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005. Early Neutering |
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Articles / TULARC / Dogs / Assorted Topics / | |
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005. Early Neutering |
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This article is from the rec.pets.dogs: Assorted Topics, posted to rec.pets.dogs newsgroup. Maintained by Cindy Tittle Moore with numerous contributions by others.
Many animal shelters have instituted mandatory neutering policies in an attempt to reduce the staggering number of unwanted dogs in the US. However, compliance is difficult to ensure, even with financial incentives and inexpensive neutering clinics. Paired with the current practice among US veterinarians to neuter at about 5-8 months, it is very difficult to ensure that animals that should not be bred do in fact not breed.
Some animal shelters, in responding to these problems, are looking into early neuter programs. Under these programs, puppies and kittens are neutered before they leave the shelter. Widespread adoption of early neuter programs by shelters should have a positive impact on the pet overpopulation problem. The advantages for responsible breeders are also obvious: pet-quality puppies can be neutered before they are sold, assuring the breeder that there will be no further puppies out of those puppies.
Obviously a number of questions have been raised over the appropriate age for nuetering animals, and the safety of anesthetizing young puppies. Some new data is now available that shows:
* Early neutering did not affect food intake or weight gain.
* Early neutering did not result in inactivity or lethargy, in fact the neutered dogs were slightly more active than their sexually intact counterparts.
* Early neutering contributed to a slightly higher growth rate
* Seven-week old puppies tolerated anesthesia well.
* Spaying younger puppies was easier than spaying at the traditional age since there was less fat and less vasculature (resulting in less blood loss), reducing surgery time.
Since there are important differences between neutering 7-week-old puppies and 7-month-old puppies, not every veterinarian can perform the early neutering surgery. The more extensive experience many vets have in neutering at the traditional age generally means they will not opt to change, thus for now it may be difficult to find vets experienced with early neutering.
Summarized from Marrion, Ruth, DMV. "New Views on Neutering," in _Purebred Dogs/American Kennel Gazette_, April 1992 (pp50-54).
Other online pages:
* http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/3960/early.htm
* http://www.primenet.com/~joell/altering.htm
* http://www.he.net/~virginia/00000024.html
* http://www.king.igs.net/~brica/esp.htm
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