We generally recommend waiting until dogs are at least two years old for their first breeding, primarily because that gives us an opportunity to complete their reproductive testing, such as OFA hips and elbows, and some other tests we feel are crucial to run before dogs are bred. There are some people who will breed younger. We never want to breed on the first heat cycle, although sometimes dogs plan things a little differently than we do so we want to be aware of that. In general, we also try not to breed much over the age of eight and recognize that dogs older than six tend to have about a 33% decrease in their fertility. So the older female and older male dogs have a decline in fertility as they age. Once we get past eight, we don't recommend breeding most females. The males can be continued to be bred as long as they are still able to produce sperm, and that could be well into their teens.

When your dog wakes up after surgery, we extubate the tube in their throat for the anesthetic. As soon as that's out, we'll give you a call and let you know that they're safely awake. They'll spend three or four hours with us at the hospital, so we can continue to observe them to ensure a smooth recovery. They'll then go home that afternoon.

It takes about two weeks for them to fully heal with the incision, either on their abdomen or on the scrotum. They need to be confined on a leash during those two weeks when you take them out to the bathroom. You don’t have to confine them while in the house. They can run around, but they will need a cone to stop them from chewing on their incision.

There certainly can be. Just as with people, every anesthetic carries a risk. We can reduce that risk to a tiny percentage with good surgical patient selection. Part of the procedure will involve a pre-anesthetic exam, blood work to check for underlying health issues, and we also recommend an ECG or an EKG to check for underlying heart disease. Occasionally, there will be a little bit of bruising or swelling in the scrotum on a male dog, particularly on a larger, intact male dog that is more mature. We can get a bit of clipper burn. Shaving the wrinkly skin on the male dog scrotum can be very challenging. The female dogs have nice, flat abdomens, so it's much easier to shave them, and we don't get issues with clipping them. Occasionally, you’ll see the infection of the incision if the pet is chewing. To minimize that, we put a cone on them, which we recommend you keep on them for two weeks until we do a final checkup.

There are more significant complications that are incredibly rare, and we have been lucky enough or, instead, we try to be skilled enough that you don't experience coming here. You could get damage to another structure in the abdomen if the surgeon is not experienced. Again, these things are pretty unlikely, but it is an excellent reason to go to a veterinary hospital versus a low-cost clinic. The significant advantage of a full veterinary hospital versus a low-cost clinic is the anesthesia. We have a dedicated, registered veterinary technician with each patient the whole way through the procedure. We don't line up seven pets side-by-side and walk down a conveyor belt. That's a big difference at a low-cost center that doesn't have one-on-one care. And we strongly recommend the blood work and all the pre-anesthetic screening.

Surgery is painful. We provide post-surgical pain relief for all dogs getting spayed or neutered. It's the same if you went for a lump removal or went for any surgical procedure yourself. You'll be provided with peri-operative pain relief and also pain medication to take afterward. So their pain is minimal, and the benefits vastly outweigh the small discomfort they get from surgery.

Part of any surgical procedure involves a pre-anesthetic veterinary appointment. We’ll do a nose-to-tail exam, checking for any other signs of disease or heart murmurs that would affect the anesthetic or surgical recommendations. We also check to see that a male dog has two testicles, and we look for signs of mammary tumors in a female dog. We'll also do some screening blood work to check for underlying kidney or liver problems and clotting diseases. We can now offer an ECG or EKG to screen for heart disease, which is a lot more common than we previously realized.

A spay is for a female dog, and a neuter is for a male dog. In a spay, we remove the ovaries and sometimes part of the uterus. In a castrate or neuter, we remove the dog's testicles.