At what age should a puppy be spayed?

When my dog was a puppy my vet reccommended letting her go into season at least once, which is usually at around six months. I understand that it helps decrease the risk of certain types of cancer (though I can’t remember which – it was a long time ago).

@downtide I hate to disagree, but this is what WebMD says about spaying before or after heat:

“Medically, it’s better to spay your dog before her first heat. It greatly reduces the risk of mammary tumors. People who wait to spay their dogs until after their second heat greatly increase the risk of mammary tumors in their pets. Once they’ve had several heats, intact female dogs have a one out of four chance of developing mammary tumors.”

@Mama_Cakes The Canine Health Foundation says this: “Most veterinarians in the United States recommend bitches and dogs be spayed or castrated between 6 and 9 months of age. This is not based in science; no one has performed a large-scale study in which bitches and dogs underwent gonadectomy at various ages and were tracked throughout life to determine what abnormalities developed relative to age at gonadectomy.

With current anesthetic agents, anesthetic monitoring equipment, and surgical techniques, it has been demonstrated in multiple studies that bitches and dogs can safely undergo gonadectomy when as young as 6 to 8 weeks of age. Surgical complication rate does not vary between groups undergoing surgery when very young compared to those undergoing surgery at the more traditional age, with overall postoperative complication rate reported as 6.1%. The vast majority of these post surgical complications are transient and do not require veterinary care.”

@downtide Actually, that’s backward. Spaying before the first heat reduces the risk of mammary (breast) cancer, each heat cycle reduces the statistical benefit.

Medical recommendations have been evolving, and many shelters spay and neuter quite early now. The breed and size of the puppy generally influences how old they are before they go into their first heat, but 6 months is usually a safe window.

Yes, I’d agree with the 6 month mark. Certain breeds develop faster and slower than others. My last dog, a little German Shepherd/Queensland Healer mix did not have her first heat until 10 months. I was JUST on the verge of spaying her when she got raped by a neighbors dog. I went ahead and had her spayed/aborted.

Please don’t risk an accidental pregnancy, better sooner than later, as I learned.

When the traveling vets come to the bush in Australia, they grab every critter that they can and desex it because they don’t know when they will be back again and how many litters that one can produce until they are. I have heard the vets say it is more difficult to find the pertinent pieces on a young bitch but they are going in from the side so that probably has some relevance to the hunt. Males are pretty easy at any age unless the testes have not descended.

When I adopted my little old lady some 15 years ago, she was to be about 4 months and had already been done. I personally think she was a bit older than that but nonetheless, she is still going strong at 14, has lumps and bumps but no mammary types.

I just realized what I said above, I meant to say I adopted her almost 14 years ago, not fifteen! It would be damned hard to adopt her 15 years ago when she just turned 14!

Here is some info on the pros and cons of both pre and post season spaying. I had my Jack Russell spayed after her first season (about 7 yrs ago) after talking it through with the vets at the time. However, if I was to get another bitch now, I would more than likely spay before the first season.