Thoughts on neutering please.

[londondog]

Hi All, and I would like to request a few thoughts on neutering please.

I know that there is no right or wrong with this, but am having some difficulty in making up my mind which way to go now that my bitch is older (circa 20 months). I can find advice which says go ahead unless you want to breed, but my breeder has fairly firm views in the other direction including that the dog will live longer if left intact and that she is less likely to suffer a number of illnesses. Any thoughts would be appreciated although I know that this is a difficult topic.
On the training front it remains a quiet month for the obvious reason!
Thanks.

[Stacia]

You will get different answers! In my personal experience I have had five bitches spayed, all lived to either nearly 13 or 14 years old, non had any illnesses caused by neutering and indeed I cannot think of any expect the possibility of a litte incontince when older, which is easily controlled by medication. By not neutering, the bitch can suffer with pyometra which is 'pus in the uterus' and can be fatal, or the dog is old and sick dog due to the pyometra and has to be spayed to save its life and spaying at that age carries more dangers than when fit and healthy. Neutering/spaying considerably reduces the chance of mammary cancers.

[scot-ish]

why's january a quiet month for training? i find it a busy one for me, plenty access to game, cold and warm, which will soon dry up and no longer be available as training aids, and back to dummies it goes after february.

spaying neutering is not for me, left in tact as the is designed to be, never done it to any of mine, nor will i unless its required for health reasons for the dog.

[Judy]

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=23997

Split your topic as neutering is a tad different to delivery problems and it helps the form to be more accessible to people looking for particular subjects.

On the other hand I guess delivery problems, not neutering, caesarian...

[High On]

I have found that age has little difference. I have witnessed incontinence in most spayed dogs. The medication will work to help control incontinence but has side effects that can be adverse. I choose NOT to spayed my girls for those reasons alone. Some people spayed them so they don't have to deal with the bleeding and disruption of male dogs in the yard. With multiple bitches in the same yard will often bring the others into season creating another issue. It is a choice orchestrated by the individuals situation. I am not a vet and only speak from my personal experience.

[munstyman]

I have a question regarding the spaying and incontinence issue, as nobody seems to ask the question, I'll bludgeon my way in
Is whether your bitch will suffer from this after spaying more down to the competence of the vet doing the op than the result of the op itself ?
Whilst we are getting different advise on which is the best age, or period of the cycle to do a spay, condition of the bitch, there does not seem any consistent relationship to this advise and the incontinence occurrence. Are vets recording the incidence? And is it something we as customers should be asking of a professional body ?

[newf]

My 'opinion', on the whole thing, is that the vet world of course is concerned with the over population of dogs and its obvious problems. This is the weight that pushes the argument for the procedure and not overwhelming evidence of beneficial health for our animals because that is less definitive.

[Stacia]

I used to be a veterinary nurse so have seen many, many spays. I cannot think the 'incompetence' of a vet could contribute towards incontinence, I could be wrong of course! Incontinence, at least in one of my bitches, was to do with hormones, there are still femine hormones despite being spayed and she would be incontinent around the time she would have been in season. A short course of the corect medication put this right in a few days.

The best time to do a spay is between seasons, so after a season, leave the spaying until at about 3 months later. As to the best age to do it, I don't think it is as important as it is with the male, the later the better for him. Because I was nervous of anything going wrong, I had two bitches done before their first season (get it over and done with!) and the two bitches I had earlier, I did after their first season. The only bitch who was incontinent was the one done after her first season.

The incidence of incontinence will be on the bitches medical records, but I don't think it is recorded as a problem, at least in my experience it wasn't but if you trawl the internet, you may find some evidence, though I am always wary of that as many papers are written from the perspective of the writer who wants to prove his or her point. Make sure you read one without an agenda.

Having seen mammary cancers and pyometras, I did not hesitate to spay my bitches.

[munstyman]

I avoided the `in' part of competence, as that has legal implications But experience must count for something, providing your experience has been doing it right in the first place I have to wonder if doing the spay in a particular way creates a higher risk of creating the condition ?
Surely data would be useful in this, even if its confined within the professional body. I note many are advocating `key hole' procedures now, any data on this relating to incontinence post op ? Any one done any referral investigation follow ups?

[romanriver]

My 'opinion' on the whole thing is that the vet world of course is concerned with the over population of dogs and it's obvious problems. This is the weight that pushes the argument for the procedure and not overwhelming evidence of beneficial health for our animals because that is less definitive.

I am of the opinion that the vet world are less concerned about over population than in ringing the till! In this area they are recommending neutering as early as 10 weeks.