Spay 7 year old dog?

Dr. Marie replied:

Thanks for asking such a great question Rick. I know it is often difficult to think of your "baby" going through surgery. However, in almost every case I am a HUGE fan of spaying a dog at any age.

The biggest concern that I have with an unspayed female dog is for pyometra which is a very serious infection in the uterus. When dogs get this, they need an emergency spay surgery and the cost can be several times the cost of a regular spay. It is definitely life threatening if a dog has a pyometra. The only way to prevent it is to have her spayed.

It's not a bad idea to remove the lump as well. Mammary lumps can be difficult to diagnose. It sounds like this one had infection which is probably a good sign. However, the only way to accurately know whether it is cancerous or not is to actually remove it and send it away. (Or in some cases I will remove just a portion of the lump and send it away for a diagnosis, but if this is a small lump then it just makes sense to remove the whole thing.) One unfortunate thing though, is that spaying Shadow may not prevent more mammary lumps from forming. If you spay a dog before her first heat it will greatly reduce the risk of developing mammary tumors. The risk is still reduced if we spay her before her second heat. But, after that, the risk still remains even if she is spayed.

There are other tumors though that can be totally prevented by spaying Shadow such as ovarian cancer and uterine cancer.

Dogs recover extremely quickly from a spay surgery, even if she is 7 years old. It is truly amazing to see how well they do. If this was a human having this surgery, we would be out of commission for 6 weeks or so. But, for a dog, you will likely see that she is a bit groggy from anesthetic drugs for 12-24 hours and then slightly off for a day or two. You'll likely find it hard to keep her quiet after that.

As far as removing the lump goes, this will add almost no extra discomfort.

The one negative that I find with spaying a dog is that she will be a little more predisposed to gaining weight. I recommend reducing her calorie intake by 30% after she is spayed as she won't need as many calories.

I hope this helps with your decision. Let me know if you have more questions.

Dr. Marie.



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