Pet Podcast
Early spay and neuter (8-16 weeks) – Pet podcast #40 – Interview with Dr. Lee
Pet podcast #40 features an interview with Dr. Lee a veterinarian in Mesa and Phoenix Arizona. In this interview we discuss the early spaying and neutering of dogs and cats from between 8 and 16 weeks of age. Normally cats and dogs are spayed or neutered at 5-6 months.
Links for this podcast;
AVMA support for early spays and neuters
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My wife and I always try to have our kitties spayed and/or nutered around the 12 week age, our spay and nuter clinic says this way they have a little more weight on them and can handle the surgery better.
I have been a breeder for over 30 tears ..I have been doing early spay/neuter for over 10 years on 8 week old standard poodle puppies between 8 and 10 pounds .. I absolutly reccomend getting it done at this age ,#1 as a reputable breeder I have a 100% garantee that my babies won’t end up in a puppy mill ,#2 they recooperate so fast by the time I pick them up ( same day ) they are running all over as if nothing has been done to them . # 3.. I know my girls wont have breast cancer , # 4 my boys will not hump ,
get cancer or lift there legs on everything to mark .. most of them peeing like a female so they dont kill all your outdoor plants and flowers you worked so hard to plant … I can say in my experience
of getting this done for over ten years on an average of 30 puppies a year and have had no side effects .. I am still in contact with owners of my dogs that are 10 years old and are in very good health ..
Lise ..Muzodor Poodles .. Q.C. canada .. march 2012
I found Podcast #40, Early Spay and Neutering an interesting podcats but found that there was absolutely no discussion of the long term affects of early spay and neuter. I have several pets at home and all were altered at about 6 months of age but with the recent reading I have done on spay and neutering, I would be tempted to delay this surgery until they are 12 to 18 months of age if at all possible. Recent studies show that arresting the hormonal production at early ages can have a negative affect on an animals health and when you think of it, this does make sense. When human females begin menopause and their bodies stop producing hormones, they are offered hormone replacement therapy HRT. Also if males are having difficulting producing Testosterone, they too are offered HRT. So why is it so different in companion animals. Apparently the long term affects could be poor bone density, increase in certain cancers, higher risks of Hip Dysplasia, higher risk of obesity, to name a few (see http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rootk001/early_spay_neuter_article.pdf) . If one would google this subject today, there are numerous articles available on the subject. It would be interesting if the long term implications of early spay/neuter could be discussed on one of the podcasts..
12-18 months is way too long to wait for spay and neuter!!!!
What is the main purpose of spay neuter? To stop unwanted pregnancy! If cats and dogs are fertile at 5-6 months….that means they can reproduce for 6 months (and go through heats, surging hormones, potential aggression problems etc.)
I would not want to speculate on why we don’t treat our animals in the same medical way (aside from the fact that we are completely different species) as humans…but we do.
The long term effects of early Spay Neuter seems like a great topic….but it might be hard to find an expert on the issue. (because it’s relatively new) – Thanks for the suggestion Kimberley!
I have just adopted two kittens (running wild in the community) andhave them in the house and slowly taming them down. They are not let outside, just house kittens, now. Have had them for 2 weeks now, I would guess their ages to be around 2 months. They ar still very skittish but have improved greatly. My questions is what is the time frame for getting them spayed or neutered? any information or suggestions woulld be more than welcomed. thanks