To spay or not to spay?

[Googlybearwazowski]

Hi all

We have a 4 month old labradoodle X Springer spaniel bitch. MIL is pushing us to have her spayed to prevent her getting uterine infection/cancer however I am generally of the opinion that keeping things natural is often best... So I am looking into it further and thought I'd ask here as part of that. We've always had rescue dogs so they've always been done before we for them so this is my first puppy.

Thanks

[BiteyShark]

I have a dog so haven't researched this much but I thought the risk of Pyometra increases each time an unspayed bitch goes through a season.

[twinnywinny14]

Current advice is to spay unless you are planning to breed. We didn’t at first because we wanted to see if we would breed her at 2yo but we didn’t, then it was difficult to find the right time and money etc so she wasn’t spayed until 5 and she calmed down loads and was much more settled, plus no more seasons or phantom pregnancies!

[SilverHairedCat]

Risk of unwanted puppies, risk of pyometra, issue of kennels / day care / dog walkers refusing to take on an unspayed bitch in season when you need assistance in future (even if you think it unlikely you'll need it right now), dealing with dogs trying to get to your bitch in season every time she's in season?

Have your dog spayed. Be responsible.

[LEMtheoriginal]

Your MIL is right. Its heartbreaking having to tell an owner thrir dog didn't survive the surgery for pyometra because she was already too toxic to take the aneasthetic. All because she isnt speyed

[Sugarpiehoneyeye]

I have recently had my girl speyed, after her first season, she had a phantom pregnancy. These generally reoccur.
The risk of Mammory Tumours and Pyometra, are high in old age, so it's a no brainer for me.
Three weeks on, she's happy and well !

[t00dle00]

Spay.

All my dogs are done. I couldn't take any risks with any of them. The risk of cancer in the breeds of mine are too high not to.

[QOD]

My chi has just been spayed. 1 season 1 phantom pregnancy and terrified of pyrometra and the extra risk of her being stolen as she’s tiny and cute and uses for breeding

[Lynne1Cat]

I think it would be highly irresponsible NOT to have your dog spayed.

[fleshmarketclose]

We had our rescue spayed recently. She's almost nine had been repeatedly bred from. I was anxious to have her done not least because of all the risks to her health but also because I didn't want the mess or to have to manage walks and time outside the house when she was in season. The vet warned with her being older it might take longer for her to recover but within a couple of days she was fine. She seems to have a new lease of life since so who knows she might have had some pain as the vet said her uterus was very flaccid from over breeding. I can't think of any good reason not to spay tbh.

[Googlybearwazowski]

Great, thank you all. I will talk to the vet about the best time.

[Sugarpiehoneyeye]

Good choice OP, there are many benefits to speying.🐾

[almondsareforevermore]

Usual advice now is to spay after first season. When you’ve gone through three weeks of bleeding, misery, confinement and worry you’re not likely to want to ever do it again and will be eager to get her spayed.