Growing interest in hormone sparing dog sterilization and recommendations for standard identification methods

Abstract

Sterilization methods for pets have been around for more than a century, but the practice of spaying and neutering dogs varies globally, from being considered a standard of responsible care in some countries to an infringement of animal welfare in others. In the US, advocacy for spay/neuter programs became widespread in the 1970s to address canine overpopulation. More recently, research on the impact of canine neutering has identified potentially serious health and behavior consequences of removal of the gonads and associated sex hormones that appear to be influenced by sex, breed, age and environment. An alternative is hormone preserving sterilization, including hysterectomy and vasectomy, which allows population control while maintaining natural hormone concentrations. Informal analyses regarding alternatives to traditional spay/neuter indicate that interest from the public and veterinarians has grown in the last 2 years, public demand for veterinarians who offer alternatives is increasing and although most veterinarians acknowledge the pros and cons of gonadectomy, the number providing hormone preserving sterilization is very low. Given current trends toward individualized medicine and increasing public demand, it is likely that the number of practitioners who offer vasectomy, hysterectomy or other hormone reserving sterilization procedures will grow. Now is the time to develop standard methods of identifying dogs who have received such procedures, so that they do not unnecessarily undergo a second surgery. Following an analysis of current practice and available identification methods, we recommend that simple green tattoos be applied to the inguinal area (“X” for hysterectomy and “V” for vasectomy) to identify sterilized dogs.