Potential Drug to Induce Female Dog Sterility

Given a drug was safe enough to use to sterilize a dog without having to undergo invasive surgery, would you have you dog take it?

I think it's a great finding even though it's years from getting approved. What do you think?

 

If it was safer than surgery, that would be a great thing. I'm still iffy about new products though, so I hope they go through very thorough testing before putting it out there and trying it on dogs. If it's something that needs to be taken once a week or day or month though like human birth control, I could see a lot of people not doing it because they'd forget it often.

 

I think it's a good idea. It would be so much better than a surgery, surgeries are so scary. Homer had anesthesia once and it was a nightmare for me, I was terrified he won't wake up.

 

If it is safe and proven, then it would be a better alternative to surgery. I would go this route for my dog.

 

I am hoping that it'd be more of a one time deal. I know that birth control pills for dogs already exists... I just don't know how many actually use it... In fact, there are "morning-after" pills for dogs as well.

I am unsure of what their effects are but I am sure they've undergone approval first.

 

I love the idea in general.

I don't think I would be wiling to use it at this point, though. It won't be tested nearly enough and we'll have no idea what the long-term effects might be for quite a while still.

 

I have never heard of either before!!

So do the dogs get the birth control pill daily like female humans do? I wonder how safe it is.

 

Well, not exactly. But I've read in a book where the author explains what to do when your dog gets mated accidentally.

He informs the readers to go to the vet and have them drink a pill which has the same process of stopping a pregnancy in humans. Something about increase in progesterone.

 

I looked up some more on this and it looks like not every method works for every dog, but there are a few different options:

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/pregnancy-termination-for-undesired-matings-in-dogs/page1.aspx

The only for sure method is to go ahead and spay the dog so that the pregnancy can't happen at all. That's a permanent solution, though.

 

I agree that proven safe, it will be just fine.
Better since there is no need for operation which could also mean cheaper.

 

Would be interested to see if this comes about. A way to sterilize the dog safely without surgery would certainly be intriguing. But is it like human birth control? If you skip a dose does the dog maybe have chance of getting preggers? Might not be reliable enough?

 

Well to sterilize would actually make it permanent. So no, it wouldn't be a matter of taking birth control and missing a dose. Whether the pill or injection was made of would induce menopause basically and make it so that the body wasn't producing the stuff required to get pregnant any more.

 

I remember that one of the female dogs I had was supposedly fixed so that she wouldn't be able to have puppies. However, the procedure that was done on her wasn't done properly because she still went through things that were prominent in a female dog who could reproduce. Looking back at this I think that maybe a pill is a good solution if it works effectively and doesn't have an adverse effects. This is something that would be key, after all most medications can have adverse effects when taking them. So would such a pill have a bad effect on a dog down the line, even if it appears to be safe now.

 

That's a good point

 

I'm not so sure I would go for the pill for my dog. First there is Jessi's point. It's hard enough for humans to remember the medications they are supposed to take for themselves. I would see this as one more thing I have to remember. Spaying is a one time, permanent thing. No more worries if the neighbor's dog jumps the fence.

Second, I'm not crazy about giving my dog medication on a regular basis unless necessary for a medical reason. I'd be worried that the pill might do more harm than good over time.

Third, would it be more cost effective? I think it cost $300 to have Misha spayed at our regular veterinarian (included a follow up visit, medication, a sedative because she was all freaked out for a couple of days afterward). I could have gotten it cheaper elsewhere no doubt. But, how much would the pills be and how many years is a female dog fertile? It might end up costly a heck of a lot more especially with how expensive pet medications are.

 

Well ideally, this would be a one-time procedure, too. It would be a single set of pills or injections that would induce menopause and then it wouldn't have to be continued. So I'm sure the cost would be high, but it wouldn't be an ongoing one.

I really don't think anyone would be that on board with a daily oral contraceptive. It's just too easily forgotten.