Neutered Surgery For Dogs

Neutering is a procedure that makes a male dog sterile so that it can not be the father of puppies. Perhaps you want to be responsible and keep your dog from fathering any puppies that may end up as strays or put down. That’s an important reason to get your dog neutered. But beyond that there are a lot of benefits of the operation.

Having your dog neutered is far more of a simple procedure than getting a female dog spayed. The dog is first put under general anesthesia, and an incision is cut in the front of the scrotum, and then the testicles are taken out through that incision. Then the testicles’ stalks are cut. After the removal stitches are sometimes added to the incision to promote healing.

What Are Some Benefits Of Neutered Surgery?

There are numerous benefits that go beyond not parenting unwanted puppies:

• Some diseases like testicular cancer and prostate diseases will be less likely to occur.

• His behaviour will calm down since there will be less testosterone in his body. This can reduce stress in the dog owner.

• He won’t mark his territory with urine as often, because neutured dogs have less reason to announce their presence.

• Lower testosterone levels can reduce or get rid of aggressive behaviour and roaming.

• If your dog is older, neutering can reduce the size of an enlarged prostate.

When Should I Get My Dog Neutered?

You can get your male dog neutered anytime after 8 weeks old. In the past many vets suggested that you wait until the dog hit puberty at around 8 weeks old, and some vets still recommend this.

Dogs that get neutered before reaching pubert tend to grow bigger than dogs neutered after the onset of puberty because testosterone’s effect on bone growth. Most dogs reach puberty at around 5 or 6 months old.

Some people think that they don’t have to have their dog neutered if his testicles don’t descend. This is false. Dogs without descending testicles generally have get tumors in the testicals than regular dogs.

Getting your dog ready for surgery

Prior to surgery, blood work is normally offered to check if your canine is healthy enough to undergo surgery, and that he doesn’t have any health problems that could influence what anesthesia should be used. Usually, young and healthy dogs don’t need this presurgical blood work, but it never hurts to have that information.

You should take the advice of your veterinary clinic over my advice, but generally speaking the dog shoud avoid eating for 8 hours or more before the surgery. This is because the anesthesia might cause nausea. Drinking water, however, is ok.

What Will Happen After The Surgery

• Your dog can usually go home the day of the operation.

• The canine may be a little nauseous and refuse to eat for a couple of days. There is no need to panic if this happens. He will eat when his body tells him to.

• Your dog will have a swollen scrotum for a few days after the procedure. Many dog owners see this and wrongly think that the dog still has his testicles and that there was some mistake. But really, that is just swelling. The swelling may be worsened by the dog licking the incision.

• If your pooch continues licking the stitches or pulling them out, you can use an Elizabethan collar (the big lamp shade-looking ones) around his neck to stop him.

• If stitches were used, they will have to be taken out after 7-10 days. The number of days depends on what kind of stiches were used.

• After the neutered surgery a puppy’s scrotum will become flat as he gets bigger. But adult dogs that get neutered will always retain the flap of skin that is the empty scrotum.

• A bit of light bruising can take place near the incision

What to Be Careful Of After the Surgery

If you notice some discharge coming from the incision, or if your dog seems to be in a lot of pain, get in touch with your vet. Dogs don’t usually need pain killers, but it sometimes happens.

Remember to use an Elizabethan collar to prevent licking of the incision and stitches if your dog continues to do so. The collar can cause some problems for mobility and cause some crashes into walls and furniture. But they are often a necessary evil.

Dog Catarac Surgery

Once a dog’s eye has developed a cataract, there is no way (that we know of) to eliminate the cataract without surgically removing it. There are some kinds of nutritional supplementation that can help prevent or limit the worsening of the cataract’s development. But to eliminate it it must be removed surgically. Hypermature cateracts can start to develop some clear spots, but of course you wouldn’t want to rely on that happening.

But just because surgery is the only total solution, that doesn’t mean that your dog needs cataract surgery. Most dogs with cataracts do not need surgery because their opacities are small enough as to not significantly interfere with their vision. Humans get cataract surgery very frequently, because we find them annoying and in a society where we have to drive cars, operate appliances, read documents, and so forth, having an opacity can be a real problem. But for a dog who just keeps you company and likes to play, an opacity doesn’t become a serious problem until it obscures his vision enough to inhibit his life. It’s important to remember that dog catarac surgery is a surgery intended to improve your dog’s quality of life, not save it’s life. So if the catarac isn’t cramping your dog’s style, then let it be.

A veterinary opthamologist will help you determine if dog catarac surgery is necessary. If your dog has severely inhibited vision, or is bound to become that way, then surgery can be a way to give your dog a new lease on life. Especially with older dogs who may also have lost their sense of hearing, being able to see can restore joy and meaning to its life.

How is the surgery carried out?

You may be familiar with the way that catarac surgery is carried out on humans, and in dogs the surgery uses the same equipment and procedures. First the veterinary opthomologist makes an incision in the eye and then a hole is made in the capsular bag holding the lense. A process called Phacoemulsification is then performed in which the cloudy lens is removed with a special probe. The lens’s capsular bag remains, but there is no longer a lens so an artificial one called an IOL (intraocular lens) is inserted into the bag. The intraocular lens can be either rigid polymer plastic or a soft foldable lens (this is determined by the veterinary opthamologist). The dog’s eye is then sealed up with tiny absorbable sutures.

Since any tiny amount of damage inside the eye can cause serious problems, the surgery is carried out under high magnification with an operating microscope. During the procedure the dog is under general anaesthesia.

How Will My Dog Be After the Procedure?

After successful surgery, your dog should be able to regain almost full normal vision. But since the replacement lens is an artificial one, perfectly natural vision is impossible to achieve. Dogs get some inflammation after the surgery, more so than in humans, which leads to some scarring. This can be limited with some anti-inflammatory drugs and oral antioxidant supplementation. Basically, the return of fully functional vision is the norm, even though some visual problems may still be present.

In some rare cases, it is impossible to insert the IOL to replace the old clouded lens. In such a case, the dog will still be able to see. But he will be more far-sighted and have less focus on near objects. Vision is still possible because the cornea does 2/3 of the eye’s focusing, while the lens does 1/3.

Be aware that the cost of dog catarac surgery is high. This is because of the special equipment and expertise of a highly trained veterinary opthamologist that are required. Even if you have pet insurance, don’t assume it covers cataract surgery because there is often a clause excluding genetic conditions, and cataracts are often a genetic condition. Look into this thoroughly before you commit to such a procedure.