Pets and neutering: To snip or not to snip?

Neutering our pets is a contentious topic and the science around it is murkier. Pet parents can make an informed choice by knowing their options.

When Pippi shows off his intelligent or goofy self, we often delve into how much we’d miss him when he isn’t around. To lighten our mood from the impending gloomy thoughts, we joke about having Pippi Jr continue the khandaan. A brief second later, reality strikes — Pippi can’t make puppies! When we first met him as an adult street dog, Bengaluru’s BBMP had already done the honours: Pippi’s ears (and testes) were snipped and he was neutered. Thankfully, we were spared from wrapping our heads around one of the most contentious issues in pet parenting.

Neutering is a surgical procedure where an animal’s reproductive organs are removed. Typically, it involves cutting off the testicles in males, and the ovaries and uterus in females. Compared to many other surgeries, this is a simple and safe procedure at the vet’s, and our pets bounce back to their original selves in a couple of days. In India, city municipalities have been neutering street dogs after the Supreme Court prohibited killing them to control their numbers. In recent years, the practice is catching up with pet parents too.

Hormonal urges

One of the biggest benefits of neutering our pets is preventing the hormonal urge to seek a mate or produce an accidental litter. We love our pets to death and don’t want them to elope in search of a mate and get into trouble, or give birth when we don’t have the time or resources to care for the young. For me, this lesson came the hard way. About 25 years ago, when I had my first dog Ramana, we didn’t know much about neutering. When he was a year-old handsome fella, the adulting hormones (read testosterone) got better of him and he took flight when he sensed a female in heat. Although he returned home after a few hours of frantic search, the damage was done — he had eaten rat poison on his adventure and we lost him in a couple of days. Would he have survived if we’d neutered him? Maybe.

Many vets also vouch for the health benefits of neutering — it prevents conditions like pyometra (an infection of the uterus) and pseudopregnancies in females, prostate cancer in males, and canine venereal disease in both. I learnt this too the hard way. Belli and Rinky, the two adorable female dogs we adopted about 20 years ago, came to us as puppies. Although we had no intention of breeding them, we knew nothing about spaying (neutering females is called spaying in vet speak). So, they would go into heat (aka oestrus) every six months, and there was absolute pandemonium in the house.

The hormonal fluctuations meant they would often get on each others’ nerves, and resolving their territorial fights was a task. All the Road-Romeos of the doggy world would queue up at our gates, and taking the two out to do their business was super stressful for them and us. A small nuisance was the spotting of blood; doggy diapers are a godsend today, but back then, that burden fell on mom. After a month or so of some cycles, Rinky would experience pseudopregnancy, and be extremely grumpy and moody! Although we were successful in avoiding unwanted litter in their lifetimes, pyometra caught us totally off guard. After eight years of love, we lost Belli to this dreaded disease that progressed rapidly. Would she have survived if we’d spayed her? Maybe.

Is it a no-brainer?

On the face of it, getting our pets neutered seems to be a no-brainer — it’s convenient, beneficial and easy. But, the science around this is grey. For one, neutered pets lose the amazing benefits that testosterone and oestrogen provide. Apart from regulating the reproductive cycle, these hormones prevent certain cancers and age-related cognitive decline. Studies have also shown that in some breeds of dogs, neutering increases the risk of bone cancers and lymphoma. It could also increase anxiety and other behavioural problems in male dogs, contrary to the myth that neutering fixes it. As with any surgical procedure, neutering could have unintended consequences like incontinence (lack of control over urination).

Knowing what I do about fixing our pets, what would I have chosen for Pippi if I could? Well, the answer isn’t obvious but I’d have probably picked a middle ground. There are now neutering procedures, like vasectomy and hysterectomy (removal of the uterus), which can prevent mating and accidental litter but retain the production of beneficial sex hormones. I’d probably sit down with my vet and discuss my options, assess their costs, weigh in their benefits and risks, and choose one that suits his age, health and well-being; just like I’d do with everything else for him! Until cloning becomes mainstream, Pippi Jr would have to wait!

Tailspin is your monthly column on everything that’s heartwarming and annoying about pet parenting.

The writer is a science communicator and mom to Pippi, a five-year-old rescued Indie, who is behind her drive to understand dogs better. She tweets at @RamanSpoorthy