Choosing to spay or neuter your pet is one the most important decisions you can make for the overall health and longevity of your pet, and your pocket book. In addition to saving the lives of so many pets, especially the hordes of stray cats that are starving to death and without shelter, water, and warmth.

Moreover those droves of cats that are homeless, have no shots to keep them free of the multitude of diseases that have invaded our communities today.

Hopefully this blog will explain why it's mandatory to spay or neuter your pets - all of them.

Health Purposes

Spaying your female pets help prevent uterine infection, breast cancer,and mammary tumors (which is fatal in 90% of cats and 50% in dogs).

Neutering your male cats and dogs can prevent testicular cancer and reduce the risk of prostate enlargement.

Spaying and neutering your pets can also improve mood, and reduce weight and laziness.

Spaying and neutering can help prevent the transmission of zoonotic diseases like rabies to humans.

Spaying your female pet prevents heat cycles and eliminates yowling, crying, erratic behavior, and bloody vaginal discharge.

Spay/neuter is cost effective. Emergency surgery for a uterine infection can cost thousands of dollars to save your pet's life, while a simple neuter costs much less. It also helps your pet live a longer, healthier life.

Roaming Purposes

The decreased lifespan of unaltered pets can cause an increased urge to roam, especially when they are in heat, searching for a mate. Once altered, their hormonal drives typically subside, making them less inclined to wander far from home.

Roaming can lead to being hit by a car, fights with other animals, getting lost and other accidental mishaps.

Cats love to roam and explore because they are curious creatures and they love to be outdoors. When outside, if you don't have a high vinyl or metal privacy fence and secured like fort knox, they are sure to roam, and can cover a wide array of distance.

But there are dangers out there. They may come into contact with toxic plants, other wild animals, and may even go missing or taken by someone who thinks they're homeless.

My late husband and I put up a high vinyl privacy fence around our backyard so they can go out and play. He secured the grounds to make sure they could not get out anyway shape or form - He worked hard at it and was creative also. It sure saved on my fear and stress, knowing I can let them out to play without having to go batty.

If you can afford to do so, it would add to your longevity, too.

And fresh air is SO good for them, dogs and cats alike.

Create An Indoor Cat Paradise

If you have to keep them inside, remember, they need exercise and fresh air, which means you'll want to create an indoor cat enrichment for their environment. Open windows to let in a breeze. Give them access to places where they can watch you when you're outdoors, like the top of a bookshelf, or a tall cat tree.

Create a cat play room especially for them filled with non-toxic plants, cat toys, cat scratchers, cat trees and towers and window views. And plain ole sturdy tables too.

Create a nook with comfy cat beds, cute hammocks, or a playhouse that you can purchase on Amazon.

Make a cat condo. A large cardboard box is the perfect foundation for a cat condo. Cut a doorway and reinforce the sides with tape to ensure stability.

Be sure to have a seating place for yourself so you can watch them play and interact with them.

Put in a doggy/kitty door so they can come and go as they please, and don't forget to add a litter box.

Pet population control

Spaying and neutering is essential for population control. It prevents unplanned pet pregnancies, and future and unwanted litters. It reduces the number of homeless animals and overcrowding in shelters. It also significantly saves the lives of animals from having to be euthanized each year.

Every year, millions of cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters because there are more pets than there are responsible homes for them. Until this issue is resolved, American Humane believes that all cats and dogs adopted from public or private animal care and control facilities should be spayed or neutered (i.e., sterilized).

In addition, a host of animals, especially cats, are dropped off in neighborhoods, fields, and farms, and those who are pet lovers take them in. This causes stress on pet lovers because they have one more mouth to feed, vet bills, and additional work if one happens to be sick. This is not a task for the faint of heart, and requires an enormous amount of time and patience.

When these pets are dumped, thrown away and discarded, they are scared, hungry, pained, lonely, heart broken, sad and live in misery. Some are even tortured by fire, hanging, sexual assault, beating, choking, or wounding for their own sadistic pleasure.

Abandoned cats will often struggle and eventually die within weeks or months.

In addition, those who dump cats on another human being is cruel and unfair. For pet lovers cannot bare to see animals go hungry, to suffer and die an agonizing death out in the wild.

Furthermore, these cats are not feral (as people today proclaim), they are abandoned or lost without human contact or care. We need to tell it like it is. They get used to the outdoors, but they do not like it. They're just afraid and don't trust anyone anymore because humans have been so unkind.

We need to take responsibilty for our pets and spay/nuture them, so we can put a stop to the torture of these sweet, precious animals.

All they want is love, care, and attention, just like the rest of us.

When Should You Spay Or Neuter Your Pet?

Cats

According to the American Animal Hospital Association - Female kittens can enter their first heat cycle as young as four months, but usually not until they are five or six months old. AAHA has endorsed the “Fix Felines by Five” initiative, which recommends sterilization of cats by five months of age.

This recommendation prevents unwanted litters and greatly decreases mammary cancer risks in female cats as well as spraying/marking in male cats, but still allows kittens time to grow. Kittens sterilized at this age quickly bounce back from surgery.

Dogs

According to the American Animal Hospital Association - Small-breed dogs (under 45 pounds projected adult body weight) should be neutered at six months of age or spayed prior to the first heat (five to six months). Large-breed dogs (over 45 pounds projected adult body weight) should be neutered after growth stops, which usually is between 9 and 15 months of age.

The decision on when to spay a large-breed female dog is based on many factors—your veterinarian can help narrow down the recommended window of 5 to 15 months depending on your dog’s disease risk and lifestyle.

The one rule is to not knowingly spay a female dog while they are going through their heat cycle as that may exacerbate excessive bleeding.

When I get an animal, I take them to the vet immediately to have them checked out. Then I make an . appointment for their spay/neuter. I've always had my cats fixed at 5 mo, if they hadn't been already. My dogs all were fixed before I got them, except for Peaches.

If you're unsure, its best to consult your veterinarian.

Conclusion:

It is our responsibility to stop generations of suffering by having our female pets spayed and our male pets nutured. And, don't allow them to breed and add to the pet overpopulation problem.