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SPAYING AND NEUTERING YOUR PET
SNN (Spay/Neuter Now) Organization Information is here
Spaying or Neutering your pet is one of the best things you can do for it besides giving it a good home, lots of care and accepting its unconditional love for you. Even a cat, with it independent and fussy attitude sports a healthy dose of unconditional love for its owner/caretaker; it’s just that they don’t let you KNOW it as a rule!
It is a myth that a pet should be allowed to have one litter of babies before it is spayed or neutered. In fact, it is best to spay or neuter before they have their first heat and thus before they can have their first litter.
Many people are quite unprepared for the mess and problems of birthing, the changes in the female pet’s attitudes and actions towards its owners and family members and the overall effects of before/during/after the birthing process activities and resultant problems for the human (which are quite normal for the pet).
There are some that think allowing children in the family to experience the birth of pets is a good thing too and teaches a lot about the facts of life.
It’s a myth according to all the reliable sources I have. In fact, it could have quite a negative impact on children and the risks are great enough that children as a rule should not witness such births without close monitoring and supervision in addition to much preparation. Few children can assess the implications of the birthing process.
All kinds of things can and often do go wrong during births, especially with animals. Should the child connect those to a human birth, the child’s mind being what it is, there is no telling how the child will connect the incident/s to a human birth - they just are not the same thing and there is little to be learned.
So you have the child viewing the bloody and usually messy process of the birth, the placenta presentation, consumption of the placenta by the parent pet, possibly even the killing of one of the siblings for sometimes reasons only ma nature can be sure of.
So, please, if you want to teach your children the facts of life, do it yourself and use well known resources such as * Grey’s Anatomy and similar references.
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HEAT CYCLES OF
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CATS
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DOGS
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http://www.petplace.com/cats/the-heat-cycle-of-cats/page1.aspx
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Sexually mature female dogs (termed bitches) will go through a heat cycle once, or more commonly, twice a year.
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Dog and Cat Surgeries from an Animal Hospital (graphic)
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Generalized notes from an online hospital reference:
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We recommend against spaying a dog that is in heat but it can be done.
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We recommend having your pet spayed/neutered at 6 months of age. By 6 months all adult teeth should be in and the baby teeth should have fallen out.
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Cats - Polyestrus, this means during the spring and fall they go in and out of heat every 1 � 4 weeks.
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We recommend sterilization as early as possible, usually between 4-6 months of age is the perfect time
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There are no medical benefits associated with an animal have a litter or puppies/kittens prior to being spayed.
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Other miscellaneous notes;
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MISC NOTES:
Proestrus the period that precedes estrus when males are attracted to nonreceptive females
Estrus the period of breeding, also known as being "in heat"
Diestrus the period following mating
Anestrus the period of reproductive quiescence; the queen has no attraction to or from the male.
Nonestrous the period of hormonal inactivity
What to Watch For
Frequent vocalization or moaning
Restlessness
Frequent urination
Rolling around
Rubbing the body against objects
Receptivity to the male
During estrus, your cat may respond to stroking of the lower back and rubbing of the area at the base of the tail by lowering her forequarters so the elbows rest on the ground, raising her pelvis, and moving the tail to one side. There is no vulvar swelling or vaginal bleeding to be noted when a cat is in heat.
The best age to spay your dog or cat is under debate but most veterinarians agree that the surgery should be preformed before the first heat cycle. Generally the age of the pet will be between 4 - 6 months of age. If the surgery is preformed before the first heat the chances of later developing mammary tumors, or breast cancer, are eliminated and if the surgery is performed before the second heat the chances of later developing mammary tumors are greatly reduced.
Many veterinarians have started to perform spay and neuter surgeries on pets as young as 6 - 8 weeks of age.
The average heat cycle for a dog is approximately 3 weeks and since this an an average, some heats are shorter (as little as 7-10 days), others are longer (4 weeks or more). Average times between heat periods is seven months but some dogs can cycle as early as every 4 months, some once a year. Lengths of heat cycles and intervals between cycles are different for each dog but most dogs hit somewhere close to the averages. The first part of heat you will notice bleeding from the vulva, swelling of the vulva, possible increase in urination and the most noticeable, male dogs hanging around the house. During this period (proestrus), females will not allow the males to breed with them although the males will be very persistent. The second part or estrus is the time in which the female will allow the male to breed her and this can last anywhere from 4-21 days.
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