If you spay, when?

[Erin puppy]

Cookie was spayed at 4 months
Ginger will be getting spayed as well, I'm trying to learn about the best time to spay.

Cookie was spayed at a low cost clinic, they gave her a tattoo and rabies vacc.
Would you get the rabies vacc and spay at the same time?

[Shanna66]

I wouldnd get shots done all at once with the spay. I like spacing everything out because my sister's dig got really sick wheb we had it all dont at once

As fir speutering i like the idea of waiting till a year or whenever the dog is full grown. Stowrm got done at 8 months at the shelter, but that was still a few months before i got her. Her nipples and vulva arent developed at all and are itty bitty so there might be some internal stuff her early spay messed with which may show up in her golden years, idk

I do feel that waiting is more important with larger dogs since small dogs will neber habe that much weight put on their joints and things

I honestly dont know what the best answer is. Most vets ive talked to suggest early spays but that may just be due to the overpopulation mentality rather than whats best for the dog

[Erin puppy]

Shanna66

I wouldnd get shots done all at once with the spay. I like spacing everything out because my sister's dig got really sick wheb we had it all dont at once

As fir speutering i like the idea of waiting till a year or whenever the dog is full grown. Stowrm got done at 8 months at the shelter, but that was still a few months before i got her. Her nipples and vulva arent developed at all and are itty bitty so there might be some internal stuff her early spay messed with which may show up in her golden years, idk

I do feel that waiting is more important with larger dogs since small dogs will neber habe that much weight put on their joints and things

I honestly dont know what the best answer is. Most vets ive talked to suggest early spays but that may just be due to the overpopulation mentality rather than whats best for the dog

cookie's nipples are not developed either, some of them even rubbed off and her girl part is tiny. I always liked that though.

yeah there is not enough info about it that isn't one-sided
Cookie seem to do fine with her spay even with the vacc at the same time
but i remember being so worried for her, spays are serious surgery and she was my baby
and i'm feeling the same way for Ginger now

they say some dogs can get pregnant by 5 months, i guess that's why they suggest to do it by 4 months of age
I feel like I should have it done at 4 months, they heal faster as puppies. but she will be due for rabies at 4 months too, i'm not sure how i should space the two. or perhaps just get it done together like Cookie did. I'm not even sure which clinic I want to go to.

[Aerobe]

Kai, my eldest cat, was spayed before I got her. She was.. 3 months I think.
Mia, my youngest cat, I had spayed when she was about 8 months. Just when she started to go into heat.

Ike my pup is 9 months now and we're not neutering him at all unless medically necessary.
Our vet keeps urging us to but we're holding our ground.
We feel with his staph hypersensitivity it'll just cause problems that we try to avoid.

I likely wouldn't. Only because I wouldn't want a reaction and not know what caused it.
Though where I live dogs and cats are required to have the rabies vaccination as soon as they turn 4 months. Mia had her vaccination long before she was spayed.

[Latrans]

I wait as long as possible; the very, very earliest I'd do is a year.

So no, rabies and stuff happens way before that.

[Shanna66]

Erin puppy

Shanna66

I wouldnd get shots done all at once with the spay. I like spacing everything out because my sister's dig got really sick wheb we had it all dont at once

As fir speutering i like the idea of waiting till a year or whenever the dog is full grown. Stowrm got done at 8 months at the shelter, but that was still a few months before i got her. Her nipples and vulva arent developed at all and are itty bitty so there might be some internal stuff her early spay messed with which may show up in her golden years, idk

I do feel that waiting is more important with larger dogs since small dogs will neber habe that much weight put on their joints and things

I honestly dont know what the best answer is. Most vets ive talked to suggest early spays but that may just be due to the overpopulation mentality rather than whats best for the dog

cookie's nipples are not developed either, some of them even rubbed off and her girl part is tiny. I always liked that though.

yeah there is not enough info about it that isn't one-sided
Cookie seem to do fine with her spay even with the vacc at the same time
but i remember being so worried for her, spays are serious surgery and she was my baby
and i'm feeling the same way for Ginger now

they say some dogs can get pregnant by 5 months, i guess that's why they suggest to do it by 4 months of age
I feel like I should have it done at 4 months, they heal faster as puppies. but she will be due for rabies at 4 months too, i'm not sure how i should space the two. or perhaps just get it done together like Cookie did. I'm not even sure which clinic I want to go to.

I like stowrm's tiny lady parts amd nipples too. Im not grossed out by large vulva or dicks on dogs but i do prefer how stowrm looks. I may be biased though because imo all dogs need to look and act like stowrm because she is perfect lol

I have no idea what my vet would suggest since stowrm was done before i got her amd my friend who goes to the same vet got her dog at just under a year. I know our vet did mention getting her dog spayed for a while before she finally got it done

[SHD]

This may be just because my dogs are giant breed, but my dogs are not spayed/neutered until they are at least a year, normally closer to being in between 1 1/2 - 2 years old. It all depends on the first heat as well, with giant breeds, sometimes the first heat is around 9 months old, while sometimes it isn't until the dog is a year and a half. Auralia didn't have her first heat until she was 17 months old.

My aunt, whom breeds Pomeranian's gets her dogs spayed/neutered at 8 months - 10 months, all depending on how quickly the dog develops. So waiting until even 6 months is better I think with Ginger.

I think the dog should be spayed/neutered once the dog is either full grown, or very close to being full grown. Rabies shot normally gets done at about 6 months for my dogs and family's dogs.

[Henrika]

Erin puppy

Cookie was spayed at 4 months
Ginger will be getting spayed as well, I'm trying to learn about the best time to spay.

Cookie was spayed at a low cost clinic, they gave her a tattoo and rabies vacc.
Would you get the rabies vacc and spay at the same time?

Definitely get the shots on a different day from the spay. The vaccines tend to knock animals out, and never mind the chance of bad reactions to the vaccines - you don't want that complicating surgery/recovery time. Get the shots done before the surgery.

[Erin puppy]

Henrika

Erin puppy

Cookie was spayed at 4 months
Ginger will be getting spayed as well, I'm trying to learn about the best time to spay.

Cookie was spayed at a low cost clinic, they gave her a tattoo and rabies vacc.
Would you get the rabies vacc and spay at the same time?

Definitely get the shots on a different day from the spay. The vaccines tend to knock animals out, and never mind the chance of bad reactions to the vaccines - you don't want that complicating surgery/recovery time. Get the shots done before the surgery.

yeah I def want to do them at different times
i cannot find any info on how long to give the dogs body to restore after vaccine. do you have any idea how long to wait? a week? a month?

[Henrika]

Erin puppy

Henrika

Erin puppy

Cookie was spayed at 4 months
Ginger will be getting spayed as well, I'm trying to learn about the best time to spay.

Cookie was spayed at a low cost clinic, they gave her a tattoo and rabies vacc.
Would you get the rabies vacc and spay at the same time?

Definitely get the shots on a different day from the spay. The vaccines tend to knock animals out, and never mind the chance of bad reactions to the vaccines - you don't want that complicating surgery/recovery time. Get the shots done before the surgery.

yeah I def want to do them at different times
i cannot find any info on how long to give the dogs body to restore after vaccine. do you have any idea how long to wait? a week? a month?

Well, with Rolo when he got his rabies & distemper, we waited 2 weeks in between shots on vet advice. I'd imagine 2 weeks would be a decent time frame for dogs, but they are a lot bigger than ferrets and may not need as much time so that's just a rough estimate.

[GoldenEnlightenment]

Early spaying holds a lot less risks than early neuter. I have a Great Dane, and normally they don't suggest spaying until after 1-3 heats, however I choose to spay at 6 months before she could get her first heat. In this way, she CANNOT get certain cancers, and there was no possibility of her getting pregnant. She is a double harlequin, and is deaf along with other problems, so the puppies would be bad IF they survived.

[Ms Jezebel Spirit]

The less heat cycles a b***h goes through, the better. A dog spayed before entering heat has virtually no chance of developing mammary tumors, and the chance increases with each heat cycle, capping off at about 10% chance of mammary tumors. Younger dogs do also heal faster, and typically have less medical issues that can increase anesthetic risk.

As for spacing out the vaccines, that is a personal choice. I haven't seen issues with vaccines being done the same day of surgery, but it might be easier on the dog's body to have them separated.

There is some anecdotal studies that suggest that it is better for giant breed dogs to be altered at a year or later because the hormones help their knees develop. I've seen these studies more so focus on male dogs.

TL;DR: Basically, I would definitely spay at or before the first birthday if possible, and not after that.

[11 Cardinal 11]

Im extremely biased as I dont entirely see the point of spay/neuters if you plan to be proactive with your intact dog. Having an intact dog =/= making puppies. At this time we've stopped considering spaying Juniper, maybe we will or maybe we wont later, who knows.

I say 18+ months for most dogs, I guess.

Dr. Becker has a fantastic video on altering pets, highly recommend.

[Latrans]

Honestly since you don't really do much with your dog it probably doesn't matter there's a young or not. Pediatric spay is not without risk though; it increases the risk for certain cancers and it can increase the risk of joint problems later in life because of the risk of damage to the growth plates. That risk is probably minimal in a small dog and it's minimal a dog that is not to be doing heavy exercise.

[Henrika]

Paediatric spays/neuters in cats are really encouraged because with cats there have actually been lifelong studies on the effects into adulthood, with the effects being positive or negligible. I would imagine that for a small dog, they would be more similar to a cat in that changes to the growth plates would be inconsequential, so really its up to what you feel comfortable with.