Some dogs are fertile for as long as 7 — 9 days
before estrus and 7 — 9 days after it ends.
Not exact matches
If you do not plan to breed your dog, spaying should take place
before puberty and the first
estrus.
However, intact females are also notoriously known for urine marking, especially
before and during
estrus.
Normally, it's performed
before your dog's first
estrus, at about six months of age.
Some say you should let your female go through one
estrus cycle or even have one litter of kittens
before a spay, but that's a myth.
Estrogen is the hormone released during the
estrus cycle has been reported as an important factor in the development of various ovarian, uterinal and cervical cat tumors, which can be prevented by spaying cats when young; preferably
before the first heat cycle.
Spaying
before the dog experiences her first
estrus cycle has 3 benefits: it eliminates the risk of unplanned pregnancy and helps control the problem of dog overpopulation; it eliminates any possibility of uterine disease; and it virtually eliminates any chance of developing breast cancer.
There are no valid reasons for letting a cat have an
estrus cycle or have a litter of kittens
before being spayed.
Spaying
before first
estrus (heat) is no longer recommended by many veterinarians.
Ideally, you should have your female spayed
before her first
estrus cycle, so a spay is generally done when they're six months.
Some veterinarians say that the intervention can only be performed when the female dog is around 5 or 6 months old,
before the first appearance of the
estrus cycle.
Female, unspayed cats are known to knead their paws
before «
estrus,» or going into heat.
Females are sterlized if the aggression has not appeared
before the first heat and if when the aggression appears is clearly associated with the entry into
estrus, pseudopreganancy or preganancy, and the aggression reduces when these conditions are no longer present.
Essentially, these studies indicate that altering a pet
before their first
estrus, or «heat» cycle, virtually prevents what is otherwise the most common type of cancer in both dogs and cats, mammary cancer.
However, the older hypothesis goes, if you combine a number of factors such as radiographing while the bitch is in
estrus or close to whelping (either
before or after), doing the evaluation early in the morning, a lack of muscle tone in the dog because of a sedentary life, and deep anesthesia, it's possible that a number of dogs would show more laxity than otherwise (in the hip - extended view).
Yet a 2009 study commissioned by PetSmart Charities revealed that the most common reason cat owners gave for maintaining an intact female was the mistaken belief that a female cat should have an
estrus cycle
before sterilization.