Best age for neutering small breed?

[TwyfordM]

Looking for some advice on the best age for neutering a small mix breed male pup.

He's just turned 5 months. Has one ball descended (his grandad only has 1 too so not unexpected) so it's likely to need to be the more invasive procedure to locate missing ball.

No temperament concerns or marking, he's an easy little pup really. So happy to get it done on the best timelines for growth etc. Having only had male large breeds before, I know it's usually best to wait a bit before castrating for growth etc but I'm getting mixed messages for small breeds! Even from the vets, some recommending 6 months plus some saying 18months plus

So I'm on the fence to see if ball number two decides to make an appearance by itself etc

 

[Annette4]

I would still wait until at least 18 months personally. If the retained one is causing issues I'd have that one removed but leave the other in place until mature.

 

[splashgirl45]

I would say at least a year for a smaller breed. I got my small terrier done at 11 months as he was humping everything , my lurcher is still entire and I was going to get him done at 18months which was last month but will wait until he is 2 as he hasn’t shown any undesirable traits (yet!!) . Your little boy is still very cute

 

[OlderNotWiser]

Several years ago we adopted a 10 month old miniature Daxi pup who only had one testicle descended. Our vets wanted us to neuter him straight away purely because of not knowing where the second one was. It was obviously more invasive that a normal castration but he recovered very quickly.

 

[Clodagh]

I know it’s irrelevant to your query but dogs with undescended or missing testicles should not really be used at stud.

 

[MurphysMinder]

I know it’s irrelevant to your query but dogs with undescended or missing testicles should not really be used at stud.

You beat me to it ! In answer to the question I would leave him till at least 12 months , particularly as it is a more invasive operation .

 

[Boulty]

I’d personally wait until 12 months and if it’s not made an appearance by then it’s highly unlikely to so I’d get him booked in. As a (very!) small breed he should be skeletally mature by then so no real benefit to waiting longer but obv the longer you leave it the more of a slight risk there is of something going wrong with the undescended one (thinking more of torsions etc at that young age than of cancer but obv that is a risk if you leave it for an extended period of time)

 

[poiuytrewq]

We had both little dogs done at just gone 12 months. Only one needed doing but I decided to get both together.
Makes sense in your situation to leave as long as possible and hope ball#2 might make an appearance.

He is Incredibly cute looking!

 

[TwyfordM]

We had both little dogs done at just gone 12 months. Only one needed doing but I decided to get both together.
Makes sense in your situation to leave as long as possible and hope ball#2 might make an appearance.

He is Incredibly cute looking!

And he knows it!

He's in my oodie while I work from home, spoilt much?