Author Topic: When to Neuter?  (Read 1833 times)

Offline Lucah's Folks

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When to Neuter?
« on: December 07, 2006, 06:38:39 am »
We have been researching and have found many conflicting opinions about when to neuter a big paw. Some say do it early for easy recovery, others say to wait until they are well into growth, mainly because various immunities are developed from testosterone and other homones that are affected by neutering.

Just so you know I am not interested in the size affects.  I don't think it matters or that neutering will affect that.

Opinions? Knowledge and experiences?

Offline sc.trojans

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Re: When to Neuter?
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2006, 09:32:51 am »


You can go over to the St. Bernard group to see the views on this topic there.

Sounds to me like you already understand the pros of early and waiting :) As you have found, there is no clear answer here because the studies just aren't there.  The earlier you do it, the less pain, shorter the recovery time, and lower risk of complications.  On the other hand, the immune system does not fully mature until 9-10 months and this is believed to be impacted by hormonal development. Nothing conclusive on that yet, but a good theory and one many may want to go with. 

Waiting any longer gets into the bone growth arguments which you say you are not concerned about.

One thing NOT to listen to is folks who use the bone cancer scare from ONE study done on Rottweilers.  I have reviewed that study with others at length and its intent was to study "bone cancer in Rottweilers" - which is very prevalent. The study noted several un-scientific correlations that they did not pursue (attempt to prove a scientific connection) including that the largest portion of Rotties with bone cancer were neutered. It also noted that most dogs in the study were neutered - so there ya go. The fact on this one is that bone cancer is prevalent in Rotties, and this study should never be extrapolated to neutering or other breeds in general as this was NOT the intent of that study.

SC Trojans
with Gracie and Skylar