Alexandra Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 My vet likes to wait until 5.5 - 6 mos to neuter males. She says neutering earlier impacts growth and bone development. Practicallly everyone else I know says they neutered their pups at 4 months. I have heard it said that waiting until 6 mos increases the possibilty of marking and other undesirable behaviors. Thanks for any thoughts on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 My vet says 6 months for the same reasons. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 As early as possible! The rescues I volunteer for do pediatric spay neuters on all puppies before adoption. They're all done, often at 8 weeks, though some keep them in foster a bit longer & wait to do it between 8-12 weeks. Here is one site with lots of links about the issue: http://www.columbusdogconnection.com/PedSpayNeuter.htm#Pediatric_Spay/Neuter_Articles an a good discussion of the medical issues: http://www.akcchf.org/pdfs/whitepapers/3-23-08DiscoveriesArticle.pdf the supposed growth issues are probably from chris zink's work which deals with high performance canine athletes - not your average house pet. I know I read that zink's work was criticised by some vets who believe she drew erroneous conclusions. I do think if I were raising a high performance dog and intending to compete in high level agility/schutzhund/etc I would consider delaying. Realistically those dogs would be coming from premium lines anyway & would be kept intact until maturity to determine if they should be kept in the breeding program. (and even more realistically, I cannot imagine EVER having one of these dogs as it goes against a lot that I believe about animals...; but that's totally neither here nor there.) If I were in your shoes, I'd be calling around and finding a good reputable vet with a solid anaesthesia protocol & booking the pup in. {total aside - but there's a hilarious Far Side cartoon with a dog hanging out the window & yelling to another dog ""Guess what! I'm going to the vet's to get tutored!!!" All dog neutering stories always make me think of this. :lol:} Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jann in TX Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 We have large German Shepherds and this policy is standard within the breeder group we were looking into. They claim it has to do with proper bone growth. We had ZERO issues with marking, although he does 'lift his leg' when he goes (our previous German Shepherd males were neutered at 4 months and they 'went like girls'--DH was humiliated!). The reasons the shelters around here neuter young puppies and kittens is because adopted owners have a poor track record when it comes to returing to have the procedure done--and it is too expensive to hold the animals a few months until is is better to do the procedures. It is not uncommon for young puppies and kittens to die from having these procedures done too early... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooooom Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 it is NOT common for 8wk olds to die during neutering/spaying, I worked with a dog rescue for 8 years and only 1 pup out of several hundred died during spaying. However, early spaying in females has been linked to bladder incontinence issues later on. I like to neuter males by 4 months, because it catches them before they mature fully -less chance of them becoming "serious" males with dominance, aggressive, etc. issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 We have large German Shepherds and this policy is standard within the breeder group we were looking into. They claim it has to do with proper bone growth. We had ZERO issues with marking, although he does 'lift his leg' when he goes (our previous German Shepherd males were neutered at 4 months and they 'went like girls'--DH was humiliated!). Baxter's vet wouldn't perform the surgery until he was 6 months old. At 6 months and a week Baxter had his done. He will now go either way. Depending on mood. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 It is not uncommon for young puppies and kittens to die from having these procedures done too early... Do you have references for this? Because everything I've seen is the opposite. Young ones bounce back really quickly. It's common to do them this early in rescues & shelters. My female lifts her leg btw. My male is about 50/50. He sometimes pees just standing with legs sprea a bit like a horse & sometimes lifts. I think whether they lift or not has a bit to do with whether they spend time playing with other dogs of their gender who show them how things are done. Dogs do copy each other..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 It's common to do them this early in rescues & shelters. I've always assumed this was to make sure it gets done, rather than taking a chance that whoever adopts the dog will neglect to spay/neuter for whatever reason...sort of like how they like to do as many vaccines as possible as early as possible with babies. Is there a medical reason why it's BETTER to do it earlier? I'd never really heard much about the controversy until a couple of months ago, when I saw a post about Chris Zink's work on a list I'm on. I still haven't looked into it much....I'm not sure I'll ever get a chance to make the decision for a dog anyway, since we've always gotten rescue dogs who are already spayed/neutered. That's interesting about potentially wanting to wait with athletic dogs, though...we do flyball with our dogs, and they're certainly not from "premium lines" (or if they are we have no way of knowing)--lots and lots of mutts compete in flyball (and agility). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mammaruss Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 (edited) We use the services of numerous Vets around our state depending on their specialty. All of them have advised us to neuter at 6months. We have heard of shelters neutering much younger. We have boarded some spayed females that will mark just as much as some non-neutered males. I think it just depends on the individual dog. We have some male canines that we have trained with female tendencies and females with very strong male tendencies.....If it is a male with strong marking in his personality--the neutering won't help, no matter what age.:tongue_smilie: My opinion is I don't like dogs being put under at a young age--unless it is life threatening....we have been in the 'dog business' for close to 30 years and have heard of just tooooooo many dogs dying because of anesthesia...... When have our labs hips x-rayed for OFA, we NEVER put them out and will not go to a Vet that requires them put out for an x-ray. We make a 2 hour trip (one way) to a Vet that knows how to handle dogs and prefers the dogs not being put under. Edited December 10, 2009 by mammaruss additional info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 ITA with the vet. There are also growth/maturity things that don't happen before 6 months, and spaying/neutering keeps those from happening. Waiting until the critter is 6 months old surely can't make that much difference in any sex-related behaviors, as those are generally not going to appear before maturity anyway, right? Animal shelters do it so early because they know that most people won't get it done. It doesn't mean it's best for the animal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 We were told 4-6 months is a good age to do it and our pup was 7 months. We didn't have any marking problems, but he had started getting interested in his pillow for more than sleeping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverfront Headmistress Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 My vet is also in the 6-month camp. My little guy is 4 months old and 2 lbs. He is hoping that my dog will reach 3 lbs before he operates; although he doesn't think that he will get that big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwjx2khsmj Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Our vet said six months at first but told us to bring our pup in a bit earlier because he was large and the vet wanted to do the procedure before he hit 50lbs. Cheaper for us, easier for the vet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzyfizzle Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 ITA with the vet. There are also growth/maturity things that don't happen before 6 months, and spaying/neutering keeps those from happening. Waiting until the critter is 6 months old surely can't make that much difference in any sex-related behaviors, as those are generally not going to appear before maturity anyway, right? Animal shelters do it so early because they know that most people won't get it done. It doesn't mean it's best for the animal. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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