Pethood or Parenthood

Your pet's search for parenthood could lead to similar circumstances. On the loose, it may eat garbage or drink contaminated water. Courting males - particularly tomcats - often fight and injure each other. Females that become pregnant may have to endure a difficult delivery or birth complication without assistance. And even if she never becomes a parent, your unspayed female is more prone to develop uterine infections and mammary cancer.

Surgical Neutering...What is it?
To accomplish surgical neutering, a veterinarian removes certain reproductive organs. If your cat or dog is a female, the veterinarian will remove her ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus. The proper name for this operation is an ovariohysterectomy, although it is commonly called "spaying."

The testicles are removed from a male animal. This operation is properly called an orchiectomy, although it is usually referred to as "neutering."

What are the advantages?
For you, the operation results in added convenience. It eliminates bloodstains on carpets and floors, and usually stops tomcats from spraying strong-smelling urine on furniture and drapes. You'll no longer have annoying or menacing suitors to contend with. There's no need to confine your pet during "heat" periods, and no unwanted litters to take care of or find homes for. Your pet will be more likely to stay home and devote attention to you and your family.

For dogs and cats, surgical neutering eliminates a female's chances of developing uterine infections and reduces the possibility that she might develop mammary cancer. Males usually become less aggressive and spend more time at home, thus decreasing their chances of being injured in fights or automobile accidents.

Remember that surgical neutering is a lifetime investment in your pet that can solve a number of problems for you, your pet, and society already burdened with too many dogs and cats.

A litter--wanted or unwanted--also means added expenses. A nursing mother needs extra food and care, and once weaned, the offspring must be fed as well. New pups and kittens also need inoculations and they may have to be treated for parasites. Even if your pet never has a litter, she could develop "female disorders" that would require surgery similar to or even more serious than spaying.

Will it stop the "pet population explosion"?
Spaying and neutering pets will help reduce the problem of surplus cats and dogs, but surgery alone is not enough. Un-owned animals are a major part of the problem. In addition to creating a public nuisance and possible health hazard, stray dogs and cats give birth to unwanted pups and kittens at an alarming rate.

Many communities have tremendously reduced or nearly eliminated their unwanted animal populations simply by enforcing existing animal control regulations. Others have come to grips with the problem by passing more stringent laws and enforcing them rigidly.

As a concerned citizen, you should do everything you can to see that leash laws and other animal control regulations in your community are up to date and adequately enforced. And, as a responsible pet owner, you should make sure your pet does not contribute to the problem.

Call for an appointment today.

2905 West Highway 6 --- Hastings, Nebraska 68901 --- Phone: 402-463-9805 --- animalclinic@gtmc.net

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