Glad to hear your kitten recovered well, and thankyou for doing the right thing ^^
I'm alarmed that anyone here polled in as being against spay and nueter; I strongly doubt that we have 3 AKC dog breeders and showers on this board. What is the possible disadvantage, aside from a minor routine surgical risk? Please, people declaw, crop, and dock, exposing the animal to surgical risks with absolutely no health benefit every day, yet when you ask them to do something that could help a pet live longer, its suddenly an issue.
Dogs and cats spayed prior to their first heat have almost no incidence of mammary cancer whatsoever. Dogs who are never spayed pretty much will get mammary cancer. The chance of uterine or ovarian cancer is eliminated by spaying. Dogs and cats who are spayed will never suffer a false pregnancy, which can lead to pyometria, a potentially fatal infection of the uterus. Cats will be less likely to get FIV, as it primarily is spread through mating and fights over mating and territory. Spayed animals roam less, which could save them from being hit by a car, lost, or stolen. And, unwanted pregnancies which add to a burgeoning stray crisis will not happen with a spayed or neutered pet.
Dogs and cats who are nuetered young seldom develop unfavorable behaviors like marking, territorial fighting, roaming to seek females, and male-male agression. The chance of testicular cancer is eliminated, the risk of prostate cancer is reduced, and the chance of perianal hernia is also reduced. Nuetered cats are much less likely to end up with abcesses and fight wounds, as well as diseases like FIV. Neutered dogs are typically less agressive and less territorial, which means a decreased bite risk. Both will not roam as much, which again reduced the risk of being injured. And your males will not be impregnating other unsterilized animals; just because the pregnant dog isn't yours doesn't mean you aren't completely, equally responsible.
Spay and nueter does NOT change your dog's personality significantly. It only reduces/eliminates gender-specific behaviors, which are by and large completely unfavorable, and potentially dangerous to your pet's health. Rover will still be playful Rover, just without attacking every intact dog that walks by. Whiskers will still be friendly Whiskers, but without shoving her rump in your face and screeching half the year.
Spay and nueter does NOT post nearly as serious a risk to your pet's health as keeping him/her intact does.
Spay and nueter does NOT make your dog overweight! Overfeeding and inadequately exersizing does.
Dogs and cats do not know much of anything is different. Animals under anesthesia have no recollection of what happened, and because thier concept of gender identity is relatively limited, they aren't going to feel like less of a male or female because of missing parts; dogs and cats are not people, so no, they don't have self esteem and aren't self pitying. You're anthropomorphising if you think a dog seriously sits around and contemplates his lacking testicles, wondering if 'the guys' will make fun of him and thinking of never being able to get laid again. Hell, if you're that worried, buy nueticals, non-toxic artificial testicals so your dog still feels something bouncing around between his legs.
Finally, for those of you saying dogs and cats should be allowed to mate at will, l ask you this:
- Is mating really a choice for dogs and cats, or something they are merely instinctively driven to do? The fact that they only mate while in heat (yes, I know male dogs hump things, but it is a to relieve a mating drive, not because they're enjoying it) suggests they are not doing it for pleasure.
- Isn't it much more inhibiting to a dog or cat to leave it with mating organs and thus, a sex drive, and deprive it from mating because you don't want a litter, than to remove the mating organs so there is no sex drive? I think a nuetered dog is much better off in regards to sexual frustration than an un-nuetered one, because he doesn't still have the urge to mate.
