Okuzeka
Veterinary Medicine vocabulary · Surgery and Anaesthesia

Spay

Meaning in veterinary medicine, with examples

/speɪ/verbCore term

In veterinary medicine, spay means: To remove a female animal's ovaries, and usually her uterus too, by surgery so that she cannot become pregnant or come into heat.

In Turkish: dişi hayvanı kısırlaştırmak, ovariohisterektomi yapmak

How it is used

Used for female dogs, cats and rabbits. The operation is a spay; the technical names are ovariohysterectomy (OHE or OVH: ovaries and uterus) and ovariectomy (OVE: ovaries only). A laparoscopic spay is called a keyhole spay.

Example sentences

  1. The spay went well, and she's already eating.

  2. Has she been spayed, or is she still entire?

Common collocations

  • spay a bitch
  • cat spay
  • keyhole spay
  • spay wound
  • spay and neuter
  • neuterTo remove an animal's reproductive organs by surgery so that it cannot breed: the testicles in males and usually the ovaries and uterus in females.
  • anaesthesiaA controlled state, produced with drugs, in which an animal feels no pain and is usually unconscious, so that surgery or other procedures can be done safely.
  • oestrusThe part of the reproductive cycle when a female animal is fertile and will accept mating, commonly called heat or, in dogs and cats, season. US spelling: estrus.
  • incisionA clean cut made through the skin and tissues with a scalpel during surgery, or the wound that it leaves.

More terms: Surgery and Anaesthesia

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level:

This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.