Best age to neuter?

[lisabc311]

We have a 13 week old standard poodle puppy .

The vet recommends neutering at 6 months of age.

Now, I have done NO research on why this age is suggested, so please pardon my ignorance.

However, that seems so young to me! Is that really good for them? They aren't even fully developed by 6 months, so why do they choose that age?

Any resources on this for me?

(Actually, I feel awful about the procedure in general, but I am sure that is my earth-mama nature ).

[mamamillet]

I was actually wondering this as well (except different procedure cause I have a girl) so I look forward to reading some responses.

[thekimballs]

I want my Dane puppy buyers to wait until 18 months. There is a lot of good evidence to suggest that osteosarcoma (bone cancer) rates are much higher in dogs neutered early, and early neuters make the dog abnormally tall and reduce the masculine look of the dog (that's a bigger deal the bigger the dog is; you want that wide chest to push the elbows apart so the dog stands soundly with front feet pointing straight ahead; early neuters are often duck-footed and narrow).

It's up to you and your breeder, but I always push for later rather than sooner.

[kfowler]

I've heard as early as four months, but the general recommendation is usually 6 months. When I worked as a vet tech, the vets always recommended our clients get their dogs fixed BEFORE they reached sexual maturity, the idea being that it's supposed to reduce the risk of breast and/or testicular cancer. Not sure if there's anything to that or not, that's just what I have always heard.

We had our alaskan malamute fixed when she was 6 months old and before she had her first heat cycle. In my experience, once a female dog's had her first heat cycle, she tends to get "b!tchy". (No pun intended!) By fixing her BEFORE that first heat cycle, it seems to maintain the calmness and puppylike attitude of the dog. Again, this is just my own personal experience.

[thekimballs]

The cancer thing is, I think, vastly overemphasized. Vets need a "hook" to get owners to speuter, and cancer is so scary that it works. While I have every sympathy with making owners sterilize, the fact is that testicular cancers are generally late-in-life events and usually benign. Same thing with mammary cancers--there is certainly an increased risk of fatty tumors in the glands, but they're not generally life-threatening. Osteosarcoma is almost always a death sentence. So is pyometritis, the uterine infection that comes when you don't spay and don't breed, so spaying is also a must--but again, not until after maturity for my puppies.

I think that the risk of accidental litters is the biggest--so if the owner does not feel confident, if the home is not mature and educated, if there's an intact female around, then neuter early. But if you're savvy and you are in control of the situation, I think you SHOULD neuter--but after sexual maturity.

[Eman'smom]

Our dog was spayed before we were allowed to take her home from the shelter, she was maybe 12 weeks, our kittens were allowed to come home right away but we had to sign a contract and have a date set up for neutering before we took them, they were neutered around 4 months, the only "reason to wait" was so their um, area was larger.

I don't have any purbreed animals all our are rescues from the pound and the risk of over population is just so high.

[lisabc311]

Joanna, see, that is what my instinct was telling me. I can't imagine cutting off their normal hormones before they've even reached full maturity. It just seems to me that there has to be some sort of risk to that?

There is a part of me that just feels like it is wrong but maybe I tend to humanize things like this too much?

We don't intend to breed our dog, and he is definitely not at risk to coming in contact with a female dog. We keep him in our home at all times or on a leash. We have a fenced-in back yard too that is completely secure and also completely surrounded by trees, as well.

[Sailor]

I haven't neutered mine, and he's 15 months. But, he's also a working dog ... so I'm in a slightly different boat than you.

I work with rescue organizations ... and we pretty much neuter as soon as possible. I do NOT think this is good, however it's how rescue organizations deal with over population. No dog leaves our organization unneutered.

Growing up, the age of neutering our family pets depended on the pack, i.e. if we had a young male and female ... one of those dogs were going to have to get it done early. As we definitely did not breed or want puppies. Otherwise, the standard for the family pets was anywhere between 1 and 2.

[Lula's Mom]

Originally Posted by thekimballs

The cancer thing is, I think, vastly overemphasized. Vets need a "hook" to get owners to speuter, and cancer is so scary that it works.

I think so too! I have a 12 1/2 year old intact male Pit Bull. He's never been bred, but he has never showed any of the typical male behaviors either. He never marked in the house, he's never gone looking for fights, he's just a super mellow, dog- and human-friendly dog.

So we figured, why put him through surgery when for him, it was unnecessary? He has lived his whole long life with these testicles, and it's never been a problem. Recently we saw a new vet, and she was trying to convince me to neuter him now! I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud! I told her that even if he got cancer now, well, he's 12 1/2 years old. Something's going to take him in the not-too-distant future, and it's not going to be anesthesia for a neuter.

Do you have any links about the osteosarcoma, btw? I was telling a friend about that the other day, but she didn't believe me. She said her research showed there was no increased risk of cancer.

[thekimballs]

Re: neutering and cancer: http://chromadane.com/fanny2.htm and then scroll down to the links. This is a Dane person who lost her extremely talented bitch way too young, so she's made a little bit of a crusade for late spay/neuter. (I should add that she is far from natural in her rearing practices and is a responsible breeder to the point of being obsessive/overboard, so there's no question that one of her dogs MUST be neutered--but she doesn't want it done early.)

[shannon0218]

Neutering is definitely better but I agree with Joanna I prefer to wait till a dog is around 18 mos, in GSDs it makes a big difference in head size and masculine "look"
As for not doing it at all, it's an option but know that there are extra responsibilities but also potential for extra pain in the assness
As a stud dog for so long, Havoc can/is downright obnoxious if there is a bitch in heat within about 5 km's of here. The whining, the drooling, the pacing. Also, when he was around 10 he started leaking urine, his prostate was enlarged so we neutered him then. Dh was VERY upset about this but I did inform him if at any time he started leaking urine in the house that I would quickly take him in for neutering as well

[skybluepink02]

I got my dog nutered on wednsday, two days ago, but he's 18 months old. I did a lot of research, and decided that because he is an exclusively inside dog, who is only outside on a leash, it was in his best health interests to be neutered after maturity.

It really depends on the home. If your dog is an outside dog, then there is a good chance of him getting outside if a female is in heat. In this case, neutering is in his best interests because there is a higher chance of getting into dogfights, getting run over, or just getting lost. Also there will be unintentional litters that someone will have to deal with.

You have to look at your situation and make the decision based on that. There is no "one size fits all" solution. As with any decision, there are two sides and you have to weigh the risks against the benifits.

[MamaAllNatural]

It's crazy. Before reading this I regretted spaying my girl "late" (18 months) and now I regret also spaying my little boy pup so early. I still do regret waiting so long to spay my girl simply because once she started getting her heats she became a real bitch. Seriously. She has that edge now permanently which I don't think would've been there had she been spayed before her heat. They were very rude to me though about waiting so long and gave me the whole cancer schpeal too. I wish I had spayed her around five months. I think she'd have a better temperment honestly.

My boy pup though I adopted from the SPCA and I had adopted cats before from shelters and I know how young they neuter them so I didn't realize that six weeks way way too young. : : People just started saying, "Wow, he's so young to have been fixed already." I feel stupid for not knowing that. : I have heard so much info especially about boy dogs though and how they're less aggressive when they are nuetered before maturity. All the severe dog attacks in our area have all been by unfixed dogs. They even have a free spay/nueter program for pitbulls in our county because there is such a problem w/irresponsible owners not raising them right (and then they attack) and also w/breeding them. About 75% of the dogs in the shelter here are pits or pit mixes. It's so sad. I have volunteered at some rescues before too. So I have just been so on the bandwagon w/spaying and neutering, especially the overpopulated and poorly treated pits.

I probably still would've had him nuetered before full maturity though. Five months or so.

I also wanted to add:

Recently we saw a new vet, and she was trying to convince me to neuter him now! I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud! I told her that even if he got cancer now, well, he's 12 1/2 years old. Something's going to take him in the not-too-distant future, and it's not going to be anesthesia for a neuter.

This cracked me up! It's amazing how some doctors just don't actually use their brain when they are working with a patient. For myself, my kids, and my pets the first thing I look for is how high their common sense IQ is.

[thekimballs]

I think that the temperament change in your girl was probably more adolescence and less hormones. Some dogs do get bitchy around their cycles, but more of them get super lovey and leany. But what DOES happen around 12-18 months is that teenage dogs start demanding the car in the evening and bring it home at 3 am with an empty tank of gas--in other words, they get rude and don't listen any more, even after months of obedience. I think there are several key periods of development in dogs--and a major one is 12-18 months. You have got to be very on top of them every second and you've got to expect disobedience and have a way to handle it and nip it in the bud, or they get habits that never go away.

[MamaAllNatural]

She always listened really still through her heats. It was never her behavior, just a bad mood/temperment type of thing. I do think her individual personality contributed and that many dogs would not become bitchy or have a bad attitude.She actually never did that thing where people say they will challenge you when they are teenagers.

I just wanted to add...I am SO not looking forward to that age w/my boy pup!

[Girl In The Fire]

the idea being that it's supposed to reduce the risk of breast and/or testicular cancer

There is a very real risk of mammary cancer in intact female dogs but the risk of testicular cancer is very low from the research I have done, something like .2% but its been a while since I was looking in to this. However I read some more recent studies that have found an increased risk of prostate cancer in neutered male dogs.

[shannon0218]

and risk of testicular cancer has nothing to do with WHEN they're neutered--if you neuter at 18 mos, provided they don't have it yet, they're not going to get cancer of a part they no longer have.

[MamaAllNatural]

I swear I have read that spaying reduces the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer. : Um, WHAT?? Yeah, if I remove my liver I can't get liver cancer and if I get rid of my heart I have absolutely no risk of suffering a heart attack. :