S. Romagnoli, N. Krekeler, K. de Cramer, M. Kutzler, R. McCarthy, S. Schaefer-Somi
<p>During the second half of the last century, dogs and cats have gained an important place in many households and their numbers have increased remarkably in many countries. While there are anecdotal estimates of pet ownership by country provided on websites and in the lay literature, there is a lack of peer-reviewed data on the actual world population of dogs and cats, both owned and unowned. These animals may easily reproduce once they achieve puberty if not constantly under control. Therefore, veterinarians are continuously presented with requests to contain or eliminate reproductive behaviour or fertility as a whole in owned dogs and cats.</p><p>The increased presence of small animals in our homes has been paralleled by an increase in dog and cat populations in suburban areas where free-roaming stray or unsupervised animals reproduce uncontrolled, causing public health concerns. Animal shelters in many areas are overcrowded by dogs and cats. Proactive rehoming, adoption and sterilisation policies are being promoted in many parts of the world. However, shelter populations seem to have remained stable and have, despite all these efforts, increased in some countries/areas/municipalities (Crawford et al., <span>2019</span>). Therefore, controlling dog and cat reproduction has always been a key issue for veterinarians working in animal welfare organisations and for small animal practitioners alike.</p><p>The historical approach to controlling dog and cat reproduction has been through surgical gonadectomy. For males, multiple surgical methods, approaches and means of haemostasis have been utilised with success and precise technique is generally based on surgeon experience and preference. For females, removal of all (ovariohysterectomy, OHE) or part (subtotal ovariohysterectomy; SOHE) of the uterus may be performed concomitantly with removal of the gonads. While many veterinary textbooks describe the OHE procedure with ligatures placed and subsequent transection made at the level of the uterine body, it is important to recognise that this is both anatomically and physiologically incorrect. Some portion of the uterus will inevitably remain in the patient and therefore what is being performed, is a SOHE (Mejia et al., <span>2020</span>). SOHE should be avoided as it exposes the female to the risk of developing a uterine stump condition should an ovarian remnant be present, or a progestogen treatment administered at a later date. Ovariectomy (OE) alone is quicker, uses a smaller incision and is associated with less potential complications (Okkens et al., <span>1997</span>). Consequently, in the absence of uterine pathology, and if lack of gonadal hormones is both predicted and desired, these guidelines recommend OE as the preferred surgical procedure for sterilisation of female dogs and cats.</p><p>Laparoscopic sterilisation is less painful and provides better visualisation of all pertinent structures, especially in small breed dogs. Owner familiarity
{"title":"WSAVA guidelines for the control of reproduction in dogs and cats","authors":"S. Romagnoli, N. Krekeler, K. de Cramer, M. Kutzler, R. McCarthy, S. Schaefer-Somi","doi":"10.1111/jsap.13724","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jsap.13724","url":null,"abstract":"<p>During the second half of the last century, dogs and cats have gained an important place in many households and their numbers have increased remarkably in many countries. While there are anecdotal estimates of pet ownership by country provided on websites and in the lay literature, there is a lack of peer-reviewed data on the actual world population of dogs and cats, both owned and unowned. These animals may easily reproduce once they achieve puberty if not constantly under control. Therefore, veterinarians are continuously presented with requests to contain or eliminate reproductive behaviour or fertility as a whole in owned dogs and cats.</p><p>The increased presence of small animals in our homes has been paralleled by an increase in dog and cat populations in suburban areas where free-roaming stray or unsupervised animals reproduce uncontrolled, causing public health concerns. Animal shelters in many areas are overcrowded by dogs and cats. Proactive rehoming, adoption and sterilisation policies are being promoted in many parts of the world. However, shelter populations seem to have remained stable and have, despite all these efforts, increased in some countries/areas/municipalities (Crawford et al., <span>2019</span>). Therefore, controlling dog and cat reproduction has always been a key issue for veterinarians working in animal welfare organisations and for small animal practitioners alike.</p><p>The historical approach to controlling dog and cat reproduction has been through surgical gonadectomy. For males, multiple surgical methods, approaches and means of haemostasis have been utilised with success and precise technique is generally based on surgeon experience and preference. For females, removal of all (ovariohysterectomy, OHE) or part (subtotal ovariohysterectomy; SOHE) of the uterus may be performed concomitantly with removal of the gonads. While many veterinary textbooks describe the OHE procedure with ligatures placed and subsequent transection made at the level of the uterine body, it is important to recognise that this is both anatomically and physiologically incorrect. Some portion of the uterus will inevitably remain in the patient and therefore what is being performed, is a SOHE (Mejia et al., <span>2020</span>). SOHE should be avoided as it exposes the female to the risk of developing a uterine stump condition should an ovarian remnant be present, or a progestogen treatment administered at a later date. Ovariectomy (OE) alone is quicker, uses a smaller incision and is associated with less potential complications (Okkens et al., <span>1997</span>). Consequently, in the absence of uterine pathology, and if lack of gonadal hormones is both predicted and desired, these guidelines recommend OE as the preferred surgical procedure for sterilisation of female dogs and cats.</p><p>Laparoscopic sterilisation is less painful and provides better visualisation of all pertinent structures, especially in small breed dogs. Owner familiarity ","PeriodicalId":17062,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Small Animal Practice","volume":"65 7","pages":"424-559"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jsap.13724","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141158317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}