Hi Glenys. There’s so much to unpack here. Firstly, as a second-generation veterinarian, I can assure you that back in the day dogs and cats were still desexed, as there have always been sound medical reasons to do so, which you can find from links within the article. Fundamentally though, they sum up to add one year of life to a female dog who is desexed and that is even with good veterinary care. Later desexing at 5 to 6 years of age will be somewhere in the middle, as you will almost certainly still face multiple mammary tumours, and pyometra is well known to occur even this early. As for coming into heat, the associated bloody discharge comes from the vagina, so it will still be produced when the uterus is removed.

Hi Cindy. You’ll find answers to a lot of these questions in two related pages, The best age to desex Border collies and The choices for desexing dogs. Get back in touch if you’re still uncertain. However, tubal ligation should only be considered a temporary procedure to allow for sex hormone presence during growth prior to complete ovariectomy or ovariohysterectomy.

Hi Carol. Tubal ligation should have no adverse affects other than any associated with surgery (and therefore none at all if everything goes to plan). I think it’s a good alternative if breeders insist on early Desexing so that we don’t lose the effects of hormones.

Hi Michele. It’s fair to say that the problems we see with early spay are likely to be greater for the larger breeds of dogs, but they won’t disappear completely for small and toy breeds either. Therefore, the decision to spay before six months of age in any dog will come with some inherent disadvantage, even if it is small. It’s up to each breeder to make an argument that there is enough advantage with earlier desexing to offset this (I can only think of prevention of backyard breeding).

Hi Ania. It’s likely that ovariectomy will have similar rates of urinary incontinence to a full spay procedure. However, it hasn’t been studied specifically to my knowledge and I suspect that your vet may be correct in saying there will be a slight reduction in risk.

Hi Andrew!
Thank you for educating owners on spay and neuter options available in the US. I have two female Westies (10 month old & 3.5 month old) and am considering either OSS or the surgery that only removes the ovariectomy. Is the percentage of urinary incontinence lower with an ovariectomy as well? My vet mentioned that about 10-20% of the hormones remain with the cervix still in place. I would like to give my girls a long life without any health issues and am trying to decide which procedure is beat. Thank you!