The son in this instance is Piglet, about whom we have to make a decision. Daisy, you see, is a little girl who will, in a few months time, become a Big Girl in an interesting condition, which will make having the two of them in the same house one of the visions of hell. There is absolutely no way that Piggy can be allowed to gain his manhood, but I have little doubt he'll disagree and will work himself into a terrible state of stress which would be very bad for him at his time of life.
We've been running through the options:
1. Piglet could be boarded somewhere for those few weeks. The disadvantages of this are that I wouldn't trust just anyone enough to look after him properly; Piglet's tricky at the best of times and being away with strangers ... I don't think so. He's never been in kennels - I don't think it'd be fair. Boy might be able to have him at his place - he's the only person I'd trust.
2. Daisy goes away - I know from experience how careful you need to be with in-season bitches; not many people do. Kennelling would be out of the question for her - the trauma to the other dogs there of such a tantalising aroma adding to the usual kennel stress would be very unkind.
3. One of two options for Piglet; chemical or surgical castration. The surgical option is the most certain, but at nearly 12 he's not a good anaesthetic risk although he's very fit and it's not a long operation. It would, after a few weeks, guarantee that he wouldn't be able to sire pups, although the desire and ability to try aren't always lost.
The chemical option - an implant called Suprelorin - is supposed to be good; I've had both good and bad reports of it. It takes between 3 and 6 weeks to take effect and lasts about 5 or 6 months before fertility starts to return. Again the desire isn't always lost.
I'm dithering about what would be best longterm. We can't possibly have puppies; just keeping them apart will be a nightmare of noise and stress; but I don't want to risk Piglet's health. We've got about a month to decide.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Son, you are a bachelor boy
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8 comments:
Piglet has to go stay with the boy.
(Did you ever actually get around to naming him?)
If you don't want puppies at all why not have Daisy seen to?
Jane
We might want to breed from Daisy in the future, Jane. Even if we didn't I'd never have a bitch spayed before her first season anyway; they're just not mature enough.
I'm wondering if both (1) and (3) might be needed. If you castrate Piglet, his hormonal levels aren't going to drop to absolute zero immediately. After only a month or so, while he won't have the ability, may well still have the inclination, and wouldn't that drive Daisy (and you two) daft?
At the moment I'm swayed towards the implant, with staying with Boy as an stopgap if he's too much of a nightmare.
Interesting that you say the desire doesn't go away...we've been confused about why our boy cat still keeps trying even though he's been chopped - that would explain it. Although his sister has also been spayed so surely he shouldn't want to with her?
Gottle
Got a couple of spare bricks down the allotment. Can be quite painful... if you don't mind your thumbs.
;)
Crikey, but what a difficult decision to have to make. We wanted to have a female spaniel so we could have puppies from our much loved male spaniel, but the logistics of having a female here in the end was too much, so we decided against it. Looked at options almost the same as yours, couldn't decide. Wishing you 'bon courage' with this one....
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