I don't know why I was inspired to write this now as this happened in 2015 (though I had a weird dream about it so probably why) but I wanted to explain exactly why you should especially spay your female pets.
We got my cat Chopper back in 2004, I was 10. My parents opted to declaw her (which is now something I'm against, as it led to her biting much more on top of the fact that it is a rather cruel practice). They did not spay her, however, as she was a strictly indoor cat and didn't feel the need to. So we had many years of her going into heat and acting rather goofy, but otherwise everything was okay.
Until summer of 2015. Out of nowhere my rambunctious runt asshole of a cat had gotten lethargic and stopped eating. At first I thought she had maybe gotten a bug. I'll never forget coming home from work and my dad saying, "Your cat is looking pretty crappy."
I knew my parents weren't going to help me out financially if I took her to the vet, which sucked, but I wasn't going to let anything happen to her.
So I scheduled an appointment with my favorite (albeit somewhat more expensive vet) and almost instantly diagnosed her with pyometra. Simply put, it's a uterine infection. It can't be treated with just antibiotics; it requires surgery as they have to remove the uterus. It's a very serious infection and will kill your pet if left untreated. It also cost $1,400. Had my parents just spayed her when she was declawed, it would have cost a significantly less amount. Having worked at a vet for about 3 years, the bulk of the cost comes from the anesthesia as opposed to the surgery itself when it comes to spaying/neutering/declawing.
I opened up a Care Credit and went for the surgery. It was awful to see how thin Chopper actually was. She didn't initially look think as her uterus had gotten so full of pus that her abdomen distended. Once it was taken out though, she was so thin. I felt like the worst pet owner for not initially realizing how sick she was. She had a somewhat rough recovery but I was able to nurse her back to health. She is still healthy and alive today. I also paid off th at Care Credit in 6 months because it had stupid high interest. It's a great card to have, if you pay everything off in time. I was living at home and had zero major bills, though the majority of my paycheck went to paying off the card at the time.
In August 2016 I started working at a vet, and I saw some nasty pyo cases. One dog had a uterus that weighed 9 pounds. Some people couldn't afford it (which is extremely frustrating because the initial spaying costs aren't that high) and others just seemed indifferent.
We had a large Hispanic population in the area and I want to say around 90% didn't spay or neuter. I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but the amount of walk ins with pyo whose pets died was pretty high.
There are a surprising amount of places that do low cost spays/neuters, and in my state some counties even cover the costs if you're low income. But then, if you can't afford to take care of a pet, in my opinion, you shouldn't get one. It was devastating to see the amounts of pets suffering because people who couldn't afford them felt they had a right to them. I'm going on a tangent though.
Tl;dr spay your pets because it can get pyo and die if you can't afford the treatment, which is very expensive.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/co3dma/a_cautionary_tale_please_spay_your_pets/
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