Dog castration advice please

ali-t

Quote:
Originally Posted by ali-t
Although spaying will reduce the risk of mammary tumours it does increase the risk of many types of cancer, including bone cancer, urinary tract tumours and other types. It also raises the liklihood of thyroid problems, can cause spay incontenence, weight problems and can increase the liklihood of reactions to vaccinations, can cause changes in coat and temprament and growth problems if done too early.

Erm - no it doesn't! Granted there is a potential problem with weight gain, but if the owners are aware of this, then they can pre-emp it from happening. Urinary incontinence, in more cases than not, is due to the fact that neutered b!tches live longer than un neutered, and it is just an unfortunate condition that occurs with age. Yes some !!!!!es may develop it after neutering, but the incidence in young neutered females is very low.
The other conditions you have mentioned are usually associated with obesity - which as in humans, is becoming increasingly prevelant and more of a problem in pets!

I am not sure where your facts are coming from but a piece of research that reviewed more than 50 research papers on the risks and benefits of spaying and neutering is where I have got mine from. FYI the risk of spay incontinence ranges from affecting between 4-20% of !!!!!es. Not quite the 'very low' that you claim! Where is the evidence base that very few !!!!!es are affected, up to 1/5 is not 'very low'

My staffy !!!!! is spayed as I was led to believe it was the right things to do due to her having a bad phantom pregnancy but she has had numerous health problems, some of which can be linked to the altered hormone levels in her body.

Such as?

Interdigital cysts that continually recurred to the point of the vet wanting to amputate her toes. I was then advised that the hormone imbalance may have played a significant part in this.

Rather than promoting the spaying is best message, I believe that many dog owners can be responsible and will take precautions to ensure their animals are not exposed to the risk of pregnancy.

If you are that opposed to spaying, there are other alternatives available, although they still leave your pet at increased risk of pyometra and mammary tumours. Speak to your vet about the regular injections available. However, it is probably cheaper in the long run just to get her spayed!

I am not particularly against spaying but believe people should have all of the facts. The internet causes huge amount of 'knowledge' and opinions to be passed about and presented as fact when it is not the whole picture. My post was purely to provide balance in a thread filled with people recommending spaying (in a very young puppy).

To the OP, if you are considering at any time breeding your dogs together my advice is not to. Staffy's and staffy crosses fill rescue centres across the UK and unless you are showing your dog with great success and your breeding plan is for the betterment of the breed I don't think you will be doing the breed any favours by adding to the numbers.

The paper that I took the data from was published in 2007 and is presented as a neutral paper rather than promoting one view or the other. I would be interested in hearing about any conflicting research you have - always willing to broaden my horizons!

I picked the paper up from another forum I am a member of so definitely can't take any credit for sourcing the material.

foreign_correspondent

ali-t, there are pros and cons to every decision - but I think in this case particularly, the pros vastly outweigh the cons.

From my own point of view, I have known several unspeyed, or speyed later in life b1tches who have had cancerous mammary tumours, which would have been prevented by early speying. Several members of this board have had entire b1tches with pyometra - there is a thread running at the moment - operating on an affected b1tch is expensive, and often risky, as the dog can be severely weakened by the condition by the time it is spotted.

My b1tch has tended to carry a little more weight recently, however, this may just be middle age spread, but it was easily resolved by cutting down her food minimally. My mums dog, however, is speyed and still has washboard ribs despite all efforts to feed her up!

We have always had neutered b1tches, never had one develop spey incontinence yet, but I believe this is generally a minor issue of dribbleing a little, and is usually easily treated.

Interdigital cysts are common in staffs anyway... so its hard to say whether your dog would have developed them if left entire.

Phantom pregnacies tend to become more severe with time, not less, and may have caused your dog other problems if she was not speyed.

ali-t

FC, there are pro's and con's as you say but the thread was very unbalanced and given that when people search for previous threads, this is one that will come up, it is only fair that a balanced view is presented.

The puppy is 15 weeks old and people are advocating to spay asap. I believe spaying at that age is wrong but we are all entitled to our own views - presented as fact only if they are personal experience or based on research.

Sagz_2

Frugalista wrote: »

http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongTermHealthEffectsOfSpayNeuterInDogs.pdf

Thanks, it makes intresting reading..... I picked one of the source papers at random and discovered that the findings are based on a study of 6 dogs :eek:

It's going to take some time to pick the bones out of it all.

foreign_correspondent

ali-t wrote: »

FC, there are pro's and con's as you say but the thread was very unbalanced and given that when people search for previous threads, this is one that will come up, it is only fair that a balanced view is presented.

The puppy is 15 weeks old and people are advocating to spay asap. I believe spaying at that age is wrong but we are all entitled to our own views - presented as fact only if they are personal experience or based on research.

Fair comment - I woudn't spey at 15 weeks either, but I might spey at 6 months, if (like the OP) I had an entire male dog with dog aggression issues (who clearly should not be bred from due to that - the OP talks about 'continuing his bloodlines', which seems to be a grave error of judgement here), an unspeyed b1tch pup, and I was an owner who has never owned two dogs before, and without the finanaces for vets bills...

However, ideally I would advise neutering the dog now, and speying the b1tch at a later date - the consequences of doing neither is too risky here - I would rather an early spey for the pup than an early pregnancy, whilst her body is still immature.

But, then again, both breeding from an aggressive dog and buying a pup when you cannot afford a £100 vets bills seem to me to be ill- judged decisions... in addition to all the other concerns, the male may tolerate a pup, but when her puppy license runs out, the OP could be in for all sorts of trouble. I suggest the OP looks into pet insurance ASAP.

OP, is the pup vaccinated yet?

liz545

I don't know where you are, but in London, Celia Hammond offer discounted neutering (especially for staffies) and the Mayhew Animal Home offer free neutering if you've got a staffy/bull breed http://www.mayhewanimalhome.org/dogs/ourservices/index.php. They're a charity, so donations are welcome, but if you can't afford the full £100 this might be easier?

foreign_correspondent

Some RSPCA branches are offering free neutering for bull breeds - eg:
http://www.rspcahartlepool.org.uk/neutering.html

- it may well be worth ringing your local branch to check it out.

I also know one of the sheffield/south yorks dog rescues was offering free neutering to bull breeds, but I cant remember which one - I can find out if its any use to you though..?

missmontana

I'm not being funny, but you have alot of debt, have been made redundant, trying for a baby and now you say you don't have the money to get your new puppy spayed or your other dog neutered.
Is that not a little bit irresponsible?? What about costs of vaccinations, worming, flea treatments and anything else she might need?

KVet

I can honestly say that interdigital cysts are not caused by a change in hormones! How random. Had a wee skim through that paper as well and never heard of a link between spaying and any of those diseases really hmm, shall do some further investigation

UKTigerlily

Interdigital cysts are common in Staffs as FC says, mine has had one before. I've never met anyone with a spayed b!!!! yet who has had problems due to it. My own dog has two mammary tumours (well, one now, one was removed when she was spayed last year) & they could well have been due to not being spayed. Also she has lost almost 1kg since the op with 1/2kg to regain!