Here at the Maraboon Vet we all believe that pets are a very important part of every family. However, becoming a pet owner also comes with a lot of responsibility for their health and well being. Pet owners have to ensure that their pets are healthy and kept up to date with all their vaccinations, worming treatments, flea and tick preventions and any other medications they may need as well as seeing that their pet is desexed (especially if they are not planning on breeding from them).
Having your pet desexed is a very routine procedure that has minimal risk and many benefits. One of the main emergencies we see at Vet Clinics are stray animals tragically being hit by cars or pets attacked by other pets (who are wandering the streets. Unfortunately the majority of these wandering pets are intact (not desexed) pets. Intact animals have a much greater urge or tendency to wander to find themselves mates. This can sadly be prevented in a lot of cases by having those animals desexed to be happy to remain in their yards and away from danger.
Another major issue within the Central Highlands Region is the number of stray animals going through the pound and CQ Pet Rescue, due to stray animals breeding and accidental litters from undesexed pets roaming. This is a tragic issue as many of these animals need to be Euthanised as they are unable to find a loving forever home.
By having your pet desexed you also provide your pet with major health benefits other than keeping them from roaming and increasing stray animal numbers within the community. By desexing male pets you very significantly decrease the risk of testicular, prostate and perianal cancer and by desexing female pets you very significantly decrease the risk of ovarian, mammary, and cervical cancer. It also improves behavioural issues like aggression, improves trainability and reduces their roaming tendency.
The desexing procedure is generally a day surgery, the pet is dropped off in the morning with and empty stomach, they will have the procedure completed and are ready to go home that afternoon. The incision site takes 10 – 14 days to heal and your pet needs to be kept quiet with no running, jumping, bathing or swimming for this time period to ensure they do not reopen their incision. They are normally sent home with a cone to wear for this period as well to ensure they are not licking or scratching at the area. You are also able to provide them with post-operative pain relief to help their healing process.
If you have any further questions or are wanting to book your pet in for desexing contact your local veterinarian.