HELP! sophie pregnant?

[~Jessie~]

All of my dogs are neutered... and we have actually always had problems keeping weight on Madison! He is 2 years old now, and was neutered at the age of 6 months... he has always been on the skinny side, and is finally filling out now. He has not gained any weight (except on his last puppy growth spurt). They are all just as active as they were as puppies (trust me, it takes sooo much to wear these pups out!) and the oldest is 2 and the youngest is 1.

 

[Whisper]

^^ I agree. Altering should not make a dog overweight. My dogs are spayed and they did not gain weight after desexing. It's up to you and control of their food and exercise.
I don't buy the excuse of when someone says they don't want to alter because their dog will gain weight.

 

[~Jessie~]

Even if dogs did gain weight and become lazy after being neutered, it is still a much better alternative than bringing more "oops" puppies into the world, your bitch getting pyometra, your dog getting testicular cancer, sexual frustrations and the instict to mate, etc, etc.

Pyometra is a scary, scary thing. A few weeks ago we were picking Heartgard up from our vet's office, and there was a woman picking up her cat who was just spayed... she had pyo, and almost died. The kitty was 4

 

[noludoru]

Comprehensive article on mismate drug, procedures, reasons for the mismate, and alternatives:
www.vetmed.lsu.edu/eiltslotus/theriogenology-5361/cannine%20pregnancy%20prevention_3.htm

With that posted.. The only thing I want to say that people haven't said yet is.. if your family afford to provide proper care for your dogs, why on earth are you keeping them? As another [smart] poster mentioned, the price of a low-cost spay/neuter is certainly as much as the cost of internet ($45 for a spay, $30 for a neuter around here). If surfing the web is that important to ya'll... *shrug*

I was Sophie (or hell, even Harry--prolonged sexual tension with zero gratification isn't fun, it's akin to torture) I would certainly want to be spayed, rather than risk all of the crap that happens to unspayed bitches--not to mention the actual heat cycle and how "fun" that must be, I'm sure.

With all of that now said... your excuses for not neutering are, at best, flimsy.

 

[mrose_s]

we can afford to care for them. but recently we moved across australia, rented a house, paid $500 a week to board them while we found a house plus our hitel costs, moved all our belongings including cars, mum is still paying mortgage on our last house (which we were relying on to sell fast and hasn't) as well as the rent on this one. thats without day to day costs like food for us and the animals and frequents trips to the vet.

we can afford our animals. we havn;t taken on 5 pets when we don't have the money. we've taken on 6 pets over 9 years and its just recently that the finances have become tough. it'll fix itself up with in a month or 2. its just now.

 

[Boemy]

I would get her spayed, which will abort if she's pregnant. She's (at least) nine years old, definitely too old to safely have puppies.

Either that, or rehome your intact dogs of one gender or the other. Only have intact bitches or only have intact males.

Also, spayed / neutered dogs do not become fat unless overfed or under-exercised. My spayed female lab / border collie mix was as tall as a labrador and weighed 45 - 50 lbs all her life. (She was built much slimmer than a lab needless to say, LOL.) She practically had a wasp waist. And we were free-feeding her!

I know you don't have total control over your parents' dogs, but please try to convince them.

 

[Laurelin]

Well, Nikki DID get overweight after spaying, but I don't think it was due to spaying just a combination of factors. None of our other spayed or neutered dogs gained any weight whatsoever.

If she is nine (I'm not sure) I'd definitely get her spayed as that could be very dangerous for her.

It's not bad to keep intact dogs in my opinion (You can argue the health benefits on both sides), but only if you can keep things like this from happening.

Do you know if she is pregnant yet?