# When to spay my female cockapoo?



## Dogapoo (Sep 3, 2018)

She's 15 months old now, and just started her first estrus cycle. Have talked with four vets and the usual recommendation seems to be let her have one cycle, then spay... unless she will be bred. In which case spay before the fifth year.

Some websites indicate spay BEFORE the first estrus.

Is there a 'truth" ?


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## Milliesdad (Apr 24, 2016)

There's lots of opinions about when to spay, we always let our girls have one cycle and then we have them done three months after that.


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## Dogapoo (Sep 3, 2018)

Milliesdad said:


> There's lots of opinions about when to spay, we always let our girls have one cycle and then we have them done three months after that.


Thank you. Was the spaying by laparoscopy or open?


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## Milliesdad (Apr 24, 2016)

It was open surgery and it was only about 3 cm long. she had a few internal stitches and a few external ones which seemed to dissolve, there was just one stitch left that the vet removed later.We were lucky as she never bothered with the stitches so she didn't need to wear a cone.Obviously the Vet said to keep her calm and not to let her jump up, well, she's a Cockapoo we did our best for the first day but that was it, no chance after that, she didn't have a care in the world it was as if she'd never had the op, it was us that did the worrying.The scar was a little bit red for a short while but it soon vanished and now we can't even see where its been, it's vanished completely we've tried looking and can't find it.


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## Dogapoo (Sep 3, 2018)

Milliesdad said:


> It was open surgery and it was only about 3 cm long. she had a few internal stitches and a few external ones which seemed to dissolve, there was just one stitch left that the vet removed later.We were lucky as she never bothered with the stitches so she didn't need to wear a cone.Obviously the Vet said to keep her calm and not to let her jump up, well, she's a Cockapoo we did our best for the first day but that was it, no chance after that, she didn't have a care in the world it was as if she'd never had the op, it was us that did the worrying.The scar was a little bit red for a short while but it soon vanished and now we can't even see where its been, it's vanished completely we've tried looking and can't find it.


Why did you choose open instead of lap ?


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Chance was spayed before her first season as at that time she mixed with entire males and I could not easily keep her away from them for the length of the season. I would have preferred to let her have a season first but the wound was tiny and healed very quickly. She was also done open as I believe laproscopic is less well known and the effects are also less well known so would prefer to go with the tried and tested method performed by a good surgeon I trusted.


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## Milliesdad (Apr 24, 2016)

We didn't choose which type of surgery we didn't have a choice, we let the Vet do what he thought was best.We only had our last two dogs done because we were worried about the op with previous dogs but now I wish we'd had them all done. I've had dogs for sixty years and veterinary procedures have come on in leaps and bounds. Today it's just a routine job that they do nearly every day. I really do think it's worth a couple of days inconvenience for the sake of a lifetimes hassle free.


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