Decision to spay/neuter pets

[dosekies]

I have always believe that if you have a dog or cat and want to be a responsible owner, then you should have them spayed or neutered. It is what I was taught as a child when we had pets and once I got my own dog what I was advised by the vet because it can help to prevent certain health problems and because it can hurt them to be in heat all the time when not expected to reproduce.

Someone just posted a picture of their dog in a diaper because the dog is in heat and they are not getting her fixed until she is 2 years old, she is currently 8 months. I asked if there was a reason why, and this person said it was recommended to them to wait that long and that if their dogs (the also have a male who isn't fixed) reproduce, it is fine by them. There are already too many dogs looking for homes, the world doesn't need more puppies looking for home due to irresponsible owners!

How is it that there can be such widely varying opinions on this? If you have pets, do/did you have them fixed and when? Maybe I was always told wrong, but even at all the shelters by me the puppies are fixed before they are allowed to be adopted!

 

[cleverclovers]

Always spay/neuter.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Female cats and dogs need to be fixed if they aren’t regularly bred.

If they aren’t they can have all kind of complications like really nasty internal infections. Male animals that aren’t neutered can have behavioral and territorial issues, I’m not interested in that either.

I would never breed my animals so I always have them spayed or neutered. Mr. Barker taught me well

 

[dosekies]

Female cats and dogs need to be fixed if they aren’t regularly bred.

If they aren’t they can have all kind of complications like really nasty internal infections. Male animals that aren’t neutered can have behavioral and territorial issues, I’m not interested in that either.

I would never breed my animals so I always have them spayed or neutered. Mr. Barker taught me well

Yeah, the aggression/territorial issues are a concern too. This person is about to have a baby!

 

[PollyannaMom]

How is it that there can be such widely varying opinions on this?

Because we can't just ask the animals!

That said -

If you have pets, do/did you have them fixed and when?

We have two female cats, and yes, we got them spayed, at the time the vet recommended. (It was quite young, IIRC. - I believe the thinking, at least then, was that you should do it before they went into heat?)

Maybe I was always told wrong, but even at all the shelters by me the puppies are fixed before they are allowed to be adopted!

I do think we had to sign something that we intended to do so.

 

[gotomu212]

It depends on the breed and your vet, but there are a lot of vets (including mine) that recommend waiting until 2 now in order to prevent hip and joint diseases that occur in higher percentages when dogs don’t go through to maturity (2 for my dog breed).

Our dogs are kept inside or on a leash so delaying didn’t cause any issues for us.

 

[Monykalyn]

It depends on the breed and your vet, but there are a lot of vets (including mine) that recommend waiting until 2 now in order to prevent hip and joint diseases that occur in higher percentages when dogs don’t go through to maturity (2 for my dog breed).

Our dogs are kept inside or on a leash so delaying didn’t cause any issues for us.

Ok that is interesting! Our labs are always neutered early, and labs are notorious for hip/joint issues! Our current lab is purebred (short version-registered femal got pregnant by unregistered but our male) and he of course is having hip issues (he's almost 13 though). Will investigate further with next doggy

 

[1Mouse2RulethemAll]

We had out dog fixed very young and has has bladder issues ever since. You can have animals fixed too young.

 

[robinb]

It depends on the breed and your vet, but there are a lot of vets (including mine) that recommend waiting until 2 now in order to prevent hip and joint diseases that occur in higher percentages when dogs don’t go through to maturity (2 for my dog breed).

Our dogs are kept inside or on a leash so delaying didn’t cause any issues for us.

Our vet recommended that we wait on our Japanese Akita for the same reason.

 

[Mizzoufan]

I have never heard to wait till 2. I have always 6-8 weeks.

 

[firefly_ris]

Giant breed dogs such as Great Danes or St Bernards joint plate growth isn't complete until close to 2 years of age, so sometimes it is recommended to wait in these cases to lower chances of future joint issues. I know a few people who did this but are immensely careful with females in heat. People dont realize the lengths they can go to to make a tie occur... they can tie through chain link fences, and the scent can draw males from miles away and many males will do anything including breaking doors to get there.

I foster for a local rescue and it is just never-ending intake pleas... Some of the fosters in the rescue I'm in can have 3 or 4 dogs or cats at a time otherwise they'd have to turn them away. It can be exhausting trying to fix everyone else's irresponsible mess. So 99.9% of the time yes I'm a spay and neuter advocate, and the average Joe should not be breeding pets. There's still a place for responsible breeders but what I consider a responsible breeder, probably about 1% of people would fall under (I do know one!). It is much more involved than "omg my dog so purty and nice shed be a gr8 mom lolz"... more like years of mentoring, proving in sport or working events, etc. Breeders like this have waiting lists before litters are ever planned and strict return contracts, and their dogs don't usually end up in shelter settings. Joe Smith trying to sell his puppies on craigslist... yeah nah, fix your dogs, like yesterday.

 

[tzolkin]

Yes, there is a theory about waiting until after maturity, but I’m not sure what scientific studies have been done on the topic.

That said, I think many (maybe most?) people adopt and in those cases the animals are always spayed before they are sent home (or a contract is signed that they will be by a certain date if the animal is too young). So, if you’re adopting, you don’t have the option to delay or refuse sterilization.


As for the delayed spaying, my parents have had negative experiences with both their female dogs so, to me, it’s not worth it from what I have seen.

Their previous dog never had a noticeable heat. She wound up with an extremely severe case of pyometra, ruptured uterus, infection throughout her body that resulted in surgery and a very lengthy hospital stay. The dog had health problems for the remainder of her life (although I’m not sure if they were related).

They intended to have their current puppy spayed before her first heat, but it came earlier than expected. Even though she was healthy and normal, it lasted for weeks, the dog and my mom were pretty miserable, the other dogs would not leave her alone and she started to develop some aggresive behavior.

 

[jenrose66]

I have always believe that if you have a dog or cat and want to be a responsible owner, then you should have them spayed or neutered. It is what I was taught as a child when we had pets and once I got my own dog what I was advised by the vet because it can help to prevent certain health problems and because it can hurt them to be in heat all the time when not expected to reproduce.

Someone just posted a picture of their dog in a diaper because the dog is in heat and they are not getting her fixed until she is 2 years old, she is currently 8 months. I asked if there was a reason why, and this person said it was recommended to them to wait that long and that if their dogs (the also have a male who isn't fixed) reproduce, it is fine by them. There are already too many dogs looking for homes, the world doesn't need more puppies looking for home due to irresponsible owners!

How is it that there can be such widely varying opinions on this? If you have pets, do/did you have them fixed and when? Maybe I was always told wrong, but even at all the shelters by me the puppies are fixed before they are allowed to be adopted!

My very first puppy was a shihtzu named Ivy. At the recommendation of our vet we had her spayed at 4 months and she died during the surgery. After that I couldn’t bring myself to get another dog. I felt so guilty.

10 years later we got a male cockapoo (and a different vet). I was a wreck about having him fixed and we waited until he was 10 months old. He was fine. We also have a goldendoodle and he was neutered at 6 months.

 

[superme80]

The only animals I have not spayed or neutered were alley cats that just moved into our year when I was a kid. After the one I sort of adopted had a kitten we fixed her. Our dog was fixed at 8 or 10 weeks.

 

[aprilgail]

I work with a cat/kitten rescue and they do not allow anyone to adopt a kitten without it being spayed/neutered first. We had most of our dogs spayed/neutered since I was a little kid except one, I don't know why we never did it but when he hit around 9 years old you could not keep him from humping your leg every time you sat down- at that point I took him to get fixed and that stopped the humping.

 

[tvguy]

It depends on the breed and your vet, but there are a lot of vets (including mine) that recommend waiting until 2 now in order to prevent hip and joint diseases that occur in higher percentages when dogs don’t go through to maturity (2 for my dog breed).

Our dogs are kept inside or on a leash so delaying didn’t cause any issues for us.

A U.C. Davis Vet School study did find more hip and joint issues in dogs spayed or neutered too young. But they concluded age 1 is the point when spaying or neutering is safe. http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016...enefits-of-spayingneutering-dogs-after-age-1/

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm a big proponent of spay and neutering and most of the shelters the adoption fee includes that the cat or dog was spayed or neutered.

That being said not everyone who had bred is evil up to no good puppy/cat mills, irresponsible etc type of people.

My step-mother had grown up with old english sheepdogs. When we met her she had 2 of them but sadly one (the female) was hit by a car. Later on we got another female and when she was two-ish she did breed with the male dog she already had and they had 7 live puppies (1 was stillborn). They kept one of the puppies (a male) and after that the female was spayed. The other 6 puppies went on to live very happy lives and they kept up regularly with all 6 owners for at least a few years.

You are right about health concerns though some owners don't do spay or neuter until something comes up (aggression, etc).

When we adopted our cat he was nearly 2 months old but we couldn't take him home until he got neutered (as that was standard) and he couldn't get neutered until he weighed at least 2lbs so we didn't end up taking him home until 2 weeks after we adopted him. Neutered cats though can have metabolism problems so we have him on a 'healthy metabolism' formula that we have used since he was old enough to be off kitten formula to help lessen the chance for him to retain too much weight.

On the other hand sister-in-law got a cat from a friend of a friend and didn't spay her. She got out and then stayed out as she got used to the outside and hated the inside. It didn't take long for her to get pregnant and she had 4 kittens. However, all 4 stayed in the family--two went to the other sister-in-law and 2 went to my mother-in-law however the two that went to the other sister-in-law ended back with the mother-in-law plus the other cat the original sister-in-law in the story had but gave to her mother-in-law, mother-in-law now has 7 cats at her house. They are all well-cared for and they have the $ to properly take care of them but even I do agree 7 is too much and 4 wouldn't have been there had the momma cat of the 4 kittens been spayed.

I guess in my mind context means a lot because clearly there are bad bad people out there. Probably more where I stand is creating more resources for these shelters so animals aren't euthanized just for space and resources-but that is quite a feat IMO. There is also doing more things for stray cats like TNR.

 

[LSUmiss]

I have always believe that if you have a dog or cat and want to be a responsible owner, then you should have them spayed or neutered. It is what I was taught as a child when we had pets and once I got my own dog what I was advised by the vet because it can help to prevent certain health problems and because it can hurt them to be in heat all the time when not expected to reproduce.

Someone just posted a picture of their dog in a diaper because the dog is in heat and they are not getting her fixed until she is 2 years old, she is currently 8 months. I asked if there was a reason why, and this person said it was recommended to them to wait that long and that if their dogs (the also have a male who isn't fixed) reproduce, it is fine by them. There are already too many dogs looking for homes, the world doesn't need more puppies looking for home due to irresponsible owners!

How is it that there can be such widely varying opinions on this? If you have pets, do/did you have them fixed and when? Maybe I was always told wrong, but even at all the shelters by me the puppies are fixed before they are allowed to be adopted!

My vet recommended my Golden not be neutered until 1 yr or later b/c it can effect his growth. He is a very large golden. However, she recommended my Dachshund neutered at 6 mos.

 

[firefly_ris]

That being said not everyone who had bred is evil up to no good puppy/cat mills, irresponsible etc type of people.

Of course not, but it still doesn't mean they should be breeding.... There's more to it than just putting a male and female of a breed together. Randomly breeding poor specimens is how we end up with lines of dogs with genetic health problems, temperament issues, etc. Most people have a nice dog but it doesnt make them breeding material... most people also have no clue about genetic screening. Also Joe schmo isn't always screening homes and typically not writing spay/neuter contracts and so on. There's a ripple effect.

 

[CarolAnn856]

We rescused a mini Schnauzer from a breed-specific rescue group, and both the group and our vet recommended we wait until 1 year to avoid certain health issues (I believe it was bladder stones). We were very careful until he was fixed...outside only on a leash with us present, no dog park, etc.