To fix or not to fix?

Question

I have a 7 month old weimereimer with a beautiful bloodline. She is a gorgeous dog with a great personality. She is AKC certified. Im having difficulty deciding whether or not to have her spaded. I dont wanna deal with her menstrations, but i also dont want want to make future breeding impossible. Any advice would help. Also, if idecide to get her spaded, is a free clinic safe?

Answer 1

If you want to show your dog, then leave her intact. Otherwise spay her, and it is fine to go to a free spay/neuter clinic, as my dad is a veterinarian and he volunteered to work at those kind of places sometimes, so they have the same vets that a clinic would have.

Answer 2

What have you done with her or plan on doing..competeing in AKC field/hunt events? Navhda events? Conformation shows? Obedience/rally??

Are you prepared to have her hips & elbows x-rayed and OFA/PennHip certified when she is 2 years old?Are you prepared to give other genetic health tests..thyroid, cardio, etc?? Have you carefully researched her pedigree for health, temperament, breed standard longevity?
Next are you willing to take the risk of her getting pyometria or mammary cancer (the risk increases with each heat cycle)? Are you willing to put up with false pregnancies? Are you finacially stable enough to be able to not only pay for all genetic testing,vet exam, dewormings and vaccinations then stud fees, good quality puppy food while she is pregnant and nursing, prenatal & postnatal exams, exams and dewormings for al lpuppies, first vaccinations for puppies, caring for mom and for all puppies for 8 weeks? Are you able and willing to clean up messes after anywhere from 6 -12 puppies for 8 weeks? What happens if mom won't care for puppies, doesn't have enough milk, has toxic milk, develops an infection or mastitis??? are you able to feed all pups every 1 1/2 to 2 hours around the clock for at least the first 2-3 weeks?
You also need to learn all you can about breeding, whelping and newborn care as well as be able to get her to a vet quickly if there are complications and a possible c-section.

You will also need to learn about doing proper paperwork and keeping proper records of registrations, all puppies born, etc and you will need to very carefully screen each and every potential buyer and not sell just because someone has the $$$$$$.

You also need to learn proper terminology...heat cycle not menstruation, spay not spaded, etc

Breeding is an expensive venture and a BIG responsability.

Answer 3

Since your spelling is incorrect (you didn't even spell the breed name correctly) and since you are asking about a free clinic, it sounds to me like you don't have the means to deal with breeding. If you want to breed, your dog should be certified as "best" conformation, genetics, you need it screened for genetic disorders, eyes, bones, everything. And if you are asking about a free clinic, you obviously don't have the means to do this. Not to mention stud fees for the appropriate stud (and not just some joe schmo weimaraner) can run thousands of dollars.

Get your dog spayed. She will still be your sweet and loving baby. And getting her spayed before her first heat reduces her chances of getting cancer dramatically. After her first heat, the chances of her getting certain cancers rises.

Answer 4

First things first - it's spayed, not spaded.
Secondly - you get what you pay for at a free clinic.
Lastly - in the long run, it would be better for her to be spayed. First, like you said - you don't want to deal with her going into heat every so often and menstruating. Also you spare her potential health problems that can arise from not having an animal spayed/neutered.
And personally, I think there are too many stray puppies that need homes out there to be bringing more into the world.
And - it can be expensive. You're responsible for the puppies up until they're ready to leave mom (at least 8wks.)

Answer 5

If you're thinking about breeding, do me a favor and take a look at places like petfinder.com and look at all the animals that are in shelters right now, and look at http://www.weimrescue.org/ to see just one group that does breed specic rescue. Also take into consideration that 1/3 of all animals in shelters are purebred animals that were purchased by people that were not prepared to take on the responsibility. If after that, you're still interested in breeding your girl, please make sure to take her to the vet to be tested for any of the breed specific issues that you wouldn't want to be passed on to her litter. If your vet feels that she is good quality for breeding then you may want to contact your local Weimaraner Club (which you should be able to locate online) to possibly meet with a reputable breeder to discuss your ***** and everything that goes in to breeding.

I will tell you that she'll have to go through at least 3 heats before she is old enough to have her first litter, which will mean a lot of messes to clean up. Then a litter of puppies is a lot of responsibility and time, and also lots of clean up. Then you'll have to consider where you'll advertise puppies, who you'll be willing to sell your puppies to, and what kind of contract you'll be selling with. It's actually a very time intensive experience.

On the other hand, if you choose to get her spayed then she'll have no chance of uterine cancer, and it will make her less territorial, and overall will make her more calm and predictable. With a long nosed breed you'll have less to worry about when she is put under for her spay surgery, so you could feel good about taking her to a spay/neuter clinic, because you know they can probably do the surgery with their eyes closed. Good luck with your decision.

Answer 6

First the spelling is spayed.
Second, to help you decide, go ahead and begin to show her. If she proves to be a champion then she is breed standard and perhaps could be bred, health permitting. If not, then off to the vet.
Her heat cycles should begin shortly if they have not already. It's not just a matter of the bleeding and spotting but also keeping every male in the vicinity away from her. You don't want to end up with weimadors or something...
Cycles last approx three weeks and recur every 6-8 months. If you don't want to deal with it just spay her. She'll be healthier and happier in the long run.
If you want to do something special with her, you could always train her to do agility; weims always excell at it!

Answer 7

some other things to think of is what about teh genetic test that should be done
if you don't breed her until later there is a chance she won't know what to do and then you may be stuck bottle feeding them and that's every 2 hours day and night.
a Free clinic I find to be fine I have had several pets done and have never had any problems.

Answer 8

get her spayed and you wont have to worry about anything ever again! dont go to a free clinic..but animal shelters clinics are usually a little cheaper.

Answer 9

if she is alive then you should probably get her spayed. you cannot have the experience required to really know how to improve a bloodline through breeding.

Answer 10

By having your pet spayed you will definately do away with any future breeding and personaly,I wouldn't be the one to take away any living creature's sex drive.When your pet comes into season you could use a doggy diaper.