What my vet just said about spaying:

[Tommy Coyote]

I just had my dogs in for their yearly checkup and I asked about his feelings on spaying. he is young and the clinic is pretty progressive.

 

He still says 6 months - but no earlier. His big concern about waiting to spay is mammary tumors. The risk goes up substantially with every breeding cycle.

 

I asked about concerns regarding structual problems later on and he said he doesn't worry about that with the smaller dogs but he does like to wait until a year or so with the larger dogs.

 

Just thought I would pass this along.

[mum24dog]

I just had my dogs in for their yearly checkup and I asked about his feelings on spaying. he is young and the clinic is pretty progressive.

 

He still says 6 months - but no earlier. His big concern about waiting to spay is mammary tumors. The risk goes up substantially with every breeding cycle.

 

I asked about concerns regarding structual problems later on and he said he doesn't worry about that with the smaller dogs but he does like to wait until a year or so with the larger dogs.

 

Just thought I would pass this along.

 

Pretty much my stance on the subject.

 

I wonder what he would class as a larger dog though? I guess we all have our own ideas. To me it would be a dog of a tall and/or heavily built type - I'm thinking Greyhound or Rottweiler, for example. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of BCs that I personally might place in that category.

[Tommy Coyote]

I don't know if I completely agree with him. I think if I had a dog that I was training in some kind of really active endeavor like sheep herding or agility or flyball that I would wait until at least the second cycle to be sure all joints and ligaments were as strong as possible.

[Liz P]

Yes, but most vets don't deal with a lot of working dogs. In my area I see a ton of hunting dogs, a decent number of LGD and an assortment of sport and other working dogs. I bet in your area it's mostly pets.

[cherylintx]

I was going to ask about this very thing! My two pups are rescues, and the border collie rescue where I got one of them recommends spaying between 12-15 months. My vet disagrees, for the very same reason as your vet, and says she hasn't heard of a connection between spaying at 6 months, and hip dysplasia. Can someone direct me to some studies on this?

[Tommy Coyote]

Liz: It's Eagle Animal Hospital - you probably have heard of them. There are 4 vets working there.

 

And, yes, I'm sure they do mostly pets.

 

Are you saying that you think it is better to wait a little longer?

 

I know that I have discussed this whole thing with Dr. Mischke at the Emergency clinic here and he also feels like not before 6 months but as soon after that as possible - for the same reasons my vet gave.

 

And cherylintx: I don't think it's just hip problems but also torn ligaments that are the result of unstable joints. If the hormones aren't there the joints just don't develop quite right and are unstable - especially when the dogs are very active and running and turning and stopping really fast.

[Liz P]

For all dogs I wait until 6 months. For large breeds and working/sport dogs I wait longer.