early neutering

Hi. We adopted two half golden/half lab puppy from our shelter. They are now 10 weeks old and have already been spayed/neutered. Our concern is with our male, Jedi. I just read that if a male is neutered too early they will always look like a puppy b/c they will not gain the muscle needed to look like an adult dog. Does anyone know if this is true and if there is anything we can feed him to help him develop that muscle. We were against having them fixed so early but our shelter wouldn't let us adopt them unless they had the surgery b/4 they left the premises. Thanks.

hi dani,
I am absolutely shocked with your message. I had my two rhodesian rigdgeback girl done when they were past their first heat. That was with both of them at the age of 14 months. Dogs need to develope and in this case I feel that they might stay small. Many people do their dogs at an age of 8 to 9 months with is also very early. No vet here would dream of spaying /kastrating a dog at the age yours were done. I think that the vet who did this should be avoided in the future. But please do keep you sweethearts because as I can read you do love them.

love susi with Ashiki and Charu

This sounds wayyyy too early to me. You don't necessarily have to let them go through their first heat, but I have always been told that you should wait until they are around 5 or 6 months old. Grammy??

my vet showed me a study along time ago that show females spayed before there first heat are less likely to get cancer.

That same vet also said to wait until 5 months to spay a female....I think males can be do earlier but it will affect how "manly" they will look thou. Health wise he should be ok.

one concern about females spayed to soon was that they are slightly more apt to get bladder infections for some reason. I have heard this but have no hard evidence.

Just went to my " Bible " on males. " Neutering or castration does not change the dog's masculine apprearance, because he will still acguire his secondary sex characteristics regardless of age when the procedure is done..........................There doesn't appear to be any proven difference in effect from castration before puberty or in an adult dog." There were 3 pages on this.. it did mention humane society's early neutering before placing.......studies have shown no problems. ( How to Raise a Puppie you can live with " - Rutherford and Neil .)

I think, based on Grammy's reliable info, that nutrition and exercise will have much more to do with your male pup's development than anything else at this point.

Thanks for the info. I did a little more searching and also found that neutering early shouldn't affect growth too much. It did say that sometimes males tend to have longer "long bones" when neutered early. Who knows...
We will take care of them and give them lots of love and that's all that matters!

I think it's just something that people made up because they don't like the idea of dogs being neutered so early. I don't either, but sometimes you don't have the choice.

On a side note, I've heard it's not a good idea to get two puppies from the same litter I forgot why though, will make a new thread about it.

That's interesting b/c I've heard that it is good to get two puppies from the same litter. I'm curious to see what everyone says!

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7836

The answer is there... although I really don't agree with it. Will develop there.

I thought it was bad to get them done so early because of the anesthetic or whatever its called. I also thought they liked to wait with males until they at least start to drop then it is not such an invasive procedure.

Thanks for posting. I already went and subscribed to that thread. I'm so curious to hear other opinions...but I think (and hope) it will be fine!