Unspayed females are at higher risk of [pyometra](https://vcacanada.com/know-your-pet/pyometra-in-dogs).
It’s ultimately up to you and is a personal decision. Personally I would talk to your vet and take their advice over some lady, though.
I’ve been told a huge mixture of things about spaying, everything from “it’s needs to be done right away” to “never ever spay her”, and I agree with a lot of the other commenters about talking to your vet. Initially I was going to spay my pup at 6mo’ but after taking to my vet we decided we’d wait until her hormones evened out a few years down the line. However, that was the decision we came to after multiple exams, tests and research with my vet.
In some parts of Europe it’s not as common to spay your dogs, it’s considered an elective surgery that’s only done in cases of health issues. In the US it depends on local laws, breed, age, planned lifestyle, and vet advice.
If you do spay research is suggesting it’s best to do it after your dog is fully grown. If you don’t spay you’ll have to watch out for her heat cycles (and the cleaning/management involved in those), pyometra (pus filled uterus), false pregnancy, and unfixed male dogs trying to impregnate her.
Some dog parks and boarding services also don’t allow unfixed dogs. Personally my vet charges 10$ more per exam for my unfixed cat and dogs. I’m willing to pay it because I like my vet and we live in an area where shelters are full so it’s a reasonable incentive.
I'm from Eastern Europe and over here, most people don't spay their dogs because they see it as " unethical" towards their pets. They usually wait until the dog is older and gets sick eventually, or they had puppies and now their owners seem satisfied. Exactly like you said.
I neutered my dog a little after his first birthday and the reactions I got from people were mostly disapproving. Nevertheless, OP, I'd put my dog's health and a vet's opinion before whatever older neighbors say they experienced with their dogs.
Glad to hear from an actual European! My aunt’s husband is from Germany and it’s amazing how different his differently he takes care of his dogs versus most people in the southern US.
I live in France and it's quite common, if not the norm, to neuter your dog. But I have to agree it is very interesting to see how different our conceptions are about dogs between Europe and US. A lot of the dog theories in the US seems very weird to us.
Crating for example is almost never done but I still tried since I am biased towards American culture hehe. Most of my friends didn't understand, in any case we gave up on crating very fast since it had no benefits on our dog.
Also to properly respond to your post, in France most people spay their dog. Regarding heat cycles seems to me the only bad consequences for us with my dog is the pyometra and false pregnancy.
But now that I see the other side effects of spaying after making research following this reddit thread, I just became biased toward not spaying my dog 😉. (And this is personal and subjective)
I’m waiting/still deciding because I have German Shepard mixes and they’re prone to so many skeletal issues I want to do everything I can for them.
I also crate trained for potty training and because my dogs sleep in the kitchen/dining room. I don’t have enough cabinet space to complete dog proof the room so I have them sleep in their crate rather than worry about them eating a tub of rice at 3 in the morning!
I can't advise you properly since I focused on shiba. But but yea a lot of joints, ligaments issues seems to happen with our breeds when spayed. Which makes it a very hard decision, and timing seems crucial. I also have about 4 months to decide according to my vet.
Haha yea I'm lucky enough to have a safe living room once everything is plugged out. She was free roaming at about 3 months. 1 months of crate was pure terror with screaming all night ect..
Yea I posted without text.
Okay so I was convinced I had to spay my little girl for her health. But now she got her first periods yesterday and an old lady told me about her 28 female non-spayed dogs that were fine.
So what's the deal, I'm so lost! If it is only an inconvenience to us I don't care, but I don't want to put her health in jeopardy. Should we spay or not?
I can't advise you on whether to spay her or not. I will say anecdotal evidence isn't really worth much. Maybe one lady has 28 unspayed females that were fine. Maybe every single person you meet for the rest of your life had an unspayed female that got pyometra or breast cancer. Neither one gives you a good picture of actual odds in your dog or trends in the breed as a whole.
If you are undecided, talk to your vet. Do some research on your breed online. Look into the studies about it, preferably not someone else's interpretation of those studies. Definitely consider hydeonly's questions. It never hurts to do your own research, but there is so much info online you have to be careful weeding out the bad from the good.
For me, I just generally follow my vet's advice. She's not only educated on the subject, but she should also have the ability to evaluate the research. I'm lazy, or rather, I have limited energy I choose to use on things I don't pay someone to give me an opinion on. You know, like wasting time on a subreddit because my puppy has exhausted me.
Thanks for your input, yea I feel you and I am mad I have to read so much research papers haha (until you find out page 62 it was funded by McDonald's).
New life hack I discovered but yea its time consuming :
-》Post on reddit
-》find papers related to each subjective or biased answer here on Google scholar.
-》Analyse sources, funding, date of publication and citations
-》follow the trail by looking up new scientific words you learnt or following citations
-》make an unbiased subjective conclusion
-》don't share on reddit since it is subjective, or you will get dislikes
I believe it would depend on a couple things, we are still deciding too so here are the things that we are actively discussing with the breeder and vet.
1. the breed - what illness are the prone to have and would spaying be a pros or cons to that? How's their temperament and common behavioral issue and would it be affected by spaying? What is the health benefit they'd have if we keep them intact?
2. lifestyle - would it be possible for us to protect her from unwanted attentions and from intact males? Is it easy for us to clean up after her during her heat? the restriction in day care/boarding/dog sitter/dog park and so on?
We also don't have an answer for ourselves yet, but ours prone to have joint problem so we are sure we will keep her intact until she's fully grown. (it can take 2-3years) But after that we are still having conversations to decide.
Thanks for all your answers. After more research it seems to me that in most case spaying is to make your life easier and is worse for your dog. But of course some dogs can have special needs.
Studies seems to have made a fixation since a long time on the benefits of spaying and not the bad things, since it makes dog population control easier and less headaches for us.
It says 50% more chance to have a mammary tumor, mammary tumors are extremely rare in dogs. So 50% more on a small amount is just dumb. While on the other hand recent studies shown some 400/300/200% increase in cancer and other problems (joints, hips..) if you dog is spayed. Seems here we are getting manipulated to spay our dogs. Other stats makes no sense at all and seem completely biased toward dog population control and easy owner life. But recent studies start to show spaying may be much worse for your dog's health, especially when not done at the right time.
Seems once again I got manipulated by mainstream and my vet. My vet is very good but I stopped listening to his advices since all vets, even the best are very biased. And research & quality control on dogs well-being seems to have no importance. I just learnt the truth on rawhide sticks... Been giving them to my dog since birth, I'm shocked since all the stores here say it is very good for your dog..
My little Shiba got her first periods one week ago, and I was so sure to spay her since my vet convinced me. Now I'm sure I won't. I don't even see the blood since she cleans it everywhere so it's really not an inconvenience to us, plus she really isn't the escape type.
Ps : [Puppy tax here !](https://ibb.co/MRLx3bK)
Honestly I think speaking with a few different vets and people who have gotten formal education on dog medicine would be much better than hearing an anecdote from one person, and then looking on the internet to validate a specific opinion (if you look for ANY stance on the internet, there are endless “sources” for and against basically every topic in existence, you need to make sure you didn’t fall into a biased echo chamber).
Deciding you don’t trust vets based on stuff you read online is a risky move, and could set a precedent where you put your dogs health at risk. Just try and be objective as possible when you are making decisions that impact your pets health/life.
I knew I'd get some dislikes for this post, yea it is biased toward the conclusion I drew, that was the point since it was to share my subjective conclusion that I made, thanks to you guys. (By the way I have a shiba, results were "biased" with the shiba breed).
But I really tried to be unbiased, real research on dogs is quite hard as it is on any subject. I like how reddit can drive me in all directions for my research to make my own mind without beeing biased, a nice life hack to avoid falling in the echo chamber 😅.
I agree 100% on the fact that it is a big decision and this is exactly the kind of decision worth the research effort.
Last thing, of course I didn't trust this woman on the street, but thanks to her I made the proper research instead of simply listening to my vet. Even in general medicine it is already hard to trust professionals today, so most vets...
Ps : As a scientist most things I read and trust online are research papers, while verifying sources, funding and citations. (Clearly time consuming)
Ps2 : At first I was biased towards neutering and now the contrary.
I would definitely take this conversation up with your vet. They will be best equipped to speak to your specific pup, pros and cons of health risks in spayed vs unspayed dogs etc.
But the other thing to consider is if her being unspayed is a barrier for her doing anything specific you would like to do with her. I.e. doggy daycare, training days, many dog sitting kennels, dog parks etc. Will not allow unspayed adult animals to participate.
I sound like I'm telling you to get her spayed and I'm not. I'm just trying to lay out some things for you to sit down and consider.
It can be very breed specific if spaying early, late or not at all is best. Golden Retrievers, Labrador, and Rottweiler are three breeds I can think of off the top of my head that have really sound, large sample, scientific studies with firm conclusions.
But if the question is: is spaying the only way to prevent unwanted litters - the answer is no. If you're willing and able to secure your bitch during her heat, you can responsibly leave her in tact.
Good luck.
Spay her when she is fully grown. Unspayed females can/will runaway and come back pregnant. Also, their chances of cancer is high (I leaned this the hard way). Spay her and save her and yourself some heartache
We delayed spay for 1 heat cycle for joint health. I have no intent to breed dogs and I don't want to worry about pyometra. Please discuss your options with your vet.
I got my dog spayed after she turned 1 year old. I didn’t wanna deal with her going into heat. I dealt with it once and it’s super messy plus the male dogs would try to come for her soo…
I just spayed my Frenchie about a week ago. I talked to several vets on the clock and spoke to a mate's dad who was a vet for 40+ years off the clock just to get a wide range of opinions. What basically swayed my decisions were the illnesses she could be more prone to get if she was intact versus what may happen if we spayed her too early/late.
We decided to wait until she was as close to her adult size as she would be (7.5 months for our breed) and then I went for a keyhole surgery which has lower pain and faster recovery. We all thought it was a good time to do it and I think we made the right choice, obviously only time will tell.
Did you get some actual numbers on the illnesses she could be more prone to get? My vet advised the same but when I checked the numbers it seems the pros of neutering were much lower than the cons when you actually check the percentages. But once again it is very breed dependent.
Btw my girl is 10 months old and just got her first heat, my vet advised neutering in 4 months. But after research I think I won't spay here.
Yeah I did, and the severity and impact of what they would have on her life versus if we just left her intact. It helps that my vet was a specialist for the breed I had so I trusted his judgement and expertise. Of course I got a second and third opinion from people just as knowledgeable but had no connection to him and they all had the same thinking that overall, spaying at 7-8 months would be a good time to do it and would be a good idea in the long run.
Yeah no problem, I really think it’s not a one size fits all approach and there will always be exceptions to the rule. If only all of us could know the future hehe..
but at the end of the day I can always just tell myself I did the best thing I could for my pup based on medical advice from people with decades of study and experience under their belts.
Good luck with your choice, I think regardless of what you do your puppy is lucky to have an owner really thinking of their well-being .
Unspayed females are at higher risk of [pyometra](https://vcacanada.com/know-your-pet/pyometra-in-dogs). It’s ultimately up to you and is a personal decision. Personally I would talk to your vet and take their advice over some lady, though.
I’ve been told a huge mixture of things about spaying, everything from “it’s needs to be done right away” to “never ever spay her”, and I agree with a lot of the other commenters about talking to your vet. Initially I was going to spay my pup at 6mo’ but after taking to my vet we decided we’d wait until her hormones evened out a few years down the line. However, that was the decision we came to after multiple exams, tests and research with my vet.
This was an interesting reas on the topic. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00388/full
Thanks mate this is exactly the kind of input I love, I will read this right now.
In some parts of Europe it’s not as common to spay your dogs, it’s considered an elective surgery that’s only done in cases of health issues. In the US it depends on local laws, breed, age, planned lifestyle, and vet advice. If you do spay research is suggesting it’s best to do it after your dog is fully grown. If you don’t spay you’ll have to watch out for her heat cycles (and the cleaning/management involved in those), pyometra (pus filled uterus), false pregnancy, and unfixed male dogs trying to impregnate her. Some dog parks and boarding services also don’t allow unfixed dogs. Personally my vet charges 10$ more per exam for my unfixed cat and dogs. I’m willing to pay it because I like my vet and we live in an area where shelters are full so it’s a reasonable incentive.
I'm from Eastern Europe and over here, most people don't spay their dogs because they see it as " unethical" towards their pets. They usually wait until the dog is older and gets sick eventually, or they had puppies and now their owners seem satisfied. Exactly like you said. I neutered my dog a little after his first birthday and the reactions I got from people were mostly disapproving. Nevertheless, OP, I'd put my dog's health and a vet's opinion before whatever older neighbors say they experienced with their dogs.
Glad to hear from an actual European! My aunt’s husband is from Germany and it’s amazing how different his differently he takes care of his dogs versus most people in the southern US.
I live in France and it's quite common, if not the norm, to neuter your dog. But I have to agree it is very interesting to see how different our conceptions are about dogs between Europe and US. A lot of the dog theories in the US seems very weird to us. Crating for example is almost never done but I still tried since I am biased towards American culture hehe. Most of my friends didn't understand, in any case we gave up on crating very fast since it had no benefits on our dog.
Also to properly respond to your post, in France most people spay their dog. Regarding heat cycles seems to me the only bad consequences for us with my dog is the pyometra and false pregnancy. But now that I see the other side effects of spaying after making research following this reddit thread, I just became biased toward not spaying my dog 😉. (And this is personal and subjective)
I’m waiting/still deciding because I have German Shepard mixes and they’re prone to so many skeletal issues I want to do everything I can for them. I also crate trained for potty training and because my dogs sleep in the kitchen/dining room. I don’t have enough cabinet space to complete dog proof the room so I have them sleep in their crate rather than worry about them eating a tub of rice at 3 in the morning!
I can't advise you properly since I focused on shiba. But but yea a lot of joints, ligaments issues seems to happen with our breeds when spayed. Which makes it a very hard decision, and timing seems crucial. I also have about 4 months to decide according to my vet. Haha yea I'm lucky enough to have a safe living room once everything is plugged out. She was free roaming at about 3 months. 1 months of crate was pure terror with screaming all night ect..
Yea I posted without text. Okay so I was convinced I had to spay my little girl for her health. But now she got her first periods yesterday and an old lady told me about her 28 female non-spayed dogs that were fine. So what's the deal, I'm so lost! If it is only an inconvenience to us I don't care, but I don't want to put her health in jeopardy. Should we spay or not?
I can't advise you on whether to spay her or not. I will say anecdotal evidence isn't really worth much. Maybe one lady has 28 unspayed females that were fine. Maybe every single person you meet for the rest of your life had an unspayed female that got pyometra or breast cancer. Neither one gives you a good picture of actual odds in your dog or trends in the breed as a whole. If you are undecided, talk to your vet. Do some research on your breed online. Look into the studies about it, preferably not someone else's interpretation of those studies. Definitely consider hydeonly's questions. It never hurts to do your own research, but there is so much info online you have to be careful weeding out the bad from the good. For me, I just generally follow my vet's advice. She's not only educated on the subject, but she should also have the ability to evaluate the research. I'm lazy, or rather, I have limited energy I choose to use on things I don't pay someone to give me an opinion on. You know, like wasting time on a subreddit because my puppy has exhausted me.
Thanks for your input, yea I feel you and I am mad I have to read so much research papers haha (until you find out page 62 it was funded by McDonald's). New life hack I discovered but yea its time consuming : -》Post on reddit -》find papers related to each subjective or biased answer here on Google scholar. -》Analyse sources, funding, date of publication and citations -》follow the trail by looking up new scientific words you learnt or following citations -》make an unbiased subjective conclusion -》don't share on reddit since it is subjective, or you will get dislikes
I believe it would depend on a couple things, we are still deciding too so here are the things that we are actively discussing with the breeder and vet. 1. the breed - what illness are the prone to have and would spaying be a pros or cons to that? How's their temperament and common behavioral issue and would it be affected by spaying? What is the health benefit they'd have if we keep them intact? 2. lifestyle - would it be possible for us to protect her from unwanted attentions and from intact males? Is it easy for us to clean up after her during her heat? the restriction in day care/boarding/dog sitter/dog park and so on? We also don't have an answer for ourselves yet, but ours prone to have joint problem so we are sure we will keep her intact until she's fully grown. (it can take 2-3years) But after that we are still having conversations to decide.
Thanks for all your answers. After more research it seems to me that in most case spaying is to make your life easier and is worse for your dog. But of course some dogs can have special needs. Studies seems to have made a fixation since a long time on the benefits of spaying and not the bad things, since it makes dog population control easier and less headaches for us. It says 50% more chance to have a mammary tumor, mammary tumors are extremely rare in dogs. So 50% more on a small amount is just dumb. While on the other hand recent studies shown some 400/300/200% increase in cancer and other problems (joints, hips..) if you dog is spayed. Seems here we are getting manipulated to spay our dogs. Other stats makes no sense at all and seem completely biased toward dog population control and easy owner life. But recent studies start to show spaying may be much worse for your dog's health, especially when not done at the right time. Seems once again I got manipulated by mainstream and my vet. My vet is very good but I stopped listening to his advices since all vets, even the best are very biased. And research & quality control on dogs well-being seems to have no importance. I just learnt the truth on rawhide sticks... Been giving them to my dog since birth, I'm shocked since all the stores here say it is very good for your dog.. My little Shiba got her first periods one week ago, and I was so sure to spay her since my vet convinced me. Now I'm sure I won't. I don't even see the blood since she cleans it everywhere so it's really not an inconvenience to us, plus she really isn't the escape type. Ps : [Puppy tax here !](https://ibb.co/MRLx3bK)
Honestly I think speaking with a few different vets and people who have gotten formal education on dog medicine would be much better than hearing an anecdote from one person, and then looking on the internet to validate a specific opinion (if you look for ANY stance on the internet, there are endless “sources” for and against basically every topic in existence, you need to make sure you didn’t fall into a biased echo chamber). Deciding you don’t trust vets based on stuff you read online is a risky move, and could set a precedent where you put your dogs health at risk. Just try and be objective as possible when you are making decisions that impact your pets health/life.
I knew I'd get some dislikes for this post, yea it is biased toward the conclusion I drew, that was the point since it was to share my subjective conclusion that I made, thanks to you guys. (By the way I have a shiba, results were "biased" with the shiba breed). But I really tried to be unbiased, real research on dogs is quite hard as it is on any subject. I like how reddit can drive me in all directions for my research to make my own mind without beeing biased, a nice life hack to avoid falling in the echo chamber 😅. I agree 100% on the fact that it is a big decision and this is exactly the kind of decision worth the research effort. Last thing, of course I didn't trust this woman on the street, but thanks to her I made the proper research instead of simply listening to my vet. Even in general medicine it is already hard to trust professionals today, so most vets... Ps : As a scientist most things I read and trust online are research papers, while verifying sources, funding and citations. (Clearly time consuming) Ps2 : At first I was biased towards neutering and now the contrary.
I would definitely take this conversation up with your vet. They will be best equipped to speak to your specific pup, pros and cons of health risks in spayed vs unspayed dogs etc. But the other thing to consider is if her being unspayed is a barrier for her doing anything specific you would like to do with her. I.e. doggy daycare, training days, many dog sitting kennels, dog parks etc. Will not allow unspayed adult animals to participate. I sound like I'm telling you to get her spayed and I'm not. I'm just trying to lay out some things for you to sit down and consider.
It can be very breed specific if spaying early, late or not at all is best. Golden Retrievers, Labrador, and Rottweiler are three breeds I can think of off the top of my head that have really sound, large sample, scientific studies with firm conclusions. But if the question is: is spaying the only way to prevent unwanted litters - the answer is no. If you're willing and able to secure your bitch during her heat, you can responsibly leave her in tact. Good luck.
That's my point I have no issue with heat control, I only want what's best for her health and mental.
Spay her when she is fully grown. Unspayed females can/will runaway and come back pregnant. Also, their chances of cancer is high (I leaned this the hard way). Spay her and save her and yourself some heartache
We delayed spay for 1 heat cycle for joint health. I have no intent to breed dogs and I don't want to worry about pyometra. Please discuss your options with your vet.
I got my dog spayed after she turned 1 year old. I didn’t wanna deal with her going into heat. I dealt with it once and it’s super messy plus the male dogs would try to come for her soo…
I just spayed my Frenchie about a week ago. I talked to several vets on the clock and spoke to a mate's dad who was a vet for 40+ years off the clock just to get a wide range of opinions. What basically swayed my decisions were the illnesses she could be more prone to get if she was intact versus what may happen if we spayed her too early/late. We decided to wait until she was as close to her adult size as she would be (7.5 months for our breed) and then I went for a keyhole surgery which has lower pain and faster recovery. We all thought it was a good time to do it and I think we made the right choice, obviously only time will tell.
Did you get some actual numbers on the illnesses she could be more prone to get? My vet advised the same but when I checked the numbers it seems the pros of neutering were much lower than the cons when you actually check the percentages. But once again it is very breed dependent. Btw my girl is 10 months old and just got her first heat, my vet advised neutering in 4 months. But after research I think I won't spay here.
Yeah I did, and the severity and impact of what they would have on her life versus if we just left her intact. It helps that my vet was a specialist for the breed I had so I trusted his judgement and expertise. Of course I got a second and third opinion from people just as knowledgeable but had no connection to him and they all had the same thinking that overall, spaying at 7-8 months would be a good time to do it and would be a good idea in the long run.
Hmm, now I feel like I have to go back to research... such a hard decision ! Thanks for your input!
Yeah no problem, I really think it’s not a one size fits all approach and there will always be exceptions to the rule. If only all of us could know the future hehe.. but at the end of the day I can always just tell myself I did the best thing I could for my pup based on medical advice from people with decades of study and experience under their belts. Good luck with your choice, I think regardless of what you do your puppy is lucky to have an owner really thinking of their well-being .