Neutering - when & why?

Health Benefits

• Neutering your female dog will reduce the risk of mammary tumours (breast cancer).
• Neutering will also eliminate the possibility of your female dog contracting the life-threatening infection, pyometra (uterine infection).
• Castrating your male dog eliminates the risk of testicular cancer.

Behavioural Benefits

• Prevent phantom pregnancies in your female dog.
• Neutering stops your female dog from coming into season. This will make your dog walks much easier and should help reduce unwanted male attention!
• By neutering male dogs, you will take away the hormones that encourage them to wander – this will therefore in turn reduce the chances they could get lost, stolen or involved in a road traffic accident.

When should I neuter my dog? 

Daventry Vets recommend booking an appointment with one of our vets to discuss the benefits of neutering and to ask any questions you may have about the procedure. Neutering can be carried out from 6 months of age and can vary depending on size, breed and temperament.

Health Benefits

• In male and female cats it decreases the risk of FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus) and FeLV (feline leukaemia virus) which can be spread by mating
• Male cats especially will wander a lot during the breeding season are are more likely to be hit by cars and get into fights.
• Neutering also reduces the spread of infectious diseases from mother to kittens as once neutered, no more offspring can be born.
• Furthermore, it provides important population control, meaning fewer unwanted kittens and strays.

When should I neuter my cat? 

Daventry Vets recommends neutering both male and female cats from 5 months of age. Contact our team for more information or to book for your cat’s surgery.

Rabbits are widely known for reproducing rapidly and if you are planning to keep rabbits of the opposite sex together, you need to neuter your pets to stop unwanted litters.

Daventry Vets recommends neutering female rabbits between 4 – 6 months of age, whilst we recommend slightly younger for male rabbits, 3.5 – 4 months of age.

As well as reducing the risk of tumours in your rabbits’ reproductive organs, it also reduces aggressive behaviour towards both other rabbits and people.

It is not common practice to neuter guinea pigs. However, they are social animals but may need neutering to live in an opposite sex pair. Guinea pigs can mate from as early as two months of age so precautions should be taken early on in your guinea pig’s life to prevent unwanted litters. Only male guinea pigs are usually neutered.

Contact Daventry Vets  for more information and to discuss whether it is advisable to have your guinea pig neutered.