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Old May 23rd, 2007, 02:31 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kascmaly View Post
I know that she went through one false pregnancy for sure. My mother and vet both confirmed it. It's spaying the only way to stop this? :sad: What is it doing to my dog that is so bad.. I'm worried now...
Kas
Spaying will end the false pregnancies. The false pregnancy is brought on by the hormone flux associated with the heat cycle. To my knowledge, in and of itself, the false pregnancy is not harmful.

But I've heard that every year a female is left unspayed, it increases her chances for a mammary malignancy by 10%. There is also the risk of pyometra--uterine infection--in an unspayed female. Two of our dogs came to us intact and both ended up going into heat before we could get them spayed. Both had false pregnancies. One ended up with a uterine infection. Not sure what the actual percentages in the general population are, though. Of course, once the dog is spayed, the uterus is gone, ending the risk of infection.

There are likely other health benefits, as well. And of course, there's no longer the inconvenience of having a dog in season in the house. So there are a lot of good reasons for spaying your girl.
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