You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Stray bitches are often neutered by Rescue and Welfare Societies to prevent unwanted litters of puppies. But until now it has been difficult to identify which strays have already been spayed.

Many Rescue and Welfare Societies insist on neutering (spaying) bitches before they will rehome them. This is a good policy as it helps to reduce the number of unwanted litters, but one disadvantage of this practice is that occasionally a bitch is subjected to a general anaesthetic and surgery only to find that she has already been spayed...in other words she is put through an unnecessary operation, and the Society has to pay an unnecessary bill.

The presence of a scar in the midline of the underside of the abdomen suggests that a hysterectomy may already have been performed, but this cannot be relied upon. Some bitches that have been spayed do not have a detectable scar, and a wound at this site could have been caused by another surgical procedure - such as the removal of a foreign body from the intestine. Also, clinicians sometimes use a different surgical approach - such as making an incision through the flank muscles.

In a paper (Jeffcoate I.A et al , Veterinary Record May 20th 2000 146, 599-602) a hormone test has been described which  measures plasma oestradiol after giving a hormone injection (gonadotrophin) and the results of this test can be used to determine whether or not a bitch has been spayed. If this test is adopted as a routine screening test by the Welfare Societies it should help to reduce the number of animals subjected to an unnecessary surgical procedure.

Updated October 2013