pros and cons on neutering.

[Texas Carol]

You'll have to show a source for this one. There is no pathological connection between spaying/neutering and bone cancer. Not a single one.

Bone issues are likely caused by improper diet causing unbalanced growth than anything else.

Because this is one of the 'hot buttons' of animal lovers and also personal opinion, I ended my answer to the
original poster to 'research and decide for yourself'...as I did and encourage everyone to do so.

Dr Alice Villalobos, a well known pioneer in the field of cancer care, a veterinary oncologist who in 1977,
established a rescue organization, Peter Zippi Fund For Animals and advocated early spay/neuter, is but one
of many to reverse (based on many, many studies and established statistics) this opinion and is quoted....

"What IF we found enough epidemiological evidence that early spay/neuter of dogs may open them orthopedic,
behavioral, immunologic & oncology issues?"

"It is earth shattering to consider that some of the cancers we have been battling may have been enhanced by
early spay/neuter instead of the reverse."

She is also saying that cancer IS NOT the only adverse reaction that can be caused by doing so.

I could provide many resources but again, everyone should research this for themselves and do what THEY think
best for all concerned...I am not advocating NO spay/neuter just waiting until dogs finish puberty and that is only
my opinion. I'm not interested in telling anyone what to do about anything, lol

 

[anatess]

Because this is one of the 'hot buttons' of animal lovers and also personal opinion, I ended my answer to the
original poster to 'research and decide for yourself'...as I did and encourage everyone to do so.

Dr Alice Villalobos, a well known pioneer in the field of cancer care, a veterinary oncologist who in 1977,
established a rescue organization, Peter Zippi Fund For Animals and advocated early spay/neuter, is but one
of many to reverse (based on many, many studies and established statistics) this opinion and is quoted....

"What IF we found enough epidemiological evidence that early spay/neuter of dogs may open them orthopedic,
behavioral, immunologic & oncology issues?"

"It is earth shattering to consider that some of the cancers we have been battling may have been enhanced by
early spay/neuter instead of the reverse."

She is also saying that cancer IS NOT the only adverse reaction that can be caused by doing so.

I could provide many resources but again, everyone should research this for themselves and do what THEY think
best for all concerned...I am not advocating NO spay/neuter just waiting until dogs finish puberty and that is only
my opinion. I'm not interested in telling anyone what to do about anything, lol

I understand what you're saying. My understanding is that this is an information site. So, we're not really in the business of telling anyone what to do about anything unless they ask for our opinion, then they get answers from a giant knowledge base of experience that they have to mull and weigh and research and bounce against known science and their own experiences.

The fact of the matter is that oncology studies in non-humans is sooo relatively sparse that as of today there is not a single conclusive evidence of anything pertaining to the oncological effects of early neutering and spaying of dogs or even the oncological effects of neutering/spaying at any age. Veterinary Science is sadly deficient - I mean, majority of the vets still swear by Science Diet!

But one thing is for certain, a neutered/spayed dog will not contribute to the overflowing animal shelters and abused dogs. Therefore, we should not have to be "scared into" getting our pets neutered/spayed... just like we should not have to be "scared into" overdosing our dogs with too much vaccinations and heartworm meds. If you don't want your dogs to have babies, neuter/spay before he/she becomes sexually mature or take on the big responsibility of guaranteeing at 100% that your intact dogs will not produce babies. Simple as that.

 

[Petra]

We neutered our "little" boy when he was just over 2 years old, he never misbehaved, humped legs or went crazy for females in heat so we just waited... I was worried he would not be himself after but he is still the same little big hearted cuddly boy as he's always been The only change I've seen in our boy is the fact that he had more muscles before we neutered him, he is not in any way fat now, he is just not as muscular, which doesn't matter to me as long as he is healthy

We rescued a male and female bulldog (both grown and not neutered) while our little boy was still young. Growing up he and the rescued male started to fight probably due to the fact none of them were neutered...

I personally think if you're not going to breed with your dog, neuter or spay him/her. But after all you know your boy better than anyone and you should do what you feel is right and works for the two of you

 

[Piamitch]

We also neutered Ruckus after 2years. We were told to wait because of the whole maturity thing, but We actually had him scheduled twice but he had constipation issues so we had to put it off. ( I think he chickened out lol) Ruckus was never a humper, and he never marked inside. As far as being calmer or less active, we have Lola now and they play hard and sometimes rough, so if Ruckus seems more calm its because he's getting lots of ever use now. Lola was spayed when we found her, but she's the occasional humper.

 

[cowsmom]

i would get him neutered but if you want to wait a bit i dont see the harm. i will say i did not get sarah spayed until she was almost 6 and she developed a severe uterine infection. she was also a much better dog after getting her spayed. her over all health and well being. now i realize she is female but i have 2 bostons who are both spayed and they are fine. nothing changed when it was done. my boston was done at 2 years old so if you want to wait till they 1 or so i dont see whats wrong with that but i will tell you that if they smell a female they will go nutso wanting her. just go with your gut instinct.

 

[MeekosMummy]

Thanks for all your advice & opinions. Im definatly going to get his nuts crushed but i just need to make the decision of sooner or later xx

 

[Telly03]

My decision to neuter was based primarily on behavior... the humping, marking and dominance associated with intact males. It was at 7 months when Moe started humping the neighbor girl, mother and grandmother, got the whole family in one day, so I made the appointment... I don't know what his behavior would have been if I left him intact, but since the neutering, there has been no humping, he never started marking, and he never tries to dominate other dogs... he gets along with everyone.

I had heard the rumor about them not filling out completely, but Moe turned out to be a very big, full, healthy boy.

It's your choice to make, I'm just sharing my experience

 

[MeekosMummy]

I think thats what il do maybe wait til he does start missbehaving then get him done if and when he does. He did once attempt to hump my sisters female huskies front paw ..when she was laying down to be exact aha .. Ive got no worries about them havin pups anytime soon if he keeps doin it that way

 

[izstigspunks]

Thanks for all your advice & opinions. Im definatly going to get his nuts crushed but i just need to make the decision of sooner or later xx

Don't have much to add since everyone's given you great advice but wanted to say ... nuts crushed ...

 

[MeekosMummy]

... I am sorry for the shocker but 'off with his balls' sounded a bit too posh for me

 

[ModernFemme]

Some say that males don't develop fully untill 18 months. And females also don't develop completely until their 2nd -3rd heat. This is very debatable and ultimately the choice is yours. I strongly recommend fixing your pet by 24months. Animals left intact run very high risk of developing all types of cancers! Females bleed and get messy when in heat and I honestly have never met any breed of male dog that was intact that did not hump. Your guy may not do it yet but he also is only 7 months and may be slow bloomer!

I agree with this.

I had a collie who died of cancer of uterus from not being spayed. (Long story, totally the vets fault for thinking it was just a UTI)

And if I hadn't neutered Remi, his undescended testicles may have turned cancerous.

I heard a horror story once about a chick bringing her beautiful poodle into a dog park IN SEASON and before you know it, she was mounted by a pit bull (who wasn't neutuered). I wonder what the babies looked like. #stupidstupid

EDIT: But OMG I totally just read the bazillion paragraphs on other pages. Needless to say, my decision was 75% a behavioral one.

 

[anatess]

I think thats what il do maybe wait til he does start missbehaving then get him done if and when he does. He did once attempt to hump my sisters female huskies front paw ..when she was laying down to be exact aha .. Ive got no worries about them havin pups anytime soon if he keeps doin it that way

The alteration may or may not solve the misbehavior though... it's not a guarantee.

That would be another sight to see... a dog humping the front paw. LOL! My spayed female bulldog at 60 lbs would sometimes hump my 15lb intact male bichon! Talk about a funny sight!

 

[MeekosMummy]

she was mounted by a pit bull (who wasn't neutuered). I wonder what the babies looked like.

Google thinks a PooPit would look like this

 

[Maife]

Yes, all that stunted growth or changing their personality or humping and marking those are all myths. And the things like lesser chance of cancer - well, duh, if you don't have balls, you can't get cancer of the balls. But, the chances of them getting cancer with their balls intact is not significantly higher that it would offset the risks of the health risk of the neutering/spaying process itself when you're dealing with the breathing issues/allergies/general health condition of bulldogs that is exarcerbated during surgery.

And the dog behavior is more a product of his training and natural personality than his neutering or lack thereof. But, it is true that an intact male is more territorial than an altered male. Also, an intact female has the natural tendency of wanting to roam when in heat. Of course, if you're the alpha "dog", these types of behavior issues can be avoided by proper training.

Okay, so, that said, why neuter and when to neuter? You neuter simply for the fact that you don't want to have even a 0.0001% chance of getting unwanted babies. That's it. Now, spaying is a different matter. The procedure is more invasive but not doing the procedure is also a lot more responsibility. A girl in heat requires a lot more maintenance so there's more added incentive besides just eliminating the even miniscule chance of having unwanted babies.

When to neuter... 6 months old is standard - both males and females. English Bulldogs mature later than most dog breeds so you might have balls that hasn't dropped yet so you might have to wait a while for the males. No, neutering/spaying at 6 months old won't make the dog smaller. No, it won't make the dog cuter. No, it won't change his personality.

That said... I have 2 intact males and a spayed female (spayed before we got her). And here's some mythbuster things about my 3 dogs - the spayed female is the one that humps. By the way, humping is an act of dominance - so even females who want to establish dominance will hump, altered or not. The one intact male has terrible separation anxiety issues so he would mark everywhere when left alone. He doesn't mark at all when we're around. The other intact male neither humps nor marks. He's the super omega dog.

So then we had a German Shepherd mix that I babysat for a while. He's intact too. The first time he walked in the house, he got in a fight with my intact male bulldog who is the omega dog that got territorial. I'm not the alpha in my household. I'm a wimp, actually. My husband, who is the alpha dog was out. So, I had to separate the dogs in separate sides of the house. So, the next morning, my husband took the dogs out and there was not a single bark or growl from both dogs. He leaves the house and the dogs remained behaved and played together like old buddies.

Okay, before my husband and I got married, he had 2 intact male dobermans. Now, if you know dobermans, they are quite the protective breed. Those dogs got in a fight a few times when they hit puberty so much so that we had to spend $800 on stitches for both dogs! But, with my husband's consistent training, he was able to get those dogs to play nice with each other so that when we got married, those two dogs were the sweetest dogs even with me, the wimp, taking care of them.

Now, my friend has 4 dobermans, 1 pitbull and 1 boxer. 2 males 4 females all altered. She spent over $1,000 on stitches when they ended up fighting too but she established pack hierarchy soon enough and everybody except the boxer gets along great. The boxer, though, had more psychological issues that she had to remain separated from the rest. Now, this shows that it doesn't matter if the dogs are altered or not - their personalities does not change. An aggressive dog will be aggressive, an omega dog will be omega. A dog with psych problems will still have psych problems.

So, if I ever make one teeny bitty mistake and my intact dogs get out and impregnate another dog (my neighbor has 2 intact female boxers), there is nobody to blame but me and I need to be scourged for it.

And that's my thoughts on the matter.

My vet told me the exact same things... all of what you wrote...all of it! about the cancers, the behaviour, the surgery etc... a month ago when I went to make an appointment to neutter Ulysses. She is kind of against getting him neutered because she says due to his breathing issues (not more than the usual bully heavy breathing), she doesn't want to put him through an "unnecessary" surgery. That said, I think I do want to get him neutered at some point. BUT, I have had so many health issues with him in the past, that now when he is doing well health wise, I'm scared of putting him through surgery and recovery, and the stress of it all (he likes his vet, but he has kind of anxiety attacks when we are anywhere near her office, it really stresses him out...looses a lot of hair in the process :S). I just don't know..it's hard to make the decision. He'll be 1 and 1/2 this month. I'll see how things develop and maybe I'll take him sometime in the spring.

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

My vet told me the exact same things... all of what you wrote...all of it! about the cancers, the behaviour, the surgery etc... a month ago when I went to make an appointment to neutter Ulysses. She is kind of against getting him neutered because she says due to his breathing issues (not more than the usual bully heavy breathing), she doesn't want to put him through an "unnecessary" surgery. That said, I think I do want to get him neutered at some point. BUT, I have had so many health issues with him in the past, that now when he is doing well health wise, I'm scared of putting him through surgery and recovery, and the stress of it all (he likes his vet, but he has kind of anxiety attacks when we are anywhere near her office, it really stresses him out...looses a lot of hair in the process :S). I just don't know..it's hard to make the decision. He'll be 1 and 1/2 this month. I'll see how things develop and maybe I'll take him sometime in the spring.

:shhhh:
We try NOT to encourage her!