Pet desexing of male and female animals (castration and ovariohysterectomy) are two of the most common procedures we perform in veterinary practice.

It’s a good idea to desex your pet if you don’t have the time, knowledge or finances to responsibly breed from them. Routine care of a female and her pups can be expensive and time-consuming. this would include vaccinations, special diets and parasite control and more. Also, any medical birthing or puppy health complications can potentially cost thousands of dollars in emergency fees!

Local councils frequently encourage pet desexing by offering cheaper registration fees for desexed pets. This is done to help address the issues of unwanted pets in shelters as well as feral cats and dogs devastating our wildlife.

Correctly-timed pet desexing also provides benefits such as:

• Prevention of pyometra (womb infection) or uterine cancers in females.
• Prevention of testicular cancers in males.
• Reduced risk of urine spraying in male cats.
• Reduced risk of urine marking or humping in male dogs.
• Not having to manage female oestrus (heat) periods. There is also a risk of accidental mating and yowling theatrics in female cats!
• Reduced risk of male rabbit territorial aggression.

We may make a medical recommendation for later desexing of larger dogs at around 12-18 months old. Recent studies indicate this helps with optimal musculoskeletal development and reduces the risk of future injuries like cruciate ligament tears.

When your pet is with us for desexing, we can sometimes perform other beneficial procedures under the same anaesthetic if required. These procedures include removal of baby teeth, repair of umbilical hernias, gastropexy in giant breed dogs to stomach twisting risks (GDV) and removal of hind dewclaws.

If you have any further questions about pet desexing, please give our Pet Doctors team a call on 5576 0400! You can now book your pet’s appointments online.

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