When you adopt a dog, you will surely have to deal with sterilization or castration issue. It is a common practice and considered as a responsible choice by pet owners for several reasons. If you don’t know what to do, try to get an idea by reading our list of the advantages and disadvantages of sterilization.
Having your dog neutered or not is an important decision, which requires most owners to carefully evaluate the pros and cons. We recommend, in any case, to rely on your vet, who will advise you if and when to proceed with the operation.
The advantages of dog sterilization
STERILIZATION ON DOG GIRLS
1. Sterilization of female dogs is the ideal solution to avoid unwanted pregnancies: having to manage litters, with the consequent difficulty of finding family at all, is not a simple job.
2. Neutered females are exposed to a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer. Besides the removal of the uterus eliminates the risk of developing uterine tumors and a potentially fatal infection called pyometra.
STERILIZATION ON DOG BOYS
1. Castration of male dogs is perhaps less widespread, but it is useful because it reduces the risk of pathologies affecting the testicles and the prostate, which unfortunately are very frequent in older dogs.
2. Castrated dogs have less desire to mate, in fact they lose almost all the stimulus, so they are more relaxed and do not make the famous “love escapes” that lead them to run away from home, risking facing dangers such as crowded roads, cars or owners of dog girls who don’t want to be annoyed.
The disadvantages of dog sterilization
STERILIZATION ON DOG GIRLS
1. Sterilization is still a surgical operation that involves anesthesia. Even in dogs there is the rare possibility of an unpredictable reaction to the anesthetic. However, to limit the risks it is essential to turn to trained and competent professionals.
2. Sometimes sterilized female dogs can develop urinary incontinence: it can be temporary, as the dog gradually learns to check the urinary muscles again during the recovery process. In the meantime, you can put on the animal a hygienic coulotte to be combined with the appropriate sanitary pads. Ferplast Hygienic Culottes are designed for dog girls of all sizes and have an excellent fit.
3. Often, spayed females have a change in metabolism, which begins to slow down, therefore they have to deal with weight gain, especially if little motor activity is performed. For this you need to give them specific food.
STERILIZATION ON DOG BOYS
1. If you have an aggressive or particularly lively dog and you believe that with a castration it turns into a lamb, you are wrong. From the behavioral point of view, it is not true that an aggressive dog, once castrated, becomes docile, but simply castration does nothing but reduce the impulsive response of the four-legged. It will feel exactly the same as before but without the frantic push of testosterone.
2. Have you noticed that your furry friend tends to mount any object he comes across? Castration can be non-decisive even in the event of excessive and indiscriminate “mounting”, in fact it can be dictated by sexual desire, but also by its impulse to have control over everything.
3. After castration, dogs may gain weight due to a slower metabolism, but it is enough to slightly reduce the food ration or increase physical activity, to eliminate the problem of obesity.
We hope to have given you an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of sterilization, but we always remind you to ask your veterinarian for advice, because every case and every dog is different!