Desexing your pet

Sterilisation or ‘Desexing’

Deciding whether or not to have your pet desexed or sterilised is a big decision and one we do not expect you to necessarily take lightly. However, at Bakers Hill Veterinary Hospital, we firmly believe that sterilisation is not only good for your pet’s health, it is essential if you want to avoid certain health risks and/or potential behavioural problems. From our point of view, it is also a significant surgical procedure that requires a high level of care and skill.

For the most part, pets live a healthy and event free life, and sterilisation might be the most significant surgical procedure they will have.

Here are some of the reasons why we believe sterilisation is good for your pet:

• Dramatically reduces the risk of mammary tumours in female cats and dogs
• Significantly reduces the risk of prostatic problems, very common in older male dogs
• Removes the risk of life-threatening intra-uterine infections, very common in older, unsterilized female dogs
• Reduces the risk of peri-anal hernias in male dogs
• Reduces the risk of peri-anal tumours
• Removes the risk of other cancers eg testicular cancer, ovarian cancer, etc.  
• Prevents unwanted pregnancies, risky birthing experiences and expensive emergency (or elective) caesareans sections
• Improves your pet’s safety as there is less wandering, less risk of getting into a road accident, less risk of fighting, etc.
• Reduces some of the unwanted testosterone driven behaviours such as aggression, territory marking and roaming
• Reduces the risk of contracting and/or spreading diseases such as Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)

We often hear the complaint that cats and dogs put on weight after sterilisation, but this is not accurate. Their metabolic rate decrease after being sterilised, and hence their energy requirements, but with the correct diet and exercise this should not be a problem.

Pets can be sterilised at any age including during their more mature years. In general however, we recommend sterilising your pet at around 6 months of age, as this successfully prevents many of the problems listed above.

The goal of any surgery your pet will ever have with us is to:

-        absolutely minimize any anxiety for your pet

-        to perform a safe surgical procedure with a fast recovery

-        to eliminate pain both during and after surgery

Our sterilisation or desexing surgeries are NO DIFFERENT to the way in which we approach any other surgery at our hospital, and measures are taken (and included in the price) to ensure that the above 3 things are going to hold true for your pet when they have their desexing operation with us.