Hi,was just wondering if a bitch has surgery for mammary tumours or similar can then be mated and be ok to have a litter,or would it be best to have them spayed?,I keep hearing of my friend's bitches having them,at a fairly young age,and still young enough to breed from.

The only bitch I had with a Mammary tumour (pea size) I had spayed at 5, she had already had two litters.

We had another pea size lump in that gland later in life so had the whole gland, and adjoining one removed.

She lived to 13 1/2+ and did not have issues again.

I personally would not breed from a young bitch who had already had them before breeding age.

I'm with Brainless here. I've only ever (in over 30 years) had ONE bitch with mammary tumours, they first appeared at 8 years of age. Knowing how genetic tumours can be in certain animals (and in humans too!) I would not breed from a dog who had had any during younger years, regardless of what sex it was.

I too have only had a bitch with a mammary tumour which appeared when she was 9 - she had it removed and was spayed at the same time and is still with us - she's now over 12 1/2.  I would certainly not breed from a bitch who has tumours at a young age - sounds to me as though she wants to get her to have the maximum amount of litters and then either sell her on or let nature take it's course.  I wonder if she'd have surgery if she was past breeding age.

I keep hearing of my friend's bitches having them, at a fairly young age, and still young enough to breed from.

Is she breeding from the same lines?  If so, she really ought to stop and review what she's doing as it's certainly not fair to sell puppies to people when they may develop a serious illness in their youth.

Out of interest. One of the reason vets always cite for early spaying is that the bitch is unlikely to get mammary tumours. If the bitch is from a line which gets these tumours at an early age, would an early spay stop one forming and would a later spay, say after the first season mean the bitch would still be highly likely to get a tumour. No reasons for asking this  just curious.

There is no way that I would breed from a dog or bitch that had had a tumour removed.
If your friend's bitches are regularly getting these at a young age, I would suggest that she needs to review her breeding programme

A study was done that showed spaying had little to no effect of further tumours appearing, but I always spay my bitches after their last litters anyway.

The study that indicated a protective effect from early neutering, and that 50% of entire bitches got them,  has been largely discredited.

Certainly out of 7 bitches owned that are/were over 5 1/2 years (my other two are 17months and 2 1/2 years), I have only had the one affected, and this seems to be the case of other people in my breed, so incidence may be very variable between breeds.

>Hi,was just wondering if a bitch has surgery for mammary tumours or similar can then be mated and be ok to have a litter,or would it be best to have them spayed?,I keep hearing of my friend's bitches having them,at a fairly young age,and still young enough to breed from.

I am horrified that anyone would breed from a bitch after having these tumours.  Exploiting bitches in this way is not something that I would expect from a true dog lover.

^^ What Jean said. Disgusting, IMHO.
Spay the poor girl and give her overworked, compromised mammary glands some rest.

yes have her spayed no reason to breed at all. Even if she was bred from there is the risk of the cancer genes being passed on in the line. ( sorry thats not been put very well )

I totally agree,if I can't/won't breed from my girls,they will be spayed!