When to Spay?

zoiegirl

When is the best time to spay Zoie. We waited with Harley because we wanted his bone structure to develop and let him be a little more athletics.

With a girl I'm clueless? My vet said after her shots were done but I'm not a big fan of spaying too early . she's only 3 months and her shots should be done after a few weeks.

tsukitsune

We waited to spay Tsuki (shiba inu) until she was 6 months, but she also had an inguinal hernia that we wanted to take care of before she got any older so thats why we did it as soon as we could.
I don't buy into the 'wait until they have a heat' or any of that - I talked to my vet and decided what was best for my dog was to be spayed at 6 months. She had no issues, even with the hernia procedure on top of the spaying - she was up and running in no time! I think the longer you wait, the harder the recovery is for them, too.

okiron

I found a thread where Brad was talking about neutering Hilo (his akita)

"We have an 8 month old Akita Inu, he is un-neutered. We plan to neuter him at about 1.5 years. We had the exact same question as you and asked it on this forum and was convinced that if we are going to neuter him to wait till he is at least 1 year old. Akitas reach maturity at ~15 months, so they are still pretty young men at 1 year.


So far, other than a little bit more of a sex drive than we are used to, Hilo has not shown any issues from not being neutered.


IMO, if you don't plan to breed, I would neuter him - but wait till he is over a year."

Not sure if spaying means wait longer or shorter.

zoiegirl

Thanks im not sure either i know some believe theres a sense of maturity that develops when dogs are aloud to keep there parts and develop with hormones. But like i said i know nothing about females so other then avoiding the bloody mess im not sure.

If they dont reach physical maturity till 1.5-2 yrs mayb longer then it would make sense to wait until the bone structure develops more...

JessicaRabbit

there is considerable difference between males and females, in both procedure and what is appropriate.

I would ask your vet what they think is ideal for your dogs development. A lot of times vets will tell you as early as possible just to get it out of the way. If you convey that your primary concern is the health and developmental well being of your puppy they may have a different answer for you.

baanton

Well, in Josephine's case we learned 1) that dogs (at least her breed) go into heat at about 7-8 months (and maybe twice/year, vets were not sure); 2) if you wait until your female dog goes into heat you will wait 2 - 3 months beyond that first heat/pre-estrous cycle (the vets will want to wait for all the tissues/organs to subside to "normal" (pre-heat) size before the surgery); and 3) the vets we talked to (family member and "independent" vet) were pretty non-committal as to the best time for the surgery. I'd say schedule it when its convenient for you. I can tell you that going through the wearing of the doggie diapers, keeping her "quarantined" from other animals, etc. was not the most pleasant experience. I'd say if you will have it done eventually sooner is better. I have heard of some dogs being spayed even as tiny puppies (for example, a Kai Ken owner we saw at the dog park said his dog was delivered as a puppy from the breeder already spayed, because that was part of his committment--- not to breed her, so the breeder made sure there would be reneging on his part, I guess).

Heidi

I've met people who were adament that they be spayed asap and people who were fully convinced that you needed to wait until they were fully mature. In my experience, there are a lot of opinions and everyone will give you a different answer.

That being said, I still don't know how I feel and I've never had a dog spayed (Rakka was already spayed when we got her and Skella won't be spayed).

sunyata

We had Bella spayed at 8 months and everything went fine. The only problem we had was her nipping at her stitches. Even the sour apple serum did not deter her on that. We talked to our vet about what was best for Bella, and she advised us that the earlier you have the procedure done, the easier it is for them to recover and handle the trauma. She advised between 6 and 10 months, so we chose right in the middle at 8!