just what is tubular ligation in dogs how does it relate to pyometra and what
is the benefit and the side effects of it or the detrimental effects of it
compared to getting your dogs spayed well in this video I'm going to discuss
all this and more hi I'm dr. Alex from ourpetshealth.com where my aim is to
bring you pet health information all designed to help you and your dog to
live a healthier happier life so make sure to subscribe by clicking that
button down below if you're not already so in this episode which is an episode
of #DrAlexAnswers I answer a question sent to me by Alan where he asked me
all about tubular ligation and how it related to pyometra and what the
options were apart from getting your dogs spayed in preventing future
pyometra so his background was that he has a dog who had a couple of litters it
didn't go kind of completely smoothly and they decided they didn't want to
breed from their dog again and so after kind of discussing the different options
elected to have a tubular ligation performed now once that was done their
female dog then came into heat again was mated by their male dog and then
developed a nasty vaginal discharge and developed a pyometra now thankfully
after a month's worth of antibiotics their dog came right and was better
again but it was touch-and-go and they were worried that they would you know
Alan was worried that he would lose his dog so it was you know pretty serious
and his question is you know why was that possible with that having had the
cheaper the ligation done he was under the impression that that could have
really reduced the risk of a pyometra and then what are the options going
forward given that his dog already has had a pyometra so I just wanted to start
off by saying you know by discussing what a tubular ligation surgery is so
what that is is you've got the UM the ovaries um they then go down the
fallopian tubes the uterus to the uterine body and obviously then to the
the cervix and the vagina and the outside world now what a tubal ligation
is is basically the tubes either get tides
they have a loop of suture material passed around the tubes and tied tight
so effectively can closing off the ability for the ovaries for the for the
eggs to kind of pass further down where they can then get inseminated or you can
actually kind of tie it off and then make a wee incision between that so
there's absolutely no chance that the eggs could pass from the ovaries or the
sperm could reach the eggs going up to the other way so that's really what a
tubular ligation is now how that differs from spay and ASP a procedure refers to
either a know various direct to me or an ovarian to me so you can refer to a spay
with both of those procedures now a no Vario hysterectomy is removal of the
ovaries and the uterus and an ovarian to me is just the removal of both ovaries
now both of those procedures are obviously going to eliminate the risk of
pregnancy from developing but it also completely eliminates the risk of
pyometra and actually tubular ligation makes has no effect on the likelihood of
a dog to have a pyometra the reason for that is for a pyometra to occur there
needs to be a something called a corpus luteum so what happens with an ovary is
the ovaries will develop um these follicles which if they almost look like
kind of blisters on top of the ovary and the egg is within that full of cool that
follicle will then rupture when a dogs on heat that um will be released and
then will pass down the uterus like I discussed and a corpus luteum will form
and that corpus luteum is responsible for maintaining pregnancy so if we don't
have ovaries so whether a dog's been spayed with a noveria hysterectomy or
and oh very xme if we don't have ovaries we can't have a corpus luteum and so we
can't get a pyometra develop it's just it just can't happen now
could there theoretically be other uterine infections well I guess possibly
they could kind of go up the other way you could have a foreign body so
certainly something like a grass seed can get into the vulva and work its way
up and that can certainly happen but it is very very very rare so as that kind
of as far as I'm concerned a spade animal as long as there's been
no ovarian tissue left and that's something that can happen very
occasionally again but as long as there's no ovarian tissue pyometra is
not a risk with tubular ligation the ovaries are still there we've done
nothing to the ovaries and so a pyometra is just as likely and so by the time a
dog gets to ten years of age there is about a 25% chance of them developing
pyometra so the risk is really high and other allens already seen my video all
about pyometra and the facts about that and what that involves but for those of
you that haven't I'll leave a link up here I've also talked about spaying kind
of the pros and cons of spaying your female dog and also when you should
think about having your dog spayed and again I'll leave that link up here and
down in the description below so excuse me so kind of that's really what a
cheaper the ligation is and how it relates to how it compares to spaying
and what the risks of a pyometra are having had both of those procedures
performed now the other question that Alan had was does can mating actually
cause a pyometra and no there's no risk of mating that's not going to cause any
kind of problem on the potential I get infections that can happen if if this
infection is in your area is something called a transmissible venereal tumor
now I've never worked in an area where that's present but where it is present
that's something that can be transmitted between a dog and a female dog or the
other way around and that with those who tend to get may appear kind of like
tumors on the reproductive organs of our dogs or our bitches so that's something
that can happen but we're not gonna I'm meeting a dog who's had a tubal ligation
isn't gonna cause pyometra mating in general isn't gonna cause a pyometra and
there's actually no harm in mating a dog who's had a tubal ligation there's no
way they can get pregnant because that's the one thing that it does eliminate it
doesn't really do much else I guess some people will say it does allow the dog to
still have the hormones present and as I discuss in my kind of pros and cons of
spaying it may be that you decide that you don't want to spray your dog for
whatever reason and the tube location would be an option if you
really don't want to have to deal with the risk of pregnancy at all now another
thing that Alan said is that he's kind of been doing some reading and a lot of
people prefer tubular ligation because it gives their dogs a normal sex life
and you know to be honest I personally think that's a little bit ridiculous so
I've actually just recorded and I'm releasing a video in a couple of days
which will have been this video will be released afterwards but anyway releasing
a video all about whether you should breed your dog and you know some people
then saying well they want their dog to experience motherhood but we've really
got to be careful not to anthropomorphize which is putting our
own human feelings onto our dogs and assuming that they need to feel the same
thing because really you know if a dog doesn't have any hormones on board and
that like in between seasons or when they're spayed you know they really
don't miss sex they don't miss mating it's just not something that's on their
radar so I don't think that that is a reason to carry out a tubular ligation
at all I think that is putting our own feelings on to our dogs and that's
really not appropriate so yeah that's that excuse me um I wanted to you know
he was kind of thinking well he needs to get his dog spayed because his dogs
already had a pyometra um and so that does put you know him real dog er a
really high risk of developing a pyometra again in the future so that's
not a given you know she's not definitely gonna get a pyometra in
future but it she's had one and it's been medically managed and thankfully
successfully managed you know the chances are really high that the next
season or maybe the one after that then she's gonna get a pyometra again and
we'll be back to that dangerous situation where she was really sick and
there's definitely a chance of death and I mean in my opinion actually in the
vast majority of cases surgical treatment to know very hysterectomy is
definitely the treatment of choice for um pyometra where funds allow it um but
yeah that's that's certainly my opinion um as for other ways that we can prevent
a pyometra really I don't think there are any you know he can give injections
that will stop a dog coming on to heat but really that I think that does
actually increase the risk of them developing
pyometra in the future especially if they then come on to heat a little bit
kind of sooner they catch us out if you like because their heats then can become
a little bit irregular and you know if they come and here to gain them I think
there's an even higher chance of of developing a pyometra so in my opinion I
would definitely suggest um you know getting this dog spayed you know there
is a recovery period it's it's 7 to 14 days something like that but by and
large you know if there's no other problems if there's no other concerns
you know for an older dog we should be doing blood tests that should be on IV
fluids all that kind of thing you know as long as there's no other concerns
then I'm spaying your female a dog is definitely the most appropriate thing
and yes there are risks with every surgery there are risks with every
unaesthetic but in my mind those risks are absolutely tiny compared to the
risks of a dog developing pyometra and then needing to be operated on during
pyometra again you know in those cases the majority of surgeries go without a
hitch but I've certainly known a number of dogs to die from pyometra you know so
it's not something that's minor and it's not something that's a joke so yeah I
hope that helps Alan I hope that helps answer your questions and any concerns
that you've had and I hope that helps everyone else who's maybe considering
getting their dog a tubular ligation rather than being spayed you know and
again going back to that in my mind for an older dog there's probably very
little reason to have a cheaper the ligation done if you don't want them to
have a pregnancy because a lot of the the potential risks of being spayed will
not be relevant by the time a dog gets to old age because they've had the
benefit if you like of hormones throughout their life so I don't think
there's any that can be any downsized to spaying them compared to having tubular
ligation again that's my opinion you know you may feel differently and and if
you do I'd love to hear your comments down below and your reasoning behind
that you know I think if we get a lot of different perspectives we can help
understand you know how different people think about things and what their
priorities are so I hope that helps Alan and if you've got a question like Alan
that you'd like to you'd like me to answer then head over to our pets health
comm slash dr. Alex answers I'll leave the link down below just submit your
question and send you a video just like this one but
until next time I'm doctor Alex from our pets health because they're family