An overview of pediatric spay and neuter benefits and techniques
The most effective way to ensure that animals adopted from shelters do not reproduce is to spay or neuter them before adoption. Voucher programs or prepaid spay-neuter programs in which arrangements are made at the time of adoption to have an animal spayed or castrated at a later date simply do not work for the majority of these animals. The national compliance rate of these programs is < 40%.2-4 With preadoption spays and castrations, compliance is not an issue, obviously.
In the shelter environment, we recommend spaying or neutering dogs and cats before adoption and as young as 6 weeks of age. In a practice treating owned animals, we recommend scheduling one more appointment at the end of the puppy or kitten vaccination series. With this schedule, puppies and kittens are spayed or neutered before 5 months of age, before sexual maturity.Ovariohysterectomy or orchiectomy of pediatric dogs and cats is supported by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and is becoming increasing popular, especially in the shelter and high-quality, high-volume spay-neuter environments. The AVMA policy statement says, "The AVMA supports the concept of pediatric spay/neuter in dogs and cats in an effort to reduce the number of unwanted animals of these species. Just as for other veterinary medical and surgical procedures, veterinarians should use their best medical judgment in deciding at what age spay/neuter should be performed on individual animals."5 Other organizations supporting pediatric neutering are the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association,6 the British Small Animal Veterinary Association,7 and the American Animal Hospital Association.8
ADVANTAGES OF PEDIATRIC SPAY AND NEUTER
In addition to the commonly accepted health benefits associated with ovariohysterectomy and orchiectomy, such as reducing the incidence of mammary neoplasia and behavioral problems, pediatric (between 8 and 16 weeks of age) spay and neuter offer additional advantages. They are effective tools for dealing with the overpopulation of unwanted dogs and cats. The surgical procedures are easier, faster, and less expensive than they are in adult animals.9,10 With shorter surgery times and shorter anesthetic episodes, the incidence of perioperative complications is low.9 Anesthetic recovery and healing are shorter than in adults as well.9,11