Don’t Spay or Neuter your Pets too Young

March 8, 2015

by Natalie Secretan

I’ve been struggling with the idea of spaying my dog, Layla. She’s a beagle/springer spaniel cross or speagle. When I first took her to the vet, they tried to get me to book an appointment to get her spayed the minute she turned six months. Something in the way there was so much urgency to getting the surgical procedure done disturbed me. I felt as though it was a sales call rather than a visit to a health-care centre for the welfare of my dog.

So I put it off and put my name down on a waiting list with the OSPCA, thinking it would be months and months before they got back to me. Eight weeks later, they contacted me and said they had a spot at the end of March. Layla will be nine months at the end of March. I started getting that uneasy feeling again and dug deeper into the research. I came across many interesting articles by Dr. Karen Becker in Healthy Pets on mercola.com. It talked about the health risks associated with sterilizing your pet at too young an age.

Health Risks of Early Sterilization in your Pet

  • Cardiac Tumours
  • Bone Cancer
  • Prostate Cancer
  • Abnormal Bone Growth and Development
  • Higher Rate of ACL Ruptures
  • Hip Dysplasia

For the past 30 years, with so many shelters popping up and an increasing number of dogs and cats being abandoned, the push for sterilization made sense: We must control the population of stray cats and dogs.

But then something else started happening to our pets. An increase of health issues began to develop, and dogs and cats started getting sicker and sicker. While some of this can be blamed on the increase of obesity in our pets, some scientists knew there was much more to it than that. So they performed some studies and long-term tests and found alarming evidence to support the argument that sterilizing your pet at a young age, at six months, is too young.

One study out of the UK found earlier tests on the benefit of sterilization in female dogs to reduce mammary tumours inconclusive. In addition, more and more studies are coming out proving that early sterilization, that is, removing hormone-secreting sex glands from an animal can lead to all sorts of detrimental health issues – the kind of health issues we’re seeing more and more in our pets.

Veterinarians are beginning to realize that sterilizing your pets at a young age is detrimental to their health. Others are seeking out more holistic methods and alternative methods to traditional de-sexing surgery. Dogs and cats develop at an incredibly fast rate. While they reach sexual maturity at a very young age, the rest of their bodies is still growing and developing. Without these vital hormones to help with their physical development, it’s no wonder so many dogs suffer from poor health.

Think about it. Click on the links above and read the research. I’ve decided to wait until Layla is at least 18 months old, and then we’ll see.