Spay & Neuter Pet Services
At Animal Care Clinic of Rock Island, IL, we encourage you to spay or neuter your pets. This simple procedure stops unwanted pregnancies while providing many health benefits for your pet. It also makes them less apt to spray the furniture and walls of your home as well as leading them to be more attentive to the humans in the household.
What is Spaying & Neutering?
A veterinarian places your pet under general anesthesia and uses a surgical procedure to spay or neuter a cat or dog. You should have your pet spayed or neutered before he or she reaches sexual maturity. In cats that occurs at four months of age, while in dogs it occurs at five months of age.
When a female animal has the procedure done it is known as spaying. The vet makes a small incision in the abdomen or flank and removes the animal’s ovaries and uterus. This ends her estrus cycles and prevents her from going into heat. Neutering is the term given to the procedure when it is performed on a male animal. The vet makes a small incision in the scrotum and removes the animal’s testicles.
The Health Benefits of Spaying and Neutering
Spaying and neutering provides numerous health benefits including cancer prevention. Altering female cats and dogs before they experience their first estrus cycle prevents the development of mammary cancer in 90 percent of cats and 99 percent of dogs. After the first estrus cycle, sterilization still helps reduce the chance of developing mammary cancer but not as much. In females, spaying also helps prevent the development of pyometra, a potentially fatal uterine infection.
The Other Benefits of Spaying and Neutering
Male animals stop roaming and fighting after neutering. This keeps them safer and healthier since they do not get into fights and typically remain close to home. The latter keeps your pet from getting hit by cars or lost. Animals involved in fights frequently experience bites that include an exchange of bodily fluids that can pass the disease feline AIDS and/or feline leukemia virus. Those diseases can also spread through breast milk to the nursing kittens or puppies.
Spaying and neutering results in less unwanted animal pregnancies. These unplanned litters often end up in local shelters and create a burden. Spaying or neutering your pet is an act of compassion that improves their life and the pet population in general.
Spaying and Neutering in Rock Island, IL
Contact our veterinarian at Animal Care Clinic at (309) 788-2232 to schedule your pet for this important surgery today. We offer this safe procedure to the pet community of Rock Island, IL and the surrounding area.