There is a relatively new diagnostic product that allows veterinarians to determine if a pet is spayed or neutered without a surgical explore. Sometimes there are pets that have no medical history in regards to their spay/neuter status. A female can have an abdominal scar but that does not guarantee that she was spayed. All it confirms that she had some type of abdominal surgery. A male missing his testicles can either have been castrated or they may have never descended from the abdomen where they originate at birth. Usually the most reliable way to determine if a pet has been altered is surgery. Now there is Spay-Chek Plus by Preventia diagnostics which is a cost effective and safe alternative to surgery. This can be especially helpful to humane and rescue groups which generally take in pets with unclear medical history.
The Spay-Chek Plus works by detecting a hormone in a dog and cat’s blood. This hormone is called anti-Mullerian hormone which is produced by the ovaries and the testicles. The test is only effective in sexual mature pets who are over 6 months of age and only takes about ten minutes to run. With this being a new test, the Spay-Check Plus may not be available at your veterinarian as of yet. But there is an option for the test to be run at the outside laboratories below:
AVID Laboratories P: 864-804-6830 E: admin@avidlaboratories.com W: www.avidlaboratories.com
Clinical Endocrinology Lab U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine P: 530-752-0298 W: www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/phr/endolab
Cornell University AHDC P: 607-253-3900 W: www.ahdc.vet.cornell.edu
Source: spaychek.com
I don’t have personal experience with these tests so I am unable to comment on how much they cost.
I think this test would be great for Animal Rescues once the test is available locally. Undoubtedly it would be better for the animals instead of exploratory surgery. Maybe your office staff could gather the pricing information and how long turn around time is for the test results. Then rescues could accurately calculate if it’s cheaper to go ahead with scheduled surgical procedures or wait for test results.
Great to have something like this that is not intrusive – especially if planning/wanting to adopt a rescue pup!