What to know about spaying and neutering your puppy

Spaying and neutering our dogs is often the responsible thing to do to keep unwanted breeding from occurring. I have also heard of cases where a pet day care facility requires this surgery to leave your dog in their care. While there is no medical reason to neuter a male, a female can benefit later in life (~10 years old) to avoid pyometra (a bacterial infection of the uterus.) Pyometra is a serious condition and effects about 20% of intact females.

Intact vs. spay or neuter

You may want to keep your dog intact. Should you choose to “fix” your Swissy, Majestic Woods Swissies recommends vasectomy or ovarian sparing spay (hysterectomy) for your dog. These procedures allow your dog to keep their hormones, but they will not be able to reproduce. These procedures can be done at any age, but we recommend waiting until 6 months of age.

With a vasectomy, the procedure removes a portion of the vas deferens. The testes remain. For an ovarian sparing spay, the ovaries stay intact, and the cervix and uterus are removed avoiding future potential trouble with pyometra.

If you would like to find a vet that performs these procedures, while not a complete list, a good resource is the Parsemus Foundation veterinarian directory.

Choosing traditional spay or neuter

If you are going to take the traditional route of spay and neuter, we recommend waiting until 2 years of age. A young dog, especially large breeds, need their hormones to develop into a sound healthy adult dog. A dog that can keep their hormones throughout their lifetime reduces their risk of many diseases.

Risks of early spay or neuter

The risks of spaying or neutering your dog early include:

• Cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) rupture

• Hip dysplasia

• Osteosarcoma (bone cancer)

• Hemangiosarcoma (cancer usually found in the spleen or heart)

The biggest risks of losing hormones at an early age are skeletal. The hormones are vital while the dogs’ bones reach maturity. Growth plates are soft tissue and cartilage that represent new bone as they grow. These growth plates close when they reach skeletal maturity and ossify (harden into solid bone.)

Average time until dogs’ bones reach skeletal maturity:

• Small dogs – about 9 months

• Mid-Sized dogs – about 12 months

• Large dogs – about 18 months

• Giant breeds – about 24 months

Note that the distal end of the femur can remain open for 2 years in large and giant breeds.

This is the reason we recommend traditional spay and neuter not take place until 2 years of age.