Community Chat

[Jeremiah 2911]

I love Dr. Becker and I highly regard her opinions. I read the article you posted and I agree that early spay & neuter can cause health issues in dogs and cats.

Here a some of my thoughts on the subject:

She (Dr. Becker) mentioned that early neutering doesn't seem to harm cats but according to my own research, early spay and neuter of cats also causes them to suffer health issues as a direct result of the spay and/or neuter.

I think that if a person is a responsible pet owner, they should consider waiting until the dog or cat is fully developed before spaying or neutering the pet. Or, if they are able to -- leave the pet intact.

The problem with leaving dogs and cats intact is that many people are irresponsible pet owners and will not contain their pets and will allow them to breed indiscriminately.

Spaying and neutering pets is considered the answer to pet overpopulation. But the real answer to pet overpopulation is to teach & enforce (somehow?) RESPONSIBLE PET OWNERSHIP -- and sadly, we all know that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

[nagrom]

As a rottie owner the current guidelines are to wait until the dogs growth plates are completely mature usually after one year of age. The incidence of bone cancers etc are supposed less than if they were spayed or neutered at six months. One of my rotties was a participant in the exceptional longevity study for rottweilers conducted by Dr. Waters of Purdue University. He studied rottweiler s that lived to be thirteen years of age or older. These dogs did not die of cancer once they reached that age. The study is ongoing. We were part of a second generation of dogs in the study as our sire and d$m both lived to be almost fifteen. That is very rare for a rottie. My boy lived until he was fourteen. One other female in his litter lived to age fourteen as well.