Neutering - interesting article

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sloulou

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Um there was a post here the other day about castration/ spaying...

anyway - I thought this article was interesting

http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongTermHealthEffectsOfSpayNeuterInDogs.pdf

not to sway people either way - because obviously it is a personal choice (and I've not yet decided for my pup) but the info is interesting.

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well yes - I have always thought that. In fact I thought it was irresponsible not to neuter unless you were a breeder.

Is just am starting to have doubts - especially after talking to dog breeders, trainers and groomers etc. ie. people who work with dogs - but then vets and rescue centres also work with dogs and they say neuter.
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Doesn't mean have decided not to - and I know there would be alot less rescues out there if more people neutered there pets!

hmmm - still deciding - but have got ages - Loki still only 4 and half months! (Poor thing - balls only just dropped and I'm already talking about them LOL!).

Will continue my reading
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Probably best to get advice from your vet, or a local rescue centre. All animal sanctuaries insist on neutering rehomed animals. I would wait and see how your boy behaves if you are having doubts, but imho neutered males make more contented and better behaved pets.
 
When we bought our pedigree cat, we had to sign a contract that he was being bought as a pet and that we would be getting him neutered as soon as he was old enough. I know cats aren't the same as dogs with regards to roaming etc, but do dog breeders not insist on selling either as pets or as potential breeding material? Potential breeding cats are more expensive than "pets".
 
Well my puppy definately shouldn't be bred from as he has an umbilical hernia. Anyway - i would want to leave breeding to the professional breeders!

Dog breeders don't insist on neutering for pets - mainly because most breeders don't like to neuter their animals. And I have met quite a few male labs in the park that are not castrated - some on the advice of their vets - others through personal choice.

It must be different for cats though, because they go out alone.

Anyway - I had a discusion about having my dog castrated on a dog forum - you can see the comments there:

here

and hence my confusion!
 
many breeders provide puppy contracts which may carry restrictions on breeding - these can be lifted if the breeder is satisfied that the pup matures into a healthy good tempered and 'typical' specimen of it's breed - these endorsements are placed on the puppy's registration documents and sent to the KC and if the owner does breed from a restricted puppy then they cannot register it. It's not foolproof because of course you cannot stop folk from breeding from unsuitable dogs but it does go a little way to ensure that only the best are bred from and does encourage puppy buyers who are thinking of breeding to stay in touch with the breeder.

I also endorse all my pups against exportaition so that they cannot be sent out of the country unless I have lifted the restriction - I have done this a couple of times ( to France and Denmark)- but again it does stop some of the scams around that buy pups to be sent to the far east for breeding.
 
A few comments I'd like to make on the article - firstly that although osteosarcomas are nasty and aggressive tumours they are thankfully not common although they are more common in certain breeds. Mammary tumours are extremely common! I might see 2 osteosarcomas a year where I might see 2 mammary tumours a week and probably 2 testicular tumours a month. Cardiac haemangiomas are also not that common as stated in the article. I've seen 1 in my career of 14 years.
Obesity is a common problem in both neutered and unneutered pets. After neutering, animals become more efficient at utilising the calories from their food so you sometimes need to reduce the diet slightly to compensate for this. All my dogs have always been neutered and none of them are or have been overweight. Animals can only be overweight if fed too much - its just that they need slightly less food post neutering.
The only orthopaedic 'disorder' I can think of is that if animals are neutered prepuberty it can cause premature closure of the growth plates and so animals tend to be bigger and rangier because of this. I tend to advise people with giant breeds to wait a little longer before getting their pets neutered than the standard 6 mths because of this.
Incontinance is certainly a higher risk for the speyed female. This is partly to do with the loss of ligamentous support from the bladder to the womb after speying (allowing the bladder to sit slighty further into the abdomen) and partly because oestrogen has a mild effect on bladder tone. Generally incontinance can be well controlled medically if this does occur.
Pyometra is also extremely common and only successfully treated by speying - but then done in a sick and often elderly animal instead of a fit healthy one. The only reason the incidence of fatalities is low is because most people get them treated in time and dogs make a good recovery following surgery.
Prostate disease is also extremely common in males of all species. I don't know exact figures but I'm sure its somewhere as high as 40% incidence of prostatitis in entire males. Neutering completely eliminates the chances of prostatitis. Although prostate cancer is still a possibility in neutered and unneutered males it is rare.
I have seen absolutely no evidence to support an increased incidence of vaccine reactions in neutered animals. But then I don't see many vaccine reactions either and I probably vaccinate at least 20 animals a day.
 
thanks ann-jen - also v useful.

can I ask something. Someone in a previous thread said that you would need to castrate at 9 months to eliminate the risks of prostate cancer, any later would still carry risks - I was planning on waiting till our puppy was 18 months, so that his hormones will have done their job. So are they right? Should it be done at 9 months, rather than 18 months, form a veterinary perspective?
 
The benefits of castration are more for the prevention of prostatitis/prostatitic hyperplasia - a nasty infection in the prostate that can cause symptoms such as blood in urine, difficulty passing urine/faeces, vomiting and poor apetite. If a dog gets prostatitis it is difficult to treat sucessfully without castrating. We often castrate elderly dogs with prostatitis to prevent a recurrance of the problem so it wouldn't make any difference whether you had your lad castrated at 9 or 18 mths as to whether it would prevent this problem.
Castration doesnt prevent prostate cancer or prostatic cysts unfortunately but the good news is both are quite rare.
I castrated Josh at 9 mths.
 
I think neuter - definately!

I personally think that having Buster neutered has kept him puppylike for longer.

I'm a bit concerned that the article had more negative connotations about neutering than positive ones though - especially the 'orthopedic problems' - I wonder what they might be?
 
[ QUOTE ]
The benefits of castration are more for the prevention of prostatitis/prostatitic hyperplasia - a nasty infection in the prostate that can cause symptoms such as blood in urine, difficulty passing urine/faeces, vomiting and poor apetite. If a dog gets prostatitis it is difficult to treat sucessfully without castrating. We often castrate elderly dogs with prostatitis to prevent a recurrance of the problem so it wouldn't make any difference whether you had your lad castrated at 9 or 18 mths as to whether it would prevent this problem.
Castration doesnt prevent prostate cancer or prostatic cysts unfortunately but the good news is both are quite rare.
I castrated Josh at 9 mths.

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Thanks ann-jen, really useful. I will wait till my puppy is a bit older I think.

I useful to get a Vet/ professional perspective on this as some advice on here is very forcefully given, and as you have just highlighted, not always correct!
 
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