Spaying Your Older Female Dog

While acknowledging the serious dog population explosion, some owners have a hard time deciding to spay or neuter their pet. There are many thoughts and questions that go through the mind when trying to decide to have your dog spayed such as:

"It will take away her femaleness. It might make her mean. She’ll get fat. I don’t want to put her through the pain and suffering of an operation."

"Even though we don’t want any more puppies, won’t a spay operation be harder on my older female dog?"

"My dog Maggy is almost ten. She’s had 25 puppies, and has earned her AKC niche. She’s pulled her weight and has made us enough income to have covered all her dog food and veterinarian bills. Even though she’s now retired, wouldn’t it be better to have her retain her baby making machine?"

Most dog owners admit that there is a serious dog population explosion, but when it comes to spaying or neutering the family pet, that decision because of its personal nature, is hard to make.

These common questions have one thing in common. They are primarily using human thought patterns while failing to take into consideration of the health advantages of spaying your older dog.

There are many reasons to have your older dog spayed. This article will discuss the advantages of spaying especially from the health viewpoint.

Accidental Breeding can be hard on the Older Dog

Female dogs don’t go into menopause like humans. Therefore, their bodies don’t get a break from having to reproduce young if breeding occurs. Even a fourteen year old dog can still bear pups. An accidental breeding past the age of seven can cause severe physical problems for the female and may prove deadly to both mother and pups. Spaying an intact female dog at this age will prevent the worry about an accidental breeding and let your dog spend the rest of her life without the stress of reproduction.

Birth Defects Won’t Be Passed Along

Although not strictly an older female dog problem, spaying or neutering will prevent congenital defects from being passed along. Breeding dogs with physical problems that are genetic like hip dysplasia, undershot or overshot jaws, congenital blindness, cleft palate, and other defects should not be done. It is unfair to pass along these defects to puppies and unscrupulous to sell or give puppies to others that harbor these defects.