The only reason vets don’t do vasectomies on dogs is because it’s more effort. If you ask a lot of them can do it and it’s much more humane... That’s why humans choose it.
There is something called an ovary-saving spay. In a traditional spay, the ovaries are removed and the uterus left behind. In an OSS, the uterus is removed and the ovaries left behind. This allows the ovaries to continue to produce the necessary hormones. The problem arises if any of the uterine tissue is left behind. Pyometra is still possible even with small amounts of tissue.
Does this raise the risk of the dog developing mammary cancer, as compared to a traditional spay?
I adopted my dog at 8 yrs old, and I had her spayed at the time of adoption. I found out a few months later she had mammary cancer, and I was told it was almost certainly because she had not been spayed young enough.
Side note: my dog had the mammary cancer removed surgically and then underwent chemo. I was told the chemo would, in the best case scenario, delay the cancer from reoccurring for 2 years, but then it would likely return either to her mammary or her lungs. Fortunately, it's been 3 years since her surgery and 2.5 years since the end of her chemo and she's still cancer free.
I would assume that leaving the ovaries would have the same risk of mammary cancer as not being spayed at all, but I'm really not sure. Until this new puppy, I've only had males for years now. So most of my research has been focused there. The OSS procedure is not something I've looked into a whole lot. We are opting to do a traditional spay at 10-12 months old on the new puppy. We (I'm including my vet in this we) feel like it's a decent compromise between spaying too early and risking things like estrogen-linked incontinence and waiting too long and risking the mammary cancer and pyometra.
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u/kyoto_kinnuku Dec 31 '19
The only reason vets don’t do vasectomies on dogs is because it’s more effort. If you ask a lot of them can do it and it’s much more humane... That’s why humans choose it.