Hi Guys,

So my little girl Bella is now a year and 2 month old.. I have been thinking of spaying her as this is the norm from what I heard, but after doing a lot of research I am finding that spaying can cause hormone defiency and many more problems than spaying can avoid, I don't ever leave Bella UN-attended or without a leash nor do I let her out in her heat cycle, I am very careful and don't risk getting her pregnant plus she is an in-door/home pet.

Is the spaying a better thing for her heath-wise or should I avoid it?

I believe spaying is usually better in most cases. On the flip side of those horror stories about dogs who were spayed and had issues there are dogs who go their lives unspayed and develop a condition called Pyometra and often die of it. A dog that isn't a breeding dog and is unspayed is at a high risk for this. Dogs who were spayed incorrectly are also at a high risk for this.

A happy medium seems to be an OSS spay. They spare the ovaries so you still have the benefits of the hormones but remove the uterus so no puppies and no risk of Pyometra. It is a more complex spay so it will cost more and you will have to find a vet that is capable of doing it if you wish to go this route, but it seems to show promise. In my opinion it is always better to spay, even if it's a traditional spay, because you never know when an accident can happen, dealing with bleeding is a real pain, and if your dog does develop Pyometra later in life it is nasty and horrible. At her age she has received many of the benefits of having her hormones through her growing period so she should be perfectly fine even with a traditional spay.

Jenn has great points, i also believe there are reports out there that if female dogs do not get spayed or are spayed later in life they can get breast cancer.

i always feel spaying is better then not, at her age she should be fine, i think anything past a year is better then doing it as a young puppy.

I agree with the above. After the dog has grown is seems that the benefit of the hormone to help grow was there. But  by18months they should be fully development. So I usually say spay the dog and if you wanting to be extra cautious and do not want to do it at 12 month I usually suggest to wait until 18 months. So your age would be appropriate. Definitely suggest the "spare the ovaries" surgery if you  are concerned for the hormonal reason. The research shows enough suggestions and horrors for spay and the non spay side.

Hey guys,

So I went to the  in vet morning as scheduled and told the vet I want to spay Bella but keep her ovaries; he said okay he has no issues in doing that type of surgery but there are cons to it which I will just explain as he did to me.

Once he removes the Uteras and keeps the ovaries they will still release an egg and that egg will release estrogen which will also release progesterone therefore with that happening she will go into heat and still bleed as the eggs that fall off into her stomach and must be be removed/destroyed by bleeding.

There are chances of false pregnancy symptoms such as her producing milk and other stuff that I forgot.. (dunno how true that is) also with the bleeding the chance of pyoderma is not eliminated and therefore Bella could still develop pydoerma which is the main reasons I want to have her spayed and also she would still have the chance of the mammary tumor- cancer due to her ovaries producing those hormones in addition to breast cancer.

Now I asked how come that is possible as we will take out the Uterus he said no it’s the hormones the Estrogen that will cause those things to come and the heat bleeding can cause pyodermia.. now would you guys know if he is correct?

I mean I though by removing the Uterus we sterilize her and remove the danger of pyodermia and mammary cancer and we avoid the bleeding. He said he knows how to do the producer and he graduated in Endocrinology and Spay specialization from Vet school, but he never did it for any dog due to not being requested...

I was going to do the full spay, but we did a chest X ray and there was food in her tummy she stole some food in the morning therefore we postponed the spay to Sunday.. this could be God’s way of giving me more time to research and do my homework before I take the decision.

I personally  don’t want my dog to have hormonal imbalances or problems that come with full spaying.. also I don't wan't her to get cancer if it can be avoided

What do you guys recommend..?

A full spay removing of cervix, uterus and both ovaries reduces the risk of mamary/breast cancer and pyo. Doing an OSS spay will have the dog left with the hormones so yes having a heat and possible false pregnancies is a possibility. If the removal of uterus and cervix is done properly she should not bleed and risk of pyo is at almost the same level as a complete spay. The key is having those two items completely removed. PYO is when something is left behind, or no spay done at all. If this vet has never done an OSS spay I would probably opt to do a full and complete spay, and not use my dog as his first time doing the procedure. Many who do the OSS spay compete in some form of kennel club sports, technically the animal is still intact which is a requirement in some kennel clubs. If she is full grown and or has had at least one heat, at this point since you are not competing in any thing, I would do the complete spay.

Hello guys

So I dropped Bella off to do her Spay a few hours ago and her surgery was successful, they did run per-anesthesia blood tests on her which I didn't understand and the doctor said her blood is okay.. which I don't believe is true, would you guys be kind enough to maybe advise on the reading of her blood tests:

I'm not stellar at reading them since it seems every office results look a bit different. I would say that your vet saying that her blood results are "okay" is factual. They aren't perfect but when you consider all the nutrition issues you've had with her eating from a young age there isn't anything here that is unexpected. For the purpose of setting anesthesia and having a safe surgery the MCH and MCHC values being on the higher end isn't a bad thing. Means she isn't anemic and won't bleed out. If they were on the low end then she would likely be anemic and would have issues with bleeding. Higher LYM levels could just be from stress or if she's had a UTI recently but since the other values are normal I wouldn't worry about it. From my experience being on the high end of values in a few areas are not a lot to worry about. For the most part she isn't way high beyond normal, just on the higher end of normal for most dogs. And again, only in a few areas, not all. Being on the low end of things in my experience is more a tell of issues because then you could be looking at anemia and liver damage and things of the like. Periodic blood work is always nice to have done so that you can set a baseline for what is normal for your dog. Just the same as in people her normal might not be other dog's normal and that is okay if that is the case. I would have her blood work done at least once a year so you can start setting a baseline so that one day if she is way out of range for herself it is more obvious.

I would not be terribly concerned with that profile - the lymphocytes are probably a normal inflammatory response the insult of surgery. The high mchc (mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration) means the average of the individual red blood cells have a high iron concentration. You may live at high altitude, your dog may have a high red meat diet. Or could be an artifact of the low hematocrit...which, I would expect after surgery as there is at least some blood loss with surgery.

If you truly are concerned, I would wait at least 6 weeks after surgery and have the test repeated. Also, there could just plain be errors/artifact.

Thanks for the feedback guys.. Bella came back home threw up like a few Good times... even something brownish red color but she’s back to normal able to walk and drinking water etc... keeps crying though makes me sad.. will redo her blood work in 6-8 weeks to see how she’s doing thanks again

Throwing up after being spayed isn't at all unusual, I'd almost be surprised if she didn't.

I've brought my last couple of females I've had spayed home later the same day and walking sometimes seemed to be a problem --- "Now I'd do fine if this ground would just stay still!" It takes a good 36 hours, I think, for the drugs to mostly wear off,

Let her drink what she wants but I'd hold off on a full feeding for at least 24 hours - 'course she probably isn't going to feel too much like eating anyway --- she's got a tummy ache!

Speaking about aches, did the vet give you anything for her for pain? Again, for the first couple of days, she's going to be hurting and pain meds definitely help. You don't want her to feel too good, you do want her to be leary of doing things that she shouldn't - jumping, running, etc. so feeling some pain helps to moderate her activity.