Castration advice

windand rain said:
vet will advise you to neuter they always do I will never again neuter a dog male or female unless on medical grounds. Research tells me that is is an unsound practice especially for labradors, golden retrievers and their crosses. But I also am pro choice so if you find it is the only way forward then please do your research first the vet will only tell the pros never the cons in my experience
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Can you elaborate? I’m genuinely interested in why.
 
meleeka said:
Can you elaborate? I’m genuinely interested in why.
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Increase risk of various nasty cancers especially heart cancers that are untreatable big increased risk in labs and goldies
change of temperament and nervousness especially noise phobia
Increased risk of aggresssion
and a few more cons that I do not want to inflict on my dogs
These are all personal experiences so people may not feel they are important in the grand scheme of things but for me it is a no brainer. If on medical grounds it is necessary then it is a risk worth taking but not as a routine procedure for me.
Research is available that upholds my findings.
 
I agree that there's a lot of unnecessary neutering going on-even bitches imo should be left as long as possible. early neutering affects all systems of the body and early neutering as W&R says, increases cancers and things like cruciate problems in larger breeds. I also wonder if it has increased the number of allergies that we see now. I also think its a reason why we have so many emotionally immature perpetual 'puppies' everywhere. 2 people at work have just had their cockerpoos done at 6months before their first season :(
 
windand rain said:
These are all personal experiences so people may not feel they are important in the grand scheme of things but for me it is a no brainer. If on medical grounds it is necessary then it is a risk worth taking but not as a routine procedure for me.
Research is available that upholds my findings.
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That’s the thing though, my own personal experiences are the opposite of yours. I’m pretty sure there is also plenty of research that suggests the opposite.

Personally I would never not neuter a bitch as out of all the ones I have known. only one didn’t eventually get pyo or mammory rumours which I believe is more likely in unneuteres bitches. Because of my experiences I had mine speyed and am happy that her reproductive organs which she didn’t need anyway, aren’t going to make her ill.

The only entire dog I currently know is a nightmare. He’s ruled by his hormones, and although a lovely dog is prone to humping and wandering.
 
As I said I am pro choice everyone does what they feel is best but vets are very pro neutering after all it bring in a lot of money. I just like to balance both sides and so far apart from medical necessity I can see no reason for inflicting pain on an animal and in my experience the change in temperament and level of neurosis has put me off ever doing it as a routine. Two bitches have developed dreadful neurosis
Goldie had to be PTS while physically very healthy as her noise phobia got to the point she panicked if someone sneezed
Willow my current lab was spayed last year she was a happy go lucky stay anywhere dog she now wont eat if we are not both there. We cannot go away over night as she vomits with stress for weeks after we do. We love her to bits and now get a lady she loves to live in if we do go away but we do not chose to leave her unnecessarily. She used to go on holiday with us but cannot now due to the stress. She even wont go to family homes. Yes all due to getting her spayed as she changed within days.
The only other one we had spayed was fine for a while but again was nuts from day 1 but a different kind of nuts her spay triggered brain lesions so not good. We have lots of bitches over 50 years only these 3 were spayed. The GSD because she was unregistered and was oh obedience dog, the goldie did have pyo and Willow had surgery for something else so seemed like a good idea while she was already under GA I bitterly regret that decision but will live with it. Never saw the point in neutering the males as they lived harmoniously with the girls with only minimum disturbance twice a year while they were in season
 
meleeka said:
The only entire dog I currently know is a nightmare. He’s ruled by his hormones, and although a lovely dog is prone to humping and wandering.
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I have two, I can't say they never humped but its rare these days and was due to over excitement/frustration and they arent allowed to wander-who lets their dog wander these days? Neither of them hump more than the spayed rescue bitch I last had who was neutered as a pup-she also had epilesy which killed her at 5yo and various allergies.

I'm not anti neutering but its being done way too young. My last dog was done young due to a retained testicle-I should have waited. He was leggy, weedy, many allergies both food and contact, coat was knackered and he was an old dog at 8/9years old. I now have a golden so did quite alot of reading on it at the time-if I had a bitch I would wait until they were 2/3 years old and have a keyhole spay.

And the longer I work with animals the less I think we have the right to do something to them physically due to convenience-whether thats tail docking, ear cropping or neutering.

this HuffPost article has links to scientific articles

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-ethics-of-neutering_b_2790315

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/...vior-changes-when-dogs-are-spayed-or-neutered

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/opinion/dogs-spaying-neutering.html
 
MotherOfChickens said:
I have two, I can't say they never humped but its rare these days and was due to over excitement/frustration and they arent allowed to wander-who lets their dog wander these days?
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The dog I know isn’t ‘allowed’ to wander. He’s only little and has sneaked off when nobody is looking. He’s also dug under his garden fence and escaped. He reminds me of an little entire JRT we had as kids. He used to escape too and my mum had it on a calendar when all the nearby bitches were in season so we knew where to find him. He’d be patiently sat outside their garden 😀

My bitch was also pretty rampant when in season and flirted with a fox through the chain link fence.
 
OP - we are in a very similar situation. We've recently rehomed a 2yr old entire lab, extremely sweet natured and kind. No sign of aggression or hormonal behaviour at all. The vet assumes we will take him for the snip, but we're erring towards the feeling that if it ain't broke, don't fix it etc. It will be interesting to see what you decide to do with yours - keep us posted!
 
HeyMich said:
OP - we are in a very similar situation. We've recently rehomed a 2yr old entire lab, extremely sweet natured and kind. No sign of aggression or hormonal behaviour at all. The vet assumes we will take him for the snip, but we're erring towards the feeling that if it ain't broke, don't fix it etc.
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If it was a private re-home, then please give the boy at least 6 months with you before you make any decisions. I know that a lot of rescues insist that dogs are castrated within 3 months of being in their new home, but to my mind this is totally bonkers. The dog may have gone straight from his original home to the new home, but often they go via the rescue kennels or a fosterer, so will have experienced at least two major upheavals in recent time.

It takes at least 8 weeks, and often much longer (depending on dogs history), before you see the dog that you are ultimately going to end up with as the dog grows in confidence (or otherwise) in its new surroundings. To start meddling with hormone levels, which directly influence behaviour, early in the proceedings is stupid. Just my view though.
 
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