Dr. Edward Pinson, DVM, spoke to the Humane Society of McCormick County recently on the benefits of having a pet spayed or neutered. The Humane Society of McCormick County sponsored a free lecture at the library on July 13th at 3 p.m. The lecture was the first in what HSMC hopes to be a series of interesting topics that will be offered free to the public.

Dr. Edward Pinson, DVM, of Lincolnton spoke on the benefits of having a pet spayed or neutered, as well as guidelines for providing heroic measures to an animal. He also touched on the subjects of micro-chipping a pet and zoonosis, which refers to a group of diseases that can be passed from animals, whether wild or domestic, to humans.

Why spay or neuter your pet? According to Dr. Pinson, there are many positive benefits including the most obvious, the reduction of the population of unwanted animals. An unspayed female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 kittens in 7 years time, while in 6 years, an unspayed female dog and her offspring may produce as many as 67,000 puppies.

In addition, the health benefits to your pet are many. Spayed and neutered pets tend to live longer and are healthier. Neutered early, males will not roam, eliminating the risk of injury from cars or fighting. Spaying or neutering your pet protects them against prostate, breast and uterine cancer, cystic ovaries and a life threatening infection of the uterus known as "pyometra". Once diagnosed with pyometra, the inflicted animal will most always require surgery and a hospital stay. As Dr. Pinson stated: "If you remove an organ it is quite difficult to get cancer or disease in that organ." By investing a little in your pet at an early age, you can ward off pain, suffering and a great deal of expense later on.

Spaying or neutering your pet is a relatively simple and safe process. For males, the procedure is minimally invasive. However, in females, it is considered major surgery and does require a short recuperative period. While this should not deter anyone from having their animal spayed, care must be taken to limit the female's activities and Dr. Pinson warned; "that means no jumping in the lake or the pond for the next 7 days!"

Why then, do many people neglect to spay or neuter their pet? Dr. Pinson said he has heard many excuses, but a frequent one is "I don't want to spay my dog because she'll get fat." He joked, "My wife (Debbie Pinson, who is also a veterinarian) tells me it's similar to turning 30. If I continue to eat like I did at 18, I'll get fat." Your pet's metabolism will change after surgery, but with simple dietary adjustments, like limiting treats, aka, "pet junk food", an animal's weight gain should be minimal if at all.

Another reason cited for not spaying or neutering is the expense. A typical fee for neutering a male cat is about $50 while a dog is about $90. The fees to spay a female are slightly higher at $90 for a cat and $120 for a dog. However if you compare these fees to the expense of treating an animal for an illness it may suffer by not being spayed or neutered, or the effort and expense of finding homes for an unwanted litter, the money involved seems quite small by comparison. The HSMC also hopes to eliminate this barrier to having an animal "fixed" by launching an aggressive spay and neuter program this fall. The program will help provide qualifying families the means to have low cost or in certain cases, free, spay and neuter services for their pets.

Dr. Pinson and the HSMC urge all pet owner's to become "responsible" pet owners by seeing that all their pets are spayed and neutered.

For more information on your pet's health or to schedule a veterinary appointment, you may reach Dr. Pinson at the Lincolnton Animal Hospital, 706 359-4545.

To learn more about the Humane Society of McCormick County, or for info regarding upcoming lectures or the spay/neuter program, you may email at PdproHSMC@aol.com or contact Marilyn Zuch at 864 3913088.