i had always planned to get lily spayed after her first season as that is what i did with my previous dog. but tonight i took lily for her 6 month weight check and the vet says they r perfectly happy to spay her before she has one. they also said that with every season their chance of getting mammary tumours increase, 1/100 spay before season, 1/40 after first, 1/5 after second, or something like that, i don't know what to do now ! i'm all confused !

what have other people done ?

sarah
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I had always waited until after the first season in the past but my Afghan got to 10 months and no season and my vet said he would spay her which he did and she's fine.  Since then I have had another girlie done at 7 months and next week the latest rescue will be done at 9 months before a season on my insistance as the new vet is reluctant.
Sally

i've been reading all past posts on this subject and i still can't decide what to do !! aggghhh !!! the only thing i don't get is all the people who say that their dog doesn't seem to "grow up" if they got spayed before their first season, how do they know this was not just the dog's character, ie nothing to do with being spayed ?

but thanks for your positive response for early spaying, i was expecting loads of negatives which would have made deciding even harder !

sarah
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I don't know if it is relevant but my Afghan's litter sister was spayed a lot later.  They are 9 in a couple of months and although Letitia is starting to show a little fading of her black mask, her sister has an almost completely grey muzzle now and looks a lot older.

Sally

It's obviously completely up to you. You know what you want from your dog, you are obviously reading into it deeply, and considering all angles, which is great. My personal choice would be to spay now, but I'm going through losing Ruby to mammary cancer (now in her lungs, and probably kidneys), and that would be my priority in future. I suppose I might see things differently if I hadnt experienced this, but I cant put looks or puppy like behaviour ahead of that now. What breed is she? :) If she's a larger breed, some say its best to wait until theyre maturer to spay.

she's a parson russell, so she's pretty much fully grown now.

my family's most recent 2 dogs had their first season before being spayed, but the 2 dogs before them were spayed before their first season and all 4 had absolutely no problems. I'm thinking that I probably will get her spayed now, i just hope she doesn't come on before I manage to book her in !

some people say that dogs can get a wooly coat, lily is extremely fluffy already so that's no concern ! and i've been reading into the incontinence problems, but from what i've read it seems that it tends to be the ones who were a bit weak bladdered as puppies that continue with it into adulthood, lily never leaks so hopefully she'd still be ok.

i trust my vets and i don't think they'd advise me to do anything they had reservations about.... i think... :)

sarah
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Hi Sarah
Have to agree with what you've said. She's fully grown and coat isnt going to become a problem
On the incontinence issue, there is some evidence to suggest that early neutering has no more risk on the bladder than at any other time. There is a small risk with any bitch, but it doesnt make a difference what age they are. I would imagine incontinence is far more common in unspayed older bitches anyway.
Good luck!
Take care
Kathy
xxx

Why would you imagin that?

Well for a start, older unspayed bitches go through a life time of seasons, hormonal changes etc. That and if the bitch was bred (either accidentally or on purpose) it would affect her pelvic tone. :) Sure does for us humans!! *lmso*

It happens to us humans because we go through the menopause, bitches have seasons their whole live so do not loose the muscle tone of the pelvic muscles as do humans or the spayed.

Believe me - having 3 kids I can safely say pregnancy affects a human's pelvic floor! *lmso* I'll take your word for unspayed bitches who havent had a litter, but those that have are definitely affected to an extent.
As for spayed bitches, evidence says that a tiny minority might get some form of incontinence, but incidence is rarer than those that are bred from :) Age of bitch bears no reference though, and this lady has decided to spay already, so not really relevant. :)

My experience is that intact bitch do not have the leaking problem may be something to do with the fact that they don't walk on their hind legs, the same reason that their boobs do not suffer from gravity. If the lady has decided then fair enough, hope her bitch is one of those who get away without any problem, one of the problems with early spaying is the genitals may not mature properly and the vulva is retracted some what as in a puppy and that results in the bitch getting urine burns.

but surely the urine burns would happen now too ? since her vulva is going to remain the same ? and she definitely has no problems with that now.
if she does have problems after being spayed now, i will never know what the outcome would have been if we did it after her first season, the outcome might have been worse for some reason. there are pros and cons for each situation and i would rather deal with a weak bladder than her getting mammary tumours.

sarah
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You would think so, but the flesh around the area seems to grow over the vulva that appears to become set back into the surrounding flesh. Don't know why but it does happen and I expect when others come onto the forum they will tell you the same. At whatever age the spay is done the vulva shrinks and slowly returns to as it was in the pup but it does seen that if it has once been mature it does not seem to cause the problem of urine burns unless or until the bitch becomes incontinent

I would imagine she has a lot more 'muscling up' to do in the thigh area yet. It's more noticeable in the larger breeds that the thighs of a pre-season' bitch are puny compared to those of a mature adult. With the associated non-development of the vulva post-spaying the difference is even more marked. It's this change in their relative proportions that causes the urine scald (like a baby with permanent nappy rash :( )

I spoke to my vet last week and she told me that Buffy would be spayed at 5 months (shes a Lab). I also worked in a vets about 9 years ago and the vet there spayed dogs at 5months.

Debbie