Early Spay?
- Thread starter Criosphynx
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^^Pretty much that. I can understand the early neutering for shelters and such but it makes me very uncomfortable. Hormones aren't just for breeding purposes, they do play a large part in both physical and mental development. I will, given the chance, always let my dogs mature to at least 2 years old before they're fixed and will never neuter a rescue before 6 months of age, again, given the chance. I had an Aussie pup I was getting ready to adopt and the rescue was going to let me keep him intact for a bit longer, until he hit the 6 month mark. Then Virgo came back and that adoption fell through. 
^^Pretty much that. I can understand the early neutering for shelters and such but it makes me very uncomfortable. Hormones aren't just for breeding purposes, they do play a large part in both physical and mental development. I will, given the chance, always let my dogs mature to at least 2 years old before they're fixed and will never neuter a rescue before 6 months of age, again, given the chance. I had an Aussie pup I was getting ready to adopt and the rescue was going to let me keep him intact for a bit longer, until he hit the 6 month mark. Then Virgo came back and that adoption fell through.
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I would wait, personally, but I have no problem at all with shelters/rescues doing pediatric spay/neuters at adoption. I'd rather see these dogs prevented from reproducing, period, at this point, and I don't think shelters have enough ability to enforce spay/neuter contracts unless they just go ahead and do them when they can.
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In my experience, those dogs don't fill out as much and retain the narrow body and long leggedness of a much younger dog...some dogs also seem to keep a much younger mindset than those who were neutered later, though that one is kind of hard to concretely prove due to inherent differences in base personalities. I've also found that some early neuters have horrible absorption and digestive issues, though again, it could be the induvidual dog. But a friend of mine adopted a dog that was neutered at 6-8 weeks of age and went from a fat happy pup to a disturbingly emaciated adolescent who ended up having to be euth'd before he was a year old because it was impossible to put any weight on him and thus he had a very poor quality of life. We have the same vet and he is a very competent guy...none of us could figure out what was going on.
this is a really dense article, but it's worth reading http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.231.11.1665
I'm not a vet but I wold say it depends on the dog...
I have always been against it because I was afraid it would change the personality of the dog. I have had a very dominant Pitbull for a long time and with my new dog I wanted to avoid all those issues. I got him neutered when he was 5 month old and I would say he is a very happy puppy. My other dog got testicular cancer at the age of nine. That was the other reason to get it over and done with early this time.
But I must say it was something I had to get used to - it looks quite odd at the beginning...
I have always been against it because I was afraid it would change the personality of the dog. I have had a very dominant Pitbull for a long time and with my new dog I wanted to avoid all those issues. I got him neutered when he was 5 month old and I would say he is a very happy puppy. My other dog got testicular cancer at the age of nine
. That was the other reason to get it over and done with early this time. But I must say it was something I had to get used to - it looks quite odd at the beginning...
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I will never alter a giant breed before they have finished maturing. There's too many (possible) things that are being (possibly) linked to juvenile alterings now and until studies have determined that it's NOT due to the loss of hormones, I'll wait. I can deal with a heat or two, a hiked leg or two, etc. Much easier to deal with than some of the (possible) alternatives, IMO.
There's several threads here about early spay/neuter that offer up this very discussion in depth with loads of info. One's even pinned above.
There's several threads here about early spay/neuter that offer up this very discussion in depth with loads of info. One's even pinned above.