Neuter age vet recommendations

[Alex]

Hello all, I know that neutering questions have come up many times. I am curious, though, about what recent doodle owners' vets are currently recommending to you about when to neuter. As I understand it, right know there's some confusion about whether it is worth waiting past 6 mo. to maybe a year, given some recent studies finding a correlation between neutering at < 1 yr and hip disorders+some cancers. I also know that the behavioral benefits of 6 mo. neutering are pretty clear. We had one vet tell us 6 mo, and another tell us to wait, at the same animal hospital. 

There aren't so many studies out there on this, and the ones that are there seem not-so-great. So, I am curious what other new doodle owners are hearing from the "professionals."

[Shari Becker]

Hi Alex, I just asked the same question about two weeks ago. 

http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/best-time-to-spay-your-doo...

We did a ton of reading on this, and we talked to three separate vets. Lexi is female, so the issues are a little different. The holistic vet said wait as long as you can until the dog is close to done growing - if possible for a female - go through one heat cycle. The conventional vet said far lower incidence of mammary cancer in female dogs who don't go into heat. The second conventional vet said the research is clearer on male dogs, larger dogs in particular, and it would be fair to wait on a male dog. She said the research is really, really grey on females.

My husband and I agonized over this decisions (seriously), but we came to peace with the fact that we didn't want to deal with our pup going into heat in our small, urban condo with no fenced-in yard. We use a dog park for our exercise, and there are two adult non neutered males and a ton of non neutered male puppies. Because she is a small doodle, she's almost done growing, too at 7+ months. She's going in next week. 

Good luck! It's hard trying to figure out what's the best thing for your puppy. I think part of the decision is whether you are able to wrangle your dog if not neutered or spayed. 

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Our vet recommended between 5-6 months and in fact, the Hospital charges more after 6 months.

[Alex]

Hi Shari, Thanks a lot for this; I read a lot of older threads on this but didn't pick up this very useful and more recent one. Actually, I wish there was a way to sort the forum search results by date.

What I picked up on from the responses to your post is that many traditional vets -- but who knows how many -- have recently changed their recommendation to waiting until a year if possible, at least in the case of full-sized males. This is useful; at least it suggests that they take the recent studies seriously (again, there are so few!). Of course, like many doodle owners going past 7 months will also push us up against complicated logistical issues like doggy day care and the breeder contract. 

[Julie and Max]

I had read that those studies were not really very conclusive at all, that the dogs who got cancer and hip problems are breeds that could actually get this anyhow, so there is no proof at all it was from neutering. Where I live it's recommended at 6 months. I'm going with six months, and I've done a lot of reading on it. 

[Alex]

I agree that what's in the studies themselves is not exactly persuasive; its very difficult establish that a correlation between early neuter & certain health problems means that the neutering was the actual cause. For one, in the U.S. the norm is to neuter by 6-7 months. So, the dogs in these studies who were neutered late (or not at all) probably have unusual owners, and unusual lifestyles, and therefore differ in all kinds of ways from the dogs neutered at a standard age. I would guess that they have lifestyles that are more active and healthy, but also more reckless and at danger of accidental death. Also, many dogs that could have potentially been in the late/no neuter group would not appear in the study sample, because they died young from precisely the behaviors that neutering helps to control.

The fact is, on the basis of the available studies, its very hard to know either way. The only thing we probably know confidently is how animals do that are neutered on the standard schedule, because we have decades of experience with it. That's why I was curious what the vets were saying these days and interpreting these studies. Not that they are the definitive word on the question, either.  But they could be combining the study findings with observations from their own clinical experience when they make recommendations to their patients.