Quick Facts about early-aged pets neutering Although it might seem that neutering of early-aged kittens is quite a new occurence, it has already been practiced for more than 25 years in North America. The neutering of early-aged kittens is usualy peformed within 8 and 16 weeks instead of traditional 5 to 7 months of life period. The aim of this surgery is to sterilize cats and dogs in the animal shelters before giving them out to the new owners. It is the most reliable way to assure that the number of homeless animals would not increase. Surgical sterilization is aknowledged to be the most effective way to control animal reproduction. Research shows that, despite the economical incitement a lot of cats and dogs taken from shelters still have their first farrowing before being sterilized. The owners of pets were not prone to neutering even though the discounts were applied for the surgery due to promotion of implementative programs. That is why about 1/3 of cats and dogs are brought to the local shelters because they come from undesirable issue. American Veterinary Medical Association supported the concept of early-aged neutering in 1993 after the resolution was adopted by the House of Delegates: - It is recognized that the VMA supports the concept of dogs and cats, in order to stop the overpopulation of animals;
- Since 1993, the American Animal Association and the American College of Veterinary surgeons confirmed the position with a support for the early neutering.
Prepared by Susan Little DVM, Diplomate ABVP (Feline Practice) Our Program In our shelter "Lesė", we used to often find out, that animals, adopted out from our shelter, were let to have one or more litters before being spayed or neutered. These kittens quickly find homes, but take away the possibility of finding a home from shelter animals or animals, living on the streets. There are much more homeless animals than people who need a companion...
We have talked with Lithuanian companion animal veterinary doctor association president S. Laurusevičius. He has confirmed that early spaying or neutering does not have a harmful effect on the growth of the animal. On the contrary, young animal recovers faster, the possibility of having breast infections or cancer is reduced and the younger animas have fewer surgical and post-surgical complications. The development of new anesthetics and surgical procedures has made these procedures as safe or safer than the commonly accepted time of six months.
We have decided to use the program that modern shelter in other countries use, and adopt out only spayed female kittens (due to lack of funding, we sometimes adopt animals out with a Spay/Neuter contract, that permits us to take away the animal if it has not been spayed or neutered by the age of six months). Spay/neuter is done when the kitten is two months or older, using inhalation anesthetic, that is safer for young animals. The cost of this operation is 140 LTL, that is about 60$ or 35 GBP and it is done in the veterinary clinic of Filaretai. The cut after the early spay/neuter is much smaller which lessens the possibility of infection.
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