so i just made my puppy's appointment today to get her spayed in a month. she'll be about 5 1/2 months old when i do it. i don't want her to go into heat before i do it. i was just wondering if this will effect her possible growth potential? or if this would calm her down? or what side effects i might experience? i have a male dog i got neutered as a puppy and i heard that neutering helps with aggression and makes a boy grow possibly larger then what he might be without being neutered and helps with maybe wandering. just curious. thanks lots

Spaying her young really wont affect her physical growth that I know of. I got Karli spayed at 6 months old and she's all of 37lbs. But I don't think spaying will calm her down any either, she's still gonna be a puppy and have a puppy's energy. But spaying before the first heat is definitely a good idea!

I read once that spaying/neutering before 6 months old could possibly lead to health problems down the road, but I don't remember where. Anyways I don't think it will affect her growth at all and it will probably help with behavior problems from what I've read.

I'm not sure if it will calm her down since I still have not spayed my almost 10 month old. I think if you spay her at 5.5 months, she will still go through the dreaded teenager phase that starts around 7 month old and ends who knows when, at 6 years old maybe? lol

My puppy just came into heat on Monday. I don't plan on breeding her, I just want to let her finish growing before I take her in for an ovary sparing spay. I think you can wait until your puppy is 7 months old, but it you want to do it sooner that's up to you. There are pros and cons to early spaying and same goes for waiting until she goes through puberty.

Early spays can give them longer limbs than they might have otherwise which can cause acl tears. They can also be prone to different types of cancer and urinary issues later in life.

But leaving them intact can have its own problems. It comes down to what you think you can manage and researching both options.

There are also alternative types of spays that allow the hormones to continue without them being able to become pregnant.

After considering the pros and cons, we spayed Luci at 6 months because I didn't want even the slightest risk of more Luci's in this world. (young kids in the house, and at the time no fenced yard). It didn't calm her down at all, and she is still a bratty teenager at 14 months. I have no way of knowing if it affected her growth. She is over standard at 23.5" and lanky, but that's likely due to poor breeding.

6 months has become the standard age for spaying, and by waiting even that long, she probably doesn't run much of a risk for ligament injuries. Personally, I prefer 2 years, if at all. But again, at this time, I am very comfortable handling intact bitches without fear of accidents, and my circumstances will be different than the next persons.
So it is for that person to judge their own capabilities and if there is any doubt, just go ahead and spay.

thank you everyone for the info.

I've been doing a lot of research on this lately, as Layla is coming up on the teenage phase in a few months. Our breeder recommends we let her have one heat, but our vet was sort of pushing us to get it done at six months. Our contract with the breeder states only that we need to spay her before 18 months. I'm so torn, as I don't want to tarnish our good relationship with the breeder (as I am thinking seriously about getting another pup from her in the next four months or so), but I also would really rather not have Layla go through a heat. I could probably handle getting her through it, but it would be a burden, and the research I have seen on either side of the issue has equal amounts of pros and cons health-wise. It seems to me to be more beneficial to me and to her to do it before the first heat, though I think I've come up with a compromise of sorts in that instead of doing it at six months I'll wait until seven, just to give her that little extra time to grow. I'm afraid eight months would be pushing it, as it might be too late and she could go in heat right before her spay.

capellalayla wrote:

I could probably handle getting her through it, but it would be a burden, and the research I have seen on either side of the issue has equal amounts of pros and cons health-wise. It seems to me to be more beneficial to me and to her to do it before the first heat, though I think I've come up with a compromise of sorts in that instead of doing it at six months I'll wait until seven, just to give her that little extra time to grow. I'm afraid eight months would be pushing it, as it might be too late and she could go in heat right before her spay.

I think 7 months is a good idea if you want to do it before the first heat.

If you do decide to go with your breeders suggestion to wait I want to let you know that the first heat isn't that bad. As far as blood goes, it's heavy for a couple days then tapers off to the point where you barely need to keep a diaper on her because she will keep herself clean. It can however, be a pain to have to keep her confined inside or on a leash outside under your direct supervision for 3 weeks. I'm noticing that Anya got more lethargic around day 3-4 and didn't need as much exercise.

I still took Anya for long walks and even let her run around off-leash in a fenced in tennis court a couple times the first couple days of the heat. I'm lucky to live in an area where probably 90% of dog owners are responsible and have already neutered their male dog and thanks to good animal control, there are never any strays.

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I'm afraid eight months would be pushing it, as it might be too late and she could go in heat right before her spay.

Another thing to consider and I don't know how strapped you are for money, but if she is in heat when she gets spayed (and yes they'll still do it) you'll get charged more as well for an enlarged uterus, etc. I did Karli at 6 months and she's tiny, like 37lbs tiny. And she's just now (at almost 15 months) going through the bratty teenage stage. So it really is a personal choice. I've seen what can happen to a female that was spayed later in life and I'll just say I would never wish that pain and torture upon my worst enemy, all I wanted to do was curl up in the run with her and hold her.

Both my girls were done at 6 months and I don't regret it one bit...My friends husky was already in her first heat the beginning of 6 months so I don't recommend waiting too long!

Spaying older dogs isn't always a painful procedure, I've known many dogs spayed later in life (my own included) and they didn't take significantly longer to heal. They didn't have the puppy energy, so weren't as boisterous in recovery, but that's about it.

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Spaying older dogs isn't always a painful procedure, I've known many dogs spayed later in life (my own included) and they didn't take significantly longer to heal. They didn't have the puppy energy, so weren't as boisterous in recovery, but that's about it.

I wasn't talking about her spay that was painful. She got sick with a very severe case of mastitis several years after being spayed. Which, if you spay before the first heat, the chance of the animal (dog or cat) getting mastitis is almost 0%. That's my biggest reason for spaying my girls at 6 months.

cinnamonbits wrote:

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Spaying older dogs isn't always a painful procedure, I've known many dogs spayed later in life (my own included) and they didn't take significantly longer to heal. They didn't have the puppy energy, so weren't as boisterous in recovery, but that's about it.

I wasn't talking about her spay that was painful. She got sick with a very severe case of mastitis several years after being spayed. Which, if you spay before the first heat, the chance of the animal (dog or cat) getting mastitis is almost 0%. That's my biggest reason for spaying my girls at 6 months.

Was this a precocious milker? I'm not a female and have only dealt with mastitis in goats and cows, but I always thought an animal had to be in lactation for a mastitis infection, or I should say this is the only time I've seen it, usually from bacteria getting into the open teat canal. Can this happen in a dry animal also?

Hughie wrote:

cinnamonbits wrote:

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Spaying older dogs isn't always a painful procedure, I've known many dogs spayed later in life (my own included) and they didn't take significantly longer to heal. They didn't have the puppy energy, so weren't as boisterous in recovery, but that's about it.

I wasn't talking about her spay that was painful. She got sick with a very severe case of mastitis several years after being spayed. Which, if you spay before the first heat, the chance of the animal (dog or cat) getting mastitis is almost 0%. That's my biggest reason for spaying my girls at 6 months.

Was this a precocious milker?  I'm not a female and have only dealt with mastitis in goats and cows, but I always thought an animal had to be in lactation for a mastitis infection, or I should say this is the only time I've seen it, usually from bacteria getting into the open teat canal.  Can this happen in a dry animal also?  

Its possible that the dog had a false pregnancy and developed milk. My friends bitch developed milk pooches under her nipples soon after her first heat.

I'm not exactly sure what the cause was (and I'm pretty sure the owner waited way too long to bring the poor girl in) but that would make sense because we've had females come in after a heat and they have swelled breasts. The problem with mastitis is that once the animal has gotten it, it can apparently come back and its not cheap to treat either. I'm not really sure how it would work in a dog who has been spayed but was allowed to go through a heat, but this was a female who was spayed, but wasn't spayed til she was older. My friend also has a cat that they had to treat for mastitis and she was an older cat as well. I'd just rather not take that kind of chance with my girls (this dog has ten incisions to remove the infected tissue and they couldn't even stitch her up all the way because they had to remove so much.