To Spay or not to Spay

[LaRen616]

I have heard that if you spay/neuter your dog before they are a year or older they wont grow to their true potential. I dont know if that is true or if it is not but I decided to listen to it and my GSD will be a year next week and he is not neutered and he is 85 pounds and could get a little bigger. The Vet said when I do neuter him he could weigh anywhere from 95 to 100 pounds.

[northwoods]

Originally Posted by rome_lucyGSD

However, I am just curious, is it true that if you spay your dog too early, does it stunt their growth?

My 7mo female GSD was spayed when she was about 12 weeks.
She right now probably weighs about 30-40 lbs. and is very short.
She looks like a mini germ. shep. everyone thinks she is mixed with a sheltie or something (which is possible, since she did come from a shelter) but she looks purebred shepherd. everything matches with the breed standards, but she is just tiny.

If the rescue I got her from would have waited until she was a little older...would she be getting a little bigger than what she is?

I have heard conflicting evidence on this as well. Most studies say that spaying and neutering causes the growth hormones to continue producing after the surgery.
Many dogs get to be much larger than their standard sizes because of altering earlier than 2 years.

[Doc]

A must read

http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongT...uterInDogs.pdf

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by sleepybree03

Hello! My female is a little over 2 yrs old and I am debating whether to spay or not. I have been reading some conflicting articles on spaying females. Most agree that spaying them before their first heat dramatically decreases their chances of mammary cancer ( but she has already had several heat cycles so I don't know if this would still apply to me). However, there are negatives to spaying as well. I am not worried about pregnancy b/c she is an inside dog and she is very trained and does not run off or anything like that. Any advice? Do spayed dogs live longer, healtheir lives?

Spay her, I've had THREE friends who didn't spay their bitches and ended up with them almost dying from pyrometra. Really upsetting and their dogs were very ill.

I always wait until after my females second heat cycle, then into the vet's they go. Nice to have one less thing to worry about healthwise.

[JOSHUA SAMPSON]

I VOTE NO!!! there are many good reasons for and agin but mostly it comes down to your personal preference and wether or not your bitch is a good candidate to contribute to the GSD gene pool. this is one thing that may endanger the species in the future, modern k-9's may be experiencing genome loss in their respective breeds. especially with the fewer numbers of good responsible breeders. however this may be contrasted against a higher number of pet owners. so who knows. my preference is i like puppies and i am a good responsible breeder. I only keep high end good dogs that are healthy and have excelent dispositions. among other things.

[selzer]

I vote no as well.

I do not believe in putting a dog in danger, under anesthetic, to have a surgery that can cause serious problems, hormone deficiency, incontinance, complications due to anesthetic up to and including death, in order to prevent the liklihood of certain illnesses (mammary cancer and pyometra).

I believe we agree to owning a dog or bitch, and all their associated pieces parts: tail, ears, uterine horns, bark. We then train the dog and contain the dog so that accidents do not happen.

I believe that the hormones in question are for more than just reproducing. Doctors do not like to give full oviohysterectomies, even to women who have half a dozen children, or who are beyond child bearing age. They will generally only do so if there is a serious problem with the parts in question. Afterwards the women often need to take hormone replacement therapies, and have surgeries to tie up the bladder. In bitches the bladder and the uteris are connected, and incontinance IS a big deal. Some people end up having to give their dogs medicine for the rest of their lives due to incontinence problems after a spay. And as for the hormones, dogs are often neutered due to behavior issues that may be positively impacted by neutering. Not so for females, in fact, the reverse can be true, because the hormone produced has a calming agent in it. When this is removed, the spayed bitch can become more aggressive.

There is nothing responsible in spaying or neutering in terms of all the dogs in shelters. Responsible dog owners do not allow their dogs to be in a situation where they COULD conceive a litter.

There IS convenience. A bitch's heat cycle is messy, and it can be a nuisance for training, etc. I think that if someone wants to spay their bitch for this reason it is fine and many bitches are spayed every year without any immediate problems, and some never have issues resulting from the spay.

I think there are more issues with spay/neuter than we will ever know because veterinarians push it so much, they will not be keen to admit that this or that issue stemmed from early spay/neuter.

[roxy84]

to this point, i still believe the likelihood of mammary cancer and other health concern outweigh the possible health concerns that are borne from spaying.

my dogs have free reign of alot of acreage. the perimiter is fenced, but would not be completely unbreachable from a determined dog given enough time (though my dogs are not out of sight long enough and are only out when i am outside the house). i am happy to provide my dogs with this lifestyle, but i spay to eliminate even the smallest risk that exists. health considerations do play into the equation for me and if i am ever convinced that any potential health problems created by spaying outweigh the benefits, i will reconsider my poisition.

anecdotally, every female ive ever owned has been spayed by before the age of 1 and all have lived well past their breeds life expectancy, so i will admit my personal experience influences my attitude.

[doggiedad]

i've never had a dog spayed but that's because i've never
had a female. i've never had my males neutered but that's
because i never had them neutered.

[wolfstraum]

Everytime the dog is in heat, there is a chance for some thing to happen - tumors in the uterus, cervical cancer, pyometra.

Spaying is the best way to avoid these possibilities. Breeding dogs should be spayed when their breeding careers are over to avoid the same issues.

Lee

[Doc]

This is the information gathered from published and refereaded scientific journal articles - the entire report is in the link I posted yesterday.

For female dogs, the situation is more complex. The number of health benefits associated with spaying may
exceed the associated health problems in some (not all) cases. On balance, whether spaying improves the
odds of overall good health or degrades them probably depends on the age of the female dog and the
relative risk of various diseases in the different breeds.
On the positive side, spaying female dogs

•

if done before 2.5 years of age, greatly reduces the risk of mammary tumors, the most common

malignant tumors in female dogs

nearly eliminates the risk of pyometra, which otherwise would affect about 23% of intact female

dogs; pyometra kills about 1% of intact female dogs

•reduces the risk of perianal fistulas

removes the very small risk (0.5%) from uterine, cervical, and ovarian tumors

On the negative side, spaying female dogs

if done before 1 year of age, significantly increases the risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer); this is a

common cancer in larger breeds with a poor prognosis

increases the risk of splenic hemangiosarcoma by a factor of 2.2 and cardiac hemangiosarcoma by

a factor of >5; this is a common cancer and major cause of death in some breeds

triples the risk of hypothyroidism

increases the risk of obesity by a factor of 1.6-2, a common health problem in dogs with many

associated health problems

causes urinary “spay incontinence” in 4-20% of female dogs

increases the risk of persistent or recurring urinary tract infections by a factor of 3-4

increases the risk of recessed vulva, vaginal dermatitis, and vaginitis, especially for female dogs

spayed before puberty

doubles the small risk (<1%) of urinary tract tumors

increases the risk of orthopedic disorders

increases the risk of adverse reactions to vaccinations

It's your call, but make your decision wisely, based on scientific studies not what "someone told you" or your vet that is ready when the pup is 6 months old.