Spay & Neuter

The team here at Clarksburg Animal Hospital is proud to offer safe and conscientious spay and neuter surgeries for dogs and cats. There are places where these procedures are offered for a lower cost. We offer reasonable pricing without cutting corners on their surgical care.

Your pets will get the same time and attention behind the scenes that you have come to know from us in the exam rooms with you. We handle them carefully, monitor them closely, provide pain management (narcotics and local anesthetics) and nausea medications. Most pets will get microchipped at this time and we’ll check to make sure all of their baby teeth have fallen out properly. We send them home with you the same day with additional pain medication(s) and instructions for their care and monitoring during recovery.

Timing

The proper timing of a spay or neuter procedure depends on the species and breed. We don’t recommend spay or neuter procedures prior to 6 months without a very specific reason. Cats generally have this surgery performed at 6 months old. The appropriate age for dogs will depend on their size and a few other health conditions that need a bit more maturity to resolve before we proceed with spay or neuter. We will guide you through the options for timing during their puppy and kitten visits.

Special Considerations for Dogs

It has been shown that dogs who are expected to be over 50 pounds at adulthood have better orthopedic health if they are 1 year of age before getting spayed or neutered. Waiting until after a first heat for females and until 1 year of age for males can lower the risk of hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia and torn cruciate ligaments in the knee (like an ACL tear in a human) by 2 to 6 times depending upon the breed.

We often provide letters to document this so that Rescue groups will allow you to wait a bit longer than they prefer for this procedure. Their short and long term health is of the utmost importance in these cases.

Communications for Spays and Neuters

We will communicate with you before surgery with details you will need to prepare your pet and yourself for the day. We’ll give you feeding instructions, a drop off time, and an estimate for the procedure. You will get a call from the doctor once your pet is mostly awake after the procedure to let you know how the surgery went and to go over instructions for taking them home.

We do many things to make the whole process more comfortable for your pet and ease your worries on such a big day for both of you. Please review our Drop-Off’s, Surgeries and Worries page for more detailed information on the things we do.

Clarksburg Animal Hospital is proud to provide spay & neuter services for pets in Clarksburg, Germantown, Boyds, Damascus, Urbana, Ijamsville, Monrovia and the surrounding areas.