Author Topic: Quick question  (Read 5521 times)

Offline CadillacQueen

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Quick question
« on: November 27, 2008, 06:20:53 pm »
Say you buy a Great Dane puppy {or any Giant breed, I'm using a Dane as an example}.

If you get the pup desexed straight away, as early as possible, does it still reach it's full height growth potential?

Or is it best wait until they're 2 years old, so they've grown to their full height, then desex them?


Offline mal222

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Re: Quick question
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2008, 06:36:31 pm »
i dont know quite for sure i just know my vet is having us wait till my puppy is about 9 to 10 months old so almost a year. i hope someone else will be able to help u out better.
Pike: bullmastiff
Mooney: pit/mastiff

Offline paws

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Re: Quick question
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2008, 04:15:09 am »
I have spayed and neutered many rescue pups before I place them. I have had it done as early as 8 weeks of age. I have never had a problem with the actual surgery. It is difficult to determine whether they reach their full height since most of the dogs have been rescued or from questionable back grounds. They certainly have grown big enough and I have never thought there was a problem in that regard.

I have experienced a problem with the female early spays though. If they are spayed prior to 4 months of age their vulva (external parts) do not develop properly. If the vulva does not grow large enough it can cause problems. I have found this to be a problem with many breeds of many sizes. If the vulva remains too small then the dog may be plagued with chronic urinary tract infections or chronic localized dermatitis. I no longer spay at an early age. I wait until at least 4 months of age with the baby girls.

I have not read about or heard of this issue from anyone else. This observation is based purely on my experience. I have spayed approximately 30 (?) at an early age and have seen the problem in over 1/2 of them. Some of the dogs have had to have surgery to correct the problem. Some have to be shaved in the area to prevent chronic hygiene issues.

I thought I would share my experiences and see if anyone else has seen this problem before.

Penny

Offline ZooCrew

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Re: Quick question
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2008, 05:30:48 pm »
I read that article and it really didn't have any conclusion as to whether it increased the chances of osteosarcoma or not.  :-\  Here are the main points they brought up:

Gonadectomy can increase the risk of development
of osteosarcoma by 1.3 to 2.0 times.  In 1 study in
which investigators evaluated 683 purebred Rottweilers,
there was a significant increase in the incidence
of osteosarcoma in female and male dogs that had undergone
gonadectomy when < 1 year of age; however,
the overall incidence of osteosarcoma in this population
of dogs was much higher than that in the general
population, which suggested a hereditary component
.


Furthermore, life span of dogs did not differ or was noticeably increased in gonadectomized
dogs. An exact cause-and-effect relationship has not
been defined.


the tables they give state that normally the incidence rate is 0.2% in both males and females.  I simply dont' know how they determine that the osteosarcoma that the early spayed/neutered dogs got was not due to genetics.  Even if you went by their statistics, and took the highest incident rate, the chances of an early spay/neuter is still only 0.1%.  Which if my math is correct (and it may not be, percentages aren't my strong point), it is 1 out of 1000 dogs.  To me, I would still think genetics played a big role in that, if not to blame for it entirely.  :-\

Offline ZooCrew

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Re: Quick question
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2008, 07:38:13 am »
Patty, even the article mentioned that you had to weight the pros with the cons.  It said that with rescues, early spay/neuter to reduce the pet population far outweighted the possible risks involved.  :)  I tend to agree.  Reducing the pet population is far more important than what may or may not happen down the road.  For the major problems that gave an age of onset, the mean age was 10yrs before the problem was apparent.
the article also hinted that spayed/neutered pets live longer.  It did not cite studies with dogs/cats, but talked about fish.........l ol.  Gonadectomized salmon live longer than those left with their gonads.  :D