Tuesday

So sorry, just one more question. When is the best time to get a puppy spayed? The vet recommended 4 to 6 months. I also heard in the past from a previous vet that it is best to wait at 6 months. My pup is now 4 months and I am getting her fixed but just want to hear opinions about the best month to get this done...

Scully

Our current vet recommends doing a spay at 5-6 months. She did mention that if you do it at 5 months, they heal up faster; I had not heard that before. We are having Ninja spayed on June 23rd, and she'll be a week short of 6 months.

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Mikey T

If we were talking males the health benefits of nuetering are over blown. A realistic look a the health risk vs addvanages actually favor keep males intacked.

The same is not the case for Females in which mamary cancer and pyoderma are potential life threatening conditions that are realitively common in intacted bitches but non existant in spayed. However the rate of mammary cancer and tumors in bitches is directly related to how many heat cycles the dog has had. If they are spayed before the first cycle the odd of mammary cancer is virtual nil , they increase quite dramatical if the bitch has one cycles and ieven more so if the dog as two which is approaching the same rate as for intacted bitches. So ideally you want to have a female spayed before the first heat cycle. which is ussual around six months of age or later but the are know to come into heat sooner as early as 4 1/2 month So I alway advocate for spay sooner rather than later but at the same time you do not want to push the vet into spaying a dog earlier than he/she is comfortable because spaying at a younger age does require different techniques and procedures and watching out for different problems during surgery. If option for early sterilization you want to only use a vet experience in doing so. . That said early spaying dogs as young a 8 weeks have shown to have few post surgical problems and pain then dogs where the procedure was done later.


Long-Term Health Risks and Benefits Associated with Spay / Neuter in Dogs


Early Sterilization in Dogs and Cats

Tuesday

I think I might go with doing it at 5 months to try to avoid a heat. The last thing I want is for Gwenny to get pregnant. There is a huge bloodhound male that lives next door to my mom, lol. If she goes through a heat while we are at her house, it would not be good. So I will get her fixed before we go to visit.

Basset Mamma x's 4

Our vet strongly recommends getting your females spayed before their first heat - she says this dramatically decreases their chances of developing cancer in the reproductive areas.

Tuesday

Thank you!!!

SophieB

Our vet reckons that 6 months is the ideal age for spaying and we had our two pups done
on the same day at exactly 6 months and so did my friend's Pug get done the same age!

I would have thought that any earlier than 6 months is too early and their reproductive
organs aren't as developed as they are a month later!

hig4s

Mike T

I've been meaning to ask this anyway..

I've also read that spaying a dog early can cause the bones to grow a bit longer than if spayed later, and that this is a concern in bassets as it can make the risk of bone and joint problems greater.. And the recommended time to spay is after 5 months but before the first heat cycle (like you said, is a gamble as they can come in earlier) but not to neuter males until after 11 months.

We are not planning on breeding our two, and plan on spaying the female at just after 5 months.. The vet suggested we do them at the same time so they would both be recovering at the same time and one who didn't have surgery wouldn't be playing too aggressive with the one that did. I'm not sure that is valid as I'm afraid surgery or not they will both still be more active then they should if we don't watch them anyway.

And after what you posted I'm not sure we need to neuter the male at all. But that being said, my stud male from back when breed beagles did have a lot of problems the vet said would have been lessened had I neutered him after we stopped breeding. So basically I'm confused.
At this point I am thinking of having her spayed, but not having him fixed at all.?

fred'smom

we were always told at 6 months. Fred is 6 months now and will get done as soon as our income tax check comes in. We were also told spaying/neutering too early causes the growth plates to not close properly and the dog ends up growing differently. So Fred will get done in about a month.

Soundtrack

Honestly, in 30 years of keeping intact females and spaying them when they're older (7+ years) I've had ONE case of mammary tumor (which was huge), which was removed and never caused any more problems.

As far as I'm concerned, the main issues are:
1) If she goes into season, are you able to protect her from being bred "accidentally"? If you have any doubts at all, spay.
2) Are you willing to put up with hormonal mood swings, bleeding, false pregnancies, and watching for signs of mastitis and pyometra? If not, spay.

In the case of males, testicle removal is not a substitute for training.

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