estrus

Skye is not yet spayed. We planned to do it with the surgery on her leg at the very beginning, but since that ended up being unnecessary, she never went on the operating table. And then, we realized that it was going to be a lot of stress to bring her to the vet, and then to care for her post-op. Also, it isn't really urgent as she stays in our yard and doesn't get to meet any dogs.

But when she is in estrus, she isn't feeling great. She sleeps more, stays in her bedroom nook longer, and is not in the mood for training/play/interaction with us. We recently noticed that she is also more fearful during that time. And there are the false pregnancies that put her out of commission for a few weeks every time.

There are no studies telling if spaying her would lower her anxiety, but it will definitively be healthier for her (remove risks of uterine/ovarian cancer, reduce incidence of breast cancer...) and I hope that not having her cycles anymore will make her happier all year-round. So we will certainly spay her, the question is when? I am thinking next summer when her 3y rabies vaccine is due to make only one trip to the vet, but maybe we should just do it sooner rather than later.