Desexing

Desexing or neutering your pet is a surgical procedure that prevents them from being able to reproduce. In male pets it is commonly referred to as “castration”, and in female pets as “spaying”. This is the most frequent surgery performed by our vets, and generally your pet is home by the evening of surgery.

The most common time to desex your pet is around 6 months of age, however they are never too old to be desexed.

There are benefits to desexing your pet which include:

• Preventing unwanted litters, which can be very costly, and may add to the already overwhelming number of stray animals that are put down each year
• Prevention of testicular cancer and prostate disease in males, and it can help prevent pyometra (infection of the uterus) and mammary tumours (breast cancer) in females
• Stopping the “heat” cycle in females (with traditional spay surgery only)
• Decreasing aggression towards humans and other animals, especially in males
• Being less prone to wander, especially in males
• Reduction of council registration fees

Vasectomy and ovary sparing spay

At our clinic, we also offer vasectomy for male dogs and ovary sparing spay for female dogs. Please contact us for an appointment with our veterinarians if you would like to discuss about these procedures for your pets.

Chemical castration for male dogs

Chemical castration is performed by placing an implant under the dog’s skin which will last 6 or 12 months depending on the implant used. The active ingredient of the implant is a hormone that down regulates testosterone causing sperm production to halt and the testicles to reduce in size. The testicles can regain their size and produce testosterone and sperm again once the implant is worn off which means this chemical castration is reversible.

This implant can also be used prior to surgical castration to see if castration will work to dampen down an aggressive dog's behaviour.