[Ellie May]

In general, I don't agree with blanketly spaying and neutering. However, my thoughts are starting to change on atleast spaying. A large number of unspayed females develop mammary cancer. It is a scary thing. The other side to that is pulling female parts out of the body because of fear seems a little bit over the edge. Ellie's vet really wants to spay her because she is very concerned that Ellie could develop a pyometra. If that would happen, Ellie being so small, it would be hard to get the infected uterus out of such a small space without dumping the contents into the abdomen. Ellie also doesn't go into heat reguarly which says her hormones aren't right. I am still thinking about it. Neutering is a harder decision. I definately support not neutering but about 1% of dogs who aren't can die from testicular cancer. There are a large number of unneutered males that will have to be neutered later to remove testicular lumps. It is a hard decision, especially since there are always risks with the procedure.