So have a gorgeous female shih tzu who is a year old, she's a character and everyone in our household adores her, whenever anyone leaves her company for a few minutes she's jumping everywhere and sending love, obviously we all adore this, my problem is, I want to get her spayed, already had to cancel one appointment as a colleague of my husband said it will calm her down and hubby likes her jaunty nature but as she is due into season in July I'm worried. We are off to the vets for her booster vac plus worming and flea drops so would appreciate some persuasive thoughts x

Sorry should have made clear off to vets later on

Hi OP, all I can do is share my experience with you.

I lost my beautiful 11 year old Border Collie a few weeks before Christmas, she got Pyometra, I have never heard of it until my beautiful friend died from it.

I will regret every day of my life not getting her spayed, if she had of been, her odds of developing pyometra would have been dramatically reduced. 1 in every 4 unspayed Dogs will get it, as far as I know it virtually never happens if they are spayed.

I will live the rest of my life regretting not having her spayed, she was far too young to die and should still be with us, enjoying life.

I don't know much about if it changes a Dogs personality or not, but she'll still be your girl.

Just please consider the possibility of pyometra happening, research it and let your partner know the risks, so you know the pros and cons of spaying properly.

I know for sure, any future girl dog I adopt, I will have her spayed. I can't put into words how horrific it was seeing my beautiful little soul mate, who adored life, die from something preventable, I just wish I'd known about it before it was too late, I would have had her spayed in a heartbeat if I had.

Let us know how things go xx

So sorry about your baby, am researching now, will let you know how I get on but will definitely get the vet to chat to my hubby, my thoughts are that she's due in season around July so her summer will be pretty miserable if she's not done before then but you've given me extra reason to think so thank you and big hugs xx

I've heard the health arguments about spaying but I am still on the fence about it. Will do a lot of research before agreeing to it with another dog. My border collie clung to me and cried all night after being done. It was horrendous.
Don't recall being sent home with any pain relief. Please ask about this if you go ahead OP.

This is one of my worries that she will be in pain and blame me, I couldn't bear that and the worry of the anaesthetic, so I swing from thinking its best or she will be stuck indoors for weeks when she is in season to thinking is that such a bad thing, she's only small so doesn't need much exercise and I have a back garden I can sit outside with her, it's difficult

I have almost zero experience in this area.. but I'm currently fostering a 10-year old dog who hadn't been spayed. She had been dumped in a pound with a false pregnancy, various growths, including tumours in her mammary glands (50% likely to be cancerous) and the lady running the charity said it's very common in mature dogs which haven't been spayed. You could do a search on mammary lumps in dogs to read up a bit more.

https://www.acvs.org/small-animal/mammary-tumors

My wee charge had quite a lot of surgery on Wednesday (they extracted 36 teeth, removed tumours and growths and spayed her. Added to that has been medication for a false pregnancy - again a result of her not being spayed - and antibiotics for a badly infected mammary gland. I imagine the medical bill will be in four figures by the end. Had the charity realised she had tumours, they'd not have agreed to take her and the pound where she'd been left would have put her down.

After anaesthetics, dogs are poorly anyway, so the first 2 days were horrible: she was nauseous, her temperature was plummeting easily, and she needed a lot of encouragement to drink or even lick any food - so giving medication took patience. Nevertheless she was really happy to go around the block on the evening of the second day, and thereafter. Five days later, my partner has just given her a ten minute walk around the garden, and on return she went straight to the front door wanting a longer walk outside. She's still in pain, and is sleeping or just lying most of the time, but remember that it wasn't just a simple spaying - 36 extractions and removal of lumps, bumps and a couple of mammary glands. Lots of little walks, dog TV, tastier food than usual and plenty of love will always help a wee dog to be happy. She's perking up more quickly than I'd anticipated. I would just advocate that if you get your dog spayed, you should take time off work and cancel any social commitments, so you can safeguard and care for your dog in the first ten days of recovery.

My opinion, to judge by this experience, is that spaying is horrible, but the worst part is the recovery from the anaesthetic.. By getting her spayed, you're probably helping her to avoid anaesthetics, pain, upset, medication and pricey medical bills when she's older, and possibly giving her a much better chance at life if she does end up changing hands for any reason.

I hope this wasn't too detailed! Good luck with making your decision. Don't worry about your dog blaming you.. As long as you're there to tend her during her recovery, the bond will be just as strong. She'll probably hate going to the vet though.

Like the other poster, having had this experience with this lovely little dog, I'd definitely have a dog of mine spayed at the earliest possibility. Dogs tend to get more sedate as they age anyway, but I think their behaviour is a lot to do with their temperament, and she's not going to lose her personality and spirit just because she got spayed.

The only dog I ever had change behaviour after neutering was a nervous male, my females have all been fine and if you could see my spayed Labrador still at 2 acting the fool like a puppy you would be reassured I am sure.

I only ever kept one female entire and seeing her life cut short by an aggressive female cancer that would have been stopped had I spayed her like the others well the guilt I feel about her is enormous still.

As for worrying they will blame you for the pain, never happens as they are so pleased to see you when you pick them up from the vet and then you pamper them for days while you wait for stitches to come out, they just love you to death after it.

I'm firmly in favour of spaying for the reasons above. I was once in the out of hours vets and a couple there were at their wits end. Their girl had pyometra and needed an urgent spay or wouldn't last until morning, they were ringing round friends and neighbours to borrow the money, it was expensive due to out of hours and it being a much much more complex and dangerous surgery than a routine spay. A colleague of mine almost lost her dog as pyometra came on so suddenly, the only sign was that she was just a bit quiet not herself and not eating. Fortunately the vet picked up on it and she was operated on immediately. Someone not so cautious could easily have missed it.

One of ours took to the sofa for 5 days post op then got up, said I'm better now and our biggest problem was stopping her bouncing around for another week. Our greyhound came home and made a big fuss and whined for days despite plenty of pain relief but she's mardy girl. After 2 wks she was running around off lead with the vets approval. They're all different but I would always spay unless there was a strong medical reason not to. She will get quieter in time as she ages and you could always get her a friend!

I've never had a dog's behaviour change after being spayed/neutered.

My youngest dog didn't bat an eye lid (I know it's a much bigger operation for female dogs than it is male). But he went in at 9 I picked him up at 1 he wasn't woozy or in any pain. He felt sorry for himself for about 30 minutes until I gave him some chicken and that was it. I think he was just hungry as he'd not eaten since the night before. He is still as mental now as he was before he was done. He then spent the next week trying to kneecap everyone with his cone of shame.

My eldest dog is an utter drama queen and will heave a heavy sigh at everything because it's all so much of an effort for him. He was also perfectly fine. A little sleepy but no more clingy than he usually is and he didn't hate anyone after.

Spaying can now be done via keyhole. Which is obviously much less invasive so ask your vet if they have that available maybe.

I can well believe this! The little lady here was and is a very sick little lady, but since the second evening, she's been loving her frequent wee walks. I think she'd be far better if I was allowed to spoil her a bit, let her sit on the sofa and give her attention, but the charity have told me I am not allowed to do that.

Always spay a female if you don't intend breeding from her. Not doing so can lead to problems such as phantom pregnancies and far worse, pyometra and mammary tumours which can kill, and you've also got the risk of actual pregnancy, which brings its own problems. Dogs can be caught no matter how careful the owner is, some have 'silent seasons', a season with no visible symptoms so you don't know their pregnant before it's too late. Spaying won't change your girl's personality but pregnancy sure can. Yes there's a risk with surgery, as with any surgery, but vets spay hundreds of animals without problems, and the risk of pyo is far higher than the risk of surgery. Besides which, if she got pyo she'd have to be spayed anyway as it's the only way to cure it ( if your lucky enough to catch it in time that is).

Don't worry about her 'blaming you', dogs aren't like people, they don't think like that. She will not blame you for the simple reason she won't know anything has been done to her. Dogs don't think that way, they don't think "oh something has been removed that I had before", their not programmed like us, they don't miss what they've never had, they don't wallow in sorrow or regrets, they live purely for the here and now. That's why if they have to have a leg removed they adapt so quickly. They don't think about what they've lost, they just adapt to what is now. Any offhand or strange behaviour after surgery is the anaesthetic wearing off not your dog 'blaming you for stopping her becoming a mummy'. Dogs have puppies because nature makes them procreate for survival of the species not because they want puppies. No dog wants puppies, their just responding to natural instinct, however if your not going to let her respond to those instincts, it's far kinder to remove the urge completely. She won't know anything about it , she'll just be a healthy, happy dog whose behaviour and temperament doesn't alter every six months or so due to a switch in her hormones.

Thanks everyone for your advice, I'm just back from the vets and he mentioned as most of you had, pyrometra and how life threatening it is, plus the fact that if she was able to be saved it would be a much more costly operation, minimum four hundred pounds, I think it's persuaded my hubby to get her spayed and if not i will persuade him.

Thanks again for all the replies, with that and the vets advice I feel a lot happier that I'm doing the right thing x

We followed vet's advice and got ours spayed at 6 months. We were advised that it's best to get it done asap if you're not going to let them breed. It was a difficult day (for us, as well, worrying about her), and she did have a rough night afterwards, but it was soon forgotten. We now have a new pup and will be doing the same for her. We believe the long-term benefits outweigh the very short-term discomfort of having the op.

I think in a lot of ways it's worse for us waiting and worrying. Whenever I drop ours off for anything I always drive off in tears, I think it's just a natural reaction but anaesthetics are so much safer these days and ours are nothing like as dopey afterwards as they used to be.

Something no one mentioned is that seasons can be messy and they're not happy during it especially when they're desperate to mate. Their hormones are all over and it really isn't nice for them if they are badly affected.

Yes they can be and I'll admit that asides from the benefits to the dog, the reason I had mine spayed was so I wouldn't have to deal with messy seasons. Admittedly not all are, some are quite good at being clean, but sod's law would probably have given me a messy one to deal with. I also didn't want all the neighbourhood dogs on the doorstep, plus there's a hound pack kennelled in the fields above my house, imagine all of them howling non stop. There's very good reasons to spay a dog, both for the dog and the owner.

We've been on the other end of it with a male dog who wasn't done because he had a bad reaction to an anaesthetic ( it's years ago) and if he got the scent of a bitch in season our lives were hell. He jumped a 6'6 fence (and he wasn't a jumper) in his desperation and camped out on their doorstep. We took him in the car for a walk to fields a couple of miles away to try to break the smell. He pulled the lead out of my hand and made his way straight back, wonder he wasn't knocked down. When he got older we had to take him to the vets for an injection once as it was making him ill, howling, not eating, pacing not sleeping. It was a nightmare.

Vet said today that the cancer risk was low as she had been through two seasons but then that made me feel bad that I'd inadvertantly put her at risk

My goodness, that's some determination. And luck that he didn't get run over as their minds go and they wouldn't think twice about dashing down the road if there was a ten ton lorry speeding towards them. Personally I'd always opt to have a male done too as it just makes life so much easier. I've seen so many people say they've got both a dog and a bitch, neither of them neutered, in the same house. Apart from asking for the inevitable to happen, the howling, whining, non stop pacing and constant attempt to reach each other would drive you crazy. I know breeders can do it as they usually have their own facilities to house them or means of kennelling them as my friend does it, but an average pet owner doing so is madness. Dealing with one of them would be bad enough, trying to deal with both would have you as wound up as the dogs!

This is another reason I was anxious, my baby was in season last month and the dog three doors down barked everytime we went in the garden so she could pee or just sniff around, felt guilty for the owners

Oh should add that made my hubby a roast once we got home and then asked him again once he was relaxed and he agreed to get her spayed, she's our first dog, we are slightly suffering from empty nest syndrome and she's our joy and I think he's more crazy about her than me, well almost, it really helped after the vet had his chat to show him this thread while I made his tea, spent a bit on booster vac today plus checkup and three months worth of flea drops and worming tablet so will book her in next payday around 26th of March which will give her time to recover before the summer, again thank you and I will post an update after her surgery. Xx

Don't feel bad - we can only go on what the vets tell us, and they aren't all in agreement. xx

Exactly the same situation here - empty nest, etc., and husband is besotted with the girls. We're sure we made the right decision, though. x

Ha ha
The local free roaming 'Jack the lad' is a torment when next door's bitch is in season. Walls and fences are no obstacle to him. On the last occasion he took to guarding their parked car and even following it. They had to stop and turn him back at least once. The object of his affection wasn't even in the car but her scent must have been on it.

Female cats and dogs who are not bred from and who are not neutered may very well get pyometra which is the womb filling up with pus and can be extremely dangerous to the health of the animal. I get all of my animals male and female neutered as a matter of course, for health reasons and to avoid unwanted litters.