Well i have just come back from our vets feeling like an absolute fool!!
The nurse at our vets said to me as i was paying the bill "oh the next time we'll see you is for his neutering at 6 months" to which i replied "oh he isn't being neutered", she gave me a very strange look and said "are you breeding from him then?" to which i replied "no, but we have been advised against neuturing by several breeders because of the coat changing" (he is a cavalier) to which she laughed and raised her eybrows as if i was mad and said "i have never heard of any breeds coat changing after being neutered, prehaps its a bit like chinese wispers from breeder to breeder maybe you should get some advice from a vetinary website rather than breeders!" she then went on to say about prostate cancer being very likely after the age of 5 and that it was a very nasty illness etc:rolleyes:

I basically left there having felt humiliated because it obviously looked to the other person in the waiting room that i am some horrible person who won't neuter their animal for cosmetic reasons!!!!

The coat wasn't the only reason we made that decision we were also told that they can have problems with their weight after neutering which can put an added strain on their heart which as i believe is something that we are VERY likely to have problems with in our breed!!

Am i right or are they right?

(sorry rant over:rolleyes:)

My last golden that was neutered at 6 months old (on vets recommendations) and his coat became quite frizzy!  He also had H/D which I realise now early neutering doesn't help!

I now have a 15 month old entire golden and have no intention of having him neutered unless we have to for some reason.  His coat is beautiful.

I also have a rescue golden/collie crossbreed he's about 2 years old and he has been neutered, he also has a frizzy coat - I'm sure it must be the neutering!

As for the prostate cancer in entire dogs, I think (I'm not 100% sure) that castrated dogs can get the same or similar.

It's the vet's nurse in my opinion that is the ignorant one here!

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe neutered dogs are actually more prone to prostate cancer - the only cancer that neutering will definitely prevent in males is testicular cancer.

Just from personal experience - my 2 Cavaliers were both neutered & it had no effect whatsoever on their coats, which remained beautiful, neither did they put on weight. My present  trainer  recommends reducing the amount of food after neutering - at the end of the day, dogs or us, obesity is caused by an excess of input over output. or, to be scientific, it's a matter of energy balance.:D :D :D

Coo my vet didn't say such a thing or treat me with such disrespect!
Reckon you are with the wrong vets!!
Karen :rolleyes:

Unless this"expert"nurse has owned Castrated &/or Spayed Cavaliers she is in no position to state what will or will not happen. The majority of neutered Cavaliers if done too young do have "fluffy"coats & some develop them even if they are more mature(mainly in dogs that I have seen)The coat can also go very curly & thick after neutering & that is from dogs I have seen not chinese whispers

BTW prostate cancer isn't common & also occurs in an almost equal ratio between castrated & entire dogs. It is testicular cancer that castration prevents & that is even rarer than postrate cancer in dogs, obviously it prevents T cancer as the dog has no testicles !

In 16 years I haven't trimmed a neutered Cavalier with a good coat.  In my experience, having dealt with hundreds of them, their coats are thick, woolly and very difficult for their owners to handle without professional help after neutering.  They invariably become obese because their Vets don't tell them to reduce the dogs' intake after neutering.  They then send them to a groomer to be clipped off "to stop them getting hot because they have a heart condition!", when the reall problem is that they are overweight.:(

In 16 years I won over 2 out of the 5 local Vets in my area and they would not routinely neuter Cavaliers, Cockers or Westies, the 3 breeds who seem to suffer the most, unless the owners were insistant that they couldn't manage without.  The other 3 preferred the ongoing income from heart problems, skin problems, obesity etc.

Now I know some breeds like cavys coats do change alot however in a majority of breeds although you do get a coat change, with proper care it will be ok however I think the problem is that vets don't tell owners of the drawbacks of neuturing.  Coat change, obesity (which in all breeds is likely to lead to heart problems, more so in those breeds known to have poor hearts) etc etc so owners can't take precautions.

With my setters we knew of these and therifor she went onto a strict light diet as soon as and has been fine.  As she is still in the ring her coat has been looked after, with help of regular grooming (I learnt many skills grooming her :) ) and yes I use products in the coat to help the texture etc her coat and weight is at her best. 

We have another bitch here now who was spayed at 3 I think though owners choice (She didn't want the hassel of seasons) and the bitch has a lovely thick wooly coat!  After grooming her up abit I think if it had been kept under control from day one she would have a nice coat however she was purely a pet, the coat was kept knott free and thats how the owner liked it.  they don't go as bad as a cavy coat I can assure you, it is managble, just harder work at keep in matt free :)

Angels2, don't feel like a fool.  You are in the right, it's just a shame that not all vets can't advise whats best all of the time.

As for prostate cancer, as long as you regulary check your boy over you shouldn't have any problem.  (We don't castrate all men to prevent prostate cancer do we?) :D

Our vet was well aware of coat changes in dogs after neutering and agreed with us that we should wait until our setter had her adult coat before neutering for this reason, she has a lovely coat now (spayed at 18 months) and we keep her weight under control using 'light' food.
if this silly nurse said the same again I would be telling the vet to tell her to get her facts right before commenting.

How annoying.  I've no knowledge whatsoever of your breed, but have read bits about coat changes due to neutering.  I've listened to vet nurses go on and on about my own breed too (usually about them being quite slim when they're 'teenagers' though) I've ignored them and prefer to listen to breeders who have in depth knowledge of my breed rather than a vet or vet nurse who has a small amount of knowledge of each breed.

It's funny but my male Pomeranian's who lived till 16 and 17 never had cancer, nor does my 14 year old now.  Lydia's dad who died at the age of 15 didn't either.  I would love to know what the percentage of this risk is I bet in reality it is extremely low????  Is anyone able to tell us?

Both our Swedish Lapphund and my mum's cross collie developed Perianal Adenoma at about 10 or 11 and had to be castrated. I have to say that my mum's dog went really downhill after being castrated and had to be pts less than a year later. We put off having our dog done because of this and tried every other method possible to stop it but the growths (and smell) kept coming back so in the end we had to have dakko castrated too. He was never the same dog after that I have to say and although he lived for another 3 years he wasn't the same dog after he was castrated - the life seemed to go out of him somehow. Maybe it was just coincidence and it was all just related to their age but who knows?

I've only got positive experiences of neutering.

Both my borzoi boys are castrated. They've still got lovely coats, although I do keep chopping bits off to make it easier through the winter when they turn into swamphounds. They're still full of fun and energy. The only change on their parts is they don't fight with each other anymore. They're just as keen to hunt little furries as they were before, just as loving, just as playful.

My two collie girls are neutered too, both have had to have their food cut back dramatically but are slim, happy and very very lively. Neutering for them was purely to avoid the hassle of seasons, no missed training clubs, no avoiding the country park.

Where they neutered as mature animals in their prime. 

All my girls have been spayed between five and seven years, and there is some mildly negative effect on their coats (moult less cleanly, so you need to tug the dead hair more, and their coats are less weatherproof), but nothing too noticeable except to me comparing them to their former coats.

A male that I bred was castrated at 3 and he is still the same as before, though he eats better 9used to be very lean), but another who was castrated very young stayed in that juvenile humpy stage,a dn never grew to look masculine, so looks bitchy and very tall.  Also his owners did not cut his food back and he is now grossly fat.

Ahhh.... you see this was not your vet, but the nurse, generally these little snippets of advice tend to come from the receptionist. :-)

I'll never forget my very first litter, of course I knew from my own research and my girls breeder that I needed to clip my pups nails, I enquired at my vets for the nail clippers and was faced with the receptionist saying "Oh No, you musn't cut you puppies nails, they'll only grow back thicker" She obviously had no concept of my poor bitches iminant scratched underbelly if they weren't cut.  I just walked away thinking, why is she even giving advice?

Vets are trained to cure and treat animals, they may well know the anatomy of an animals body and how to repair it but over the years I have come to realise that most vets or more acurately their assistants, receptionists, actually are not very up on breeds, characteristics, training, coats etc.

Breeders often know a heck of a lot more about puppies, and their breed of dog than anyone at a veterinary surgery, unless they are owners of a dog/breed you have. ;-)

Thanks for all the replies!

I REFUSE to be bullied by people (vets etc) into neuturing my little boy because they want me to!!

I have no intention of breeding from him he is part of our family and just like one of my children, i will always look carefully into making decisions about his health and i don't feel that there is a need to neuter him (not yet anyway!) if it comes to it and i think HE would benefit from it then i will look at having it done.

I think its safe to say that we WILL be changing our vets!

I would just say other than their attitude to neuter everything that moves, if they are a vet providing you with good service then you don't need to change.  It may be worth mentioning to the practice manager that your happy to agree to disagree with their staffs attitude on this matter but don't appreciate the attitude from their staff about it, after all it is a free(ish) country and at the moment your still entitled to make up your own mind about the matter :D

I think that although they seem to do a good enough job of the day to day things i would much rather find a practice that i felt really happy with. Back in the UK we had a lovely vets who always had such a lovely way with the animals and nothing was too much trouble, i will search for a practice out here similar to that.

Hi, there. 

Where are you, as if it is the USA the very pro neutering attitude is pretty universal there as so many dogs are not kept in dog proof gardens and allowed to roam, and there is a very high euthanasia rate among strays and unwanted animals that the view is widely held that neutering will reduce this slaughter.

Sadly the people most likely to neuter are the ones who wouldn't let their animals breed willy nilly.

We live in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. (not nearly as exciting as USA!):rolleyes:

  Sounds idyllic