There can be. The biggest complication that we look for in our pets is excessive bleeding. When we remove the tissue, we cut off the blood supply to that tissue so that they don't keep bleeding. The concern is always if that isn't done appropriately or the dog has an issue with clotting, there could be a complication, but we triple-check everything to make sure that we are minimizing any risk of complications.

It is surgery, and it is an incision, so there can be a little bit of discomfort. But we give pain medication before, during, and after the surgery, including some pain medication to go home for you to give your pet, to keep them comfortable. We find that our animals do really well and seem comfortable pretty quickly after the procedure.

Neuters are a little bit less invasive. We move the testicles out of the scrotum so we can get to them a little more easily, remove the testicle and some of the spermatic cord and then close up the incision. That's in a nutshell.

We make an incision into the abdomen and remove the ovaries, all of the uterus down to the cervix, and then close back up the abdomen. So it's a little bit more invasive than neutering since you are going into the abdomen, but those are the tissue that we're removing.

They can. We know that intact males, because of the hormones, can smell females up to miles away and try chasing after them. We know that that can be risky, especially out in the country when cars don't know a dog is coming. That can be a dangerous situation. So, neutering an intact male can reduce that behavior.

No, it shouldn't. Things you might see would be a decrease in hormonal behaviors. For example, our intact males can roam more if they smell a female in heat. They might not feel the need to do that. Other things like marking their territory; they might not feel the need to do that with reduced hormones. But it doesn't usually change personality.

Sometimes they can. When you take away the hormones, their metabolism slows a little. In puppies especially, when they're growing, and we're feeding them like they're growing, and then they stop growing, and we spay or neuter them, it can make their metabolism slower, so they can gain weight. It's not guaranteed that an animal will get fat when they're spayed and neutered, but we just have to watch its calories and adjust accordingly.

We usually send it home. We give them pain medication before, during, and after the procedure, but we normally send home a couple of days of pain medication for you to give, just because it has to be a little uncomfortable and to get them through that window. It usually helps to give it throughout before they start experiencing the pain. If you catch it beforehand, you can keep them comfortable versus letting them get uncomfortable and then try to catch up.

Recovery time tends to be about a week for both. It might be a little faster for our males. Five to seven days for our males versus like seven to 10 days for our females. But either way, it's not a long turnaround time. They usually come out of it a lot easier than we do.

Yes. We will send you home with a document, and our technicians or us will go over what to expect for the next couple of days, things to be on the lookout for and answer any of your questions before sending your pet home.