Surgical and postoperative complications of prepubertal ovariohysterectomy in dogs

Abstract

In this study, a total of 25 clinically healthy, six to eight week old, mixed breed female puppies were used to investigate the surgical and postoperative complications of ovariohysterectomy performed at 10 weeks of age. Fourteen animals were completely ovariohysterectomized (group Po) in a routine manner and eleven animals were sham operated (group Lp). No deaths occured during the surgical procedures whereas three puppies died during postoperative period because of infectious diseases. In group Po, two animals had both surgical and postoperative complications whereas five animals had only postoperative complications. In group Lp, no surgical complications occured but two of eleven puppies had postoperative complications. Of all the animals that participated to the study, 36% had complications and 64% did not have any complication. No significant differences were observed in the number of surgical and postoperative complications between the groups except suture reaction or incisional swelling (p<0.01). Apart from the infectious diseases that resulted with death, no other postoperative complications required a medical treatment. These findings suggest that, in dogs, complete ovariohysterectomy with proper anesthetic and surgical techniques performed at 10 weeks of age is a safe and reliable contraception method.