Neutering/Spaying: What age?

[Pawsitive Thinking]

Tobey was neutered at 6 months on the advice of the vet and I guess Archie was done at about the same age.

[cloverfdx]

Penny - About 3 or 4 years old, i would have liked her to be done earlier but it was not up to me.

Clover - 3 years old, same as above. Desexing her later was not so bad, she did calm down with in days and was trying to play with dogs shge did not like when entie . Clover has also become incontinent in the past 6 months or so.. i dont know if that has anything to do with her being desexed late or what.

Theo - 7 month old. He acts like an entire male, marking, checking out the 1 entire 'girl' we know.

Elvis - Also 7 months, wish i had of waited longer with him, atleast 12 - 14 months for growth and maturity reasons. Although he possibly still has a testicle left over.. blood tests in the next couple of weeks will tell us.

Tinny - Her old owners got her done after her first season, El and Tin's Dad was often caught sniffing around the farm after her so they had her done asap after that.

Harri - Has not been done yet, i would wait until he is atleast 12 months before having him done. He is going to be shown for a while and we will see how he goes, but he has a slighty overshot jaw & he was never going to be bred from, so he will be done eventually. Oh and his breeder said to defintely have hime done if he and Elvis start having problems or he starts marking inside etc.

NB: Harri in no way will be alowed to roam, we are resposible dog owners and i have no desire what so ever to ever breed & add to the over population .

Kay you will know when the time is right, you know your boy better than anyone and will know if nawtee habits start showing themselves.

[Logan]

Kay,

Both of my "girls", Lilly and Honey, were done as soon as my vet said they could be, before they ever went into their first heat. It was 5 months old, for both of them.

I asked Mack's breeder about the best time to neuter him since we had absolutely no plans to use him as a stud, even though I'm certain he would have been a good one! We tried to wait until he was fully developed, one year old, but he did become aggressive, and he was neutered at 10 months old. You might remember that he got into it with a foster Golden Retriever, and he "lost" the fight, but we knew it was time. He did just fine. He has not settled down completely, yet, and we won't even attempt to foster for a while now, but had the breeder not said that we should wait until one year, we would have done it at six months.

I think with Moo being already six months old, you couldn't go wrong going ahead and neutering him, but it is your decision, with advise from your vet.

Good luck.
Logan

[bckrazy]

I feel that mixed breed dogs & pet dogs *unless they're giant breeds* should be neutered/spayed before they're sexually mature and able to reproduce... ideally 6 months. Fozzie was neutered at 6 months, and even if the rescue didn't require him to be neutered by then, I would've done it.

I know we're all responsible owners here, but accidents CAN and DO happen. Not only that... but an unaltered dog is much more likely to feel the need to roam. And, unfortunately, most people don't even realize when their female dogs are in heat; much less do they keep them locked away during it. I definitely want to prevent my dogs running off and impregnating unattended female dogs as much as I possibly can. Plus, lots of behavior problems really are avoided when those raging hormones are subdued. That is compared to the few and rare affects of speutering at 6 months.

That said, I definitely would avoid altering any young puppy. 4-6 months is ideal, imho. And puppies do heal incredibly fast & easily!

[CathyBogart]

Dogs can be altered as young as six weeks old with no health/behavioral side effects. In fact, young puppies recover much more quickly from the anesthesia and the surgery itself than an adult dog does.

Having the sex hormones in the body while the dog is maturing results in the growth plates closing six to eight weeks earlier than in the altered dog. Some people speculate that this may predispose the animal to injury, but there isn't any solid evidence to back that up.

Waiting to spay a female until after her second heat takes away any protection you would have gotten from mammary cancer. Mammary cancer is the most common form of cancer in dogs, and around half of all mammary tumors are malignant. I think it's worthwhile, if you aren't planning on breeding the bitch, to spay before the second heat.

Plus, having seen three pyometras in the last two weeks, I'm all for ANYTHING that prevents that!

[wolfsoul]

My vet was active in a research intended to see the effects of spaying and neutering at different ages. They found that altering before the dog's growth plates closed gave the dog a higher chance of bone cancer as opposed to the lower chance of the other cancers it could get from allowing it to mature sexually. Cancer is becoming a common thing in Belgians, and I have yet to see a case of any testicular/mammary cancer in a Belgians, but plenty of bone cancer. Therefore, I choose to wait until the dog is done growing -- no matter the breed, for me.

[BC_MoM]

I agree with .sarah. Looking at the posts and reading how young some of your dogs were spayed/neutered makes me sick - especially the only several week old puppies. It's SO hard on their bodies!

[wolf_Q]

I agree with .sarah. Looking at the posts and reading how young some of your dogs were spayed/neutered makes me sick - especially the only several week old puppies. It's SO hard on their bodies!

Wow, what a rude post. So it makes you sick that I had Nebo neutered at 4 months old and I plan to have Keva spayed ASAP (she's 5 1/2 months)? Just FYI Kay did not CHOOSE to spay Kiara and Nala that young, she adopted them from the shelter and the shelter spays/neuters the dogs before they can go home. I've been around both dogs and they are perfectly healthy.

I agree that spaying/neutering that young is not the best choice....but the shelters have had so many people adopt puppies then not hold their end of the deal by spaying/neutering its the only way they can completely prevent those dogs from producing more puppies later. The amount of dogs put to sleep every day makes me a lot more sick then spaying/neutering young pups.

[Vela]

Couldn't agree more Amy. I personally know someone who adopted two dogs from a rescue, signed a contract saying she would have them fixed, and never bothered to do it. It was "too expensive". The one female bred with another dog, had a false pregnancy, got a massive infection, and nearly died from "breeding" with a stray neighborhood dog, not to mention she got herpes or something! If people were responsible then shelters and rescues wouldn't have to do that, but since there is no way to know who is lying and who isn't...they have to have policy.

I also think it is inappropriate and rude to say things like "that makes me sick" when you aren't in another person's shoes and don't know anything about their situation. I'm GLAD Kay's dogs were fixed so early, look at the home they have now! Good trade off IMO.

I plan on getting Soda done at 6-7 months, as long as everything is good with her. I think people should do it at whatever time they feel is right and recommended by their personal vet and nobody ought pass judgement on it. Not everybody feels the same but there is no need to be rude about it.

[lizbud]

Smokey and Buddy at 6 mos. Maggie spayed at 5 1/2 mos. All the kitties,
within a few weeks of getting each of them.

[AllAmericanPUP]

Maggie was spayed when she was 8 years old and lived to be 14 almost 15

Shadow and Keesha were spayed at 6 months
Eli and Ozzy were neutered around 7-8 months
Sheeba was spayed around 15 months because i thought she was already spayed but she just was really late coming into heat and didnt have her first heat(that i knew of anyways) until she was 15 months old

[sumbirdy]

Tiny-3 years
Sprinkles-8 years
Lacy-7 or 8 years
Minnie-5 months
Triskit-1 year
Daphney-2 years

The males (excluding Tiny) have not be neutered yet. I'm trying to convice mom but she doesn't think it's necessary because "they can't have puppies"

[CathyBogart]

I agree with .sarah. Looking at the posts and reading how young some of your dogs were spayed/neutered makes me sick - especially the only several week old puppies. It's SO hard on their bodies!

Puppies recover from surgery and anesthesia MANY TIMES FASTER than adult dogs do. The same thing goes for kittens/cats.

[coco-bean]

coco was "i think" right around 6 months old. i forget the exact age. Cainan hasnt been yet and im still not for sure what i want to do with him, he's not aggressive at all(coco is the dominant one...she prooves it ALL the time) and he's just a sweet as can be, never marks his territory just does his business then off to the next tree to sniff or puddle to play in, he's almost 10 months now. and corona isnt old enough, i would never do it any earlier then 6 months anyway. I want to get corona healthy before i throw something like that in the mix!

[BC_MoM]

wolf_Q & Vela: I'm simply stating my opinion. I am entitled to it.

Just FYI, I was not "rude" because this was Kay's thread. I was not directing my post at anyone specific.

LOL, Gosh.