Mammary Cancer
Keep your pet healthy, spay before 5 months of age!
Summary:
If you spay your pet before their first heat, it significantly reduces their chances of getting mammary cancer – for dogs it reduces the risk by 99.5%! For cats, you reduce the risk by 91%
It is so important to spay before 5 months age so your pet can live a long happy life.
Details:
Mammary Gland Cancer 1.Mammary Gland Neoplasms – Mammary gland neoplasms are the most common tumors of female dogs, with a reported incidence of 3.4%, and they are the third most common tumors of female cats, with a reported incidence of 2.5%. Mammary gland neoplasms are the most common types of malignant tumors in dogs. Mean percentage of mammary gland tumors in female dogs that are malignant is 50.9%. In female cats, > 90% of mammary gland tumors are malignant.
Root Kustritz MV. Determining the optimal age for gonadectomy of dogs and cats. JAVMA. 2007;231,1667. 1.Caretakers have their pets immunized because they are concerned about major health risks, perhaps not realizing that in the United States the risk a pet will die of mammary cancer far exceeds that of all other health risks for which they are being immunized. They may not realize, too, that feline and canine mammary cancer is almost entirely preventable but that unlike immunizations – which would be equally effective if given later in life – the protective benefit of spaying dissipates quickly and is lost all together if the delay is too great.
Peter Marsh – Getting to Zero: Using Lessons from Successful Programs to End Shelter Overpopulation in the United States – p 33.
1.Recent research has revealed that cats spayed before their first heat cycle have a 91% lower risk of developing mammary cancer.
DVM 360. Schedule sterilizations early to keep patients healthy. Available at: http://veterinarybusiness.dvm360.com/vetec/Veterinary+business/Schedule-sterilizations-early-to-keep-patients-hea/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/671642. Accessed August 24, 2010. 1.Compared with the incidence in sexually intact dogs, dogs spayed before their first estrus have a 0.5% risk, dogs spayed after one estrus have an 8.0% risk, and dogs spayed after two estrous cycles have a 26.0% risk of developing mammary gland neoplasms when they get older.
Root Kustritz MV. Determining the optimal age for gonadectomy of dogs and cats. JAVMA. 2007;231,1667. ?According to Peter Marsh, cats and dogs in the United States have a far greater risk of dying from mammary gland cancer than from contracting rabies (about 1500 times greater). The morbidity and mortality of feline and canine mammary gland cancer are so great that it takes the lives of 300,000 dogs and cats every year. One could argue that the standard of vet care requires practitioners to advise their clients of this at the first puppy or kitten visit.
