Practice News
 Puppy Love - Teenage mums and unsuitable fathers!Tuesday 17th March, 2009
*PUPPY LOVE*
Katy Mold BVMS MRCVS
We often receive calls from worried owners whose bitches have been accidentally mated by undesirable suitors, either when they have escaped from the house or garden or have been off the lead on a walk, or very often in their very own homes by their male companions. Although there is a course of injections we can give to terminate these unwanted pregnancies, at our practice we strongly recommend neutering bitches that are not specifically intended for breeding. In most breeds this can be done at as little as six months old even before their first season.
The benefits of neutering a bitch are overwhelming, both for us, and our beloved pets.
Neutering can dramatically reduce the risk of mammary tumours and prevents ovarian and uterine cancers altogether. Spayed bitches also avoid nasty and potentially fatal uterine infections and miserable phantom pregnancies than can recur season after season. Not to mention the horror of unwanted matings.
Living in a household with entire un-neutered dogs of different sexes can be a stressful experience for all concerned, especially for the 6 weeks of the year when the bitch is in season (bitches tend to have two seasons a year on average, each lasting approximately 3 weeks). Their male companions are often driven mad by the scent of the hormones she is producing and become fixed on nothing else but getting to the bitch. They will often go off their food and damage property during the 3-week season.
Unwanted matings spell trouble. Often companion dogs are closely related and breeding these dogs can result in severe birth defects and problems. If the bitch is mated by an unknown dog while unaccompanied, who knows what breed or size the culprit was and this can result in large puppies that are unable to be delivered naturally through the birth canal and so are born by caesarian, often in the middle of the night, and at considerable cost to the owners.
If you think your bitch may have been mated and it wasn’t planned, we can give her a course of two injections 24 hours apart, anytime up until 40 days after the mating, to terminate the pregnancy. We cannot confirm a diagnosis of pregnancy by ultrasound until at least 28 days after the last mating, so you may wish to wait until this time to see if the injections are necessary. The longer you leave it after the mating, however, the less reliable the drug. This relatively new drug is much safer than the “morning after” drugs of old, however there is no better and surer way of preventing this, and the other issues mentioned, from happening than to spay your bitch.
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