No, your dog's personality will not change after they're spayed and neutered. If they're a little sweetheart and love to be loved on, they're going to be the same. If they are a little bit assertive and maybe have aggressive tendencies, then those aren't usually going to change either after they've been neutered because those are more behavioral concerns as opposed to just spaying and neutering.

This is not an uncommon question. The answer is sometimes. We often are spaying and neutering dogs when they're about six to eight months of age so they're going through that rapid puppy growth and then they're slowing their puppy growth down. We're still feeding them like they're a young puppy so there is a time where we're intervening during their growth and development. They're apt to gain a little bit more weight. Often it's very controllable, we really just are more likely to just have you be more mindful of their calories. There are dogs after we spay them that just want to become fat. Some of it is because their hormones have changed and now we've taken away testosterone and estrogen, but just because we spay and neuter them does not mean they're going to get fat. If they do happen to get a little over nutritioned then we simply need to partner with you and get them to lose some more weight.

Yes, we send all of our post-operative spay and neuter puppies and dogs home with post-operative pain management. It is not optional, it is required and we send it home with you.

The average recovery period is about one week before we lift restrictions and allow your dog to go back to its normal activity.

Absolutely. We want to make sure that you know what we want you to do when you take your little dog home, so we're going to write it all down for you and we're going to give you written instructions. We're either going to hand them to you or we're going to digitally email them to you, ideally both.

A common misconception is that you should wait to spay your dog until after it's had its first heat cycle. We don't recommend this as it can increase their risk of pyometra and breast cancer or mammary tumors. In male dogs, the longer we leave them intact, the more likely they are to develop behavioral issues, such as aggression or urine marking behaviors. Other misconceptions relate to the safety of general anesthesia. We are always here to discuss and alleviate any concerns you may have about the procedure.

The length of the procedure depends on the doctor and their experience level, but generally, from the time of check-in to going home, it's around six hours. The actual surgery itself may only take the surgeon anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes for a spay, or 10 to 20 minutes for a neuter. However, the time it takes for us to prepare your dog for surgery and for it to recover afterwards, makes up the majority of the time.

Complications with spaying and neutering are rare, but we do see them occasionally. The most common complication is a dog licking their surgical incision. We encourage pet owners to have a plan in place if your dog starts to lick their surgical incision. We recommend using an Elizabethan collar, a Kong collar, or a surgical garment to protect the incision. Other complications include infection, swelling of the abdominal area, draining fluid out of the incision, and in rare cases, the wound can open up. For male dogs, licking the surgical site and swelling or infection of the scrotum can occur.

A spay and a neuter is a surgical procedure. We have them under general anesthesia and give them perioperative pain control because it is a surgery. If we do our jobs really well, we premedicate the dog with pain medications to help alleviate pain. We use local nerve blocks and anti-inflammatories. By the time we get them through the procedure and into recovery, they should be comfortable, and we provide post-op pain medication to keep them comfortable at home.

A dog neuter is a dog castration. We carry out the lead up to a neuter the same way as a spay - pre-medications, sedation, IV catheters, getting the dog under general anesthesia. We hook monitors up, put them on their backs, and then we surgically prep the penile testicular area. Most veterinarians make an incision just in front of the scrotum, push both of the testicles forward through that incision, and then remove them. We then close that incision up. That's a neuter.