years old and had developed a mammary lump which was removed and did turn out to be cancerous ( though thankfully no more have developed). Of course there are also advantages in waiting till they're fully grown to allow bone development - swings and roundabouts!
Be sure then to also read up on the harm linked to spay. Mostly to early spay, but some studies are showing, at least for males, that neuter at any age can have deleterious affect, though reduced from that of early, being pre-pubescent, neuter.
When we had Hattie spayed around 7 1/2 years ago, the recommendation then was to spay after the first season and half way between the next season. I am surprised that some dogs are being spayed before a season, what's the reason for this? I know things have changed, I am interested for any future puppies. Thanks x
