I have a Labrador Retriever, and I’m wrestling with whether to spay her or not. I have always spayed my female dogs, as having a litter of puppies has never been anything I wanted to do. However, recent research on reasons why spaying a female dog, especially a young one, has made me rethink things. Options for spaying, such as not taking out everything, have also become available. We let her have her first heat, which happened at a little over a year. As it turned out, having a dog in heat is pretty easy. We have a farm and tight fencing, so there were no issues with her getting out or a male dog getting in. She is now in her second heat, eight months later, and I’m giving thought to not spaying her, so I have questions. How concerning is it for female dogs getting mammary cancer and/or pyrometra? Is it more likely for dogs than other mammals, or is it just a topic used to encourage people to spay their females? What about the lesser options? Is there an advantage to them?
Labs were specifically studied regarding this issue, so there is some research: Long-Term Health Effects of Neutering Dogs: Comparison of Labrador Retrievers with Golden Retrievers. My vet said he sees a lot of mammary cancer in intact female dogs, so I spayed my girl when she was about 1. It’s a tough decision because you might end up kicking yourself either way. Since you have no issue managing the heat cycles, your vet might recommend you wait until after age one.
Pyometra is a significant risk. It’s not super common in the sense that 50% of bitches will die from it, but those of us who keep intact dogs for showing/breeding all know at least one person who has had an emergency situation or death due to pyometra.
I would spay an intact bitch for no other reason than this. You can definitely consider an ovary sparing spay, which would leave the ovaries intact. It eliminates pyo as a risk, but might still contribute to mammary cancer - definitely worth the conversation with your vet.
It can definitely be no big deal to keep an intact bitch, but most of my breeder friends still spay their bitches when they are no longer breeding due to the risk of pyo.
ETA: National Institute of Health says 25% chance of pyo in unspayed females: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10647846/#:~:text=Pyometra%2C%20a%20bacterial%20infection%20in,10%2C12%2C13].
So far.
I would spay when fully mature, usually that’s around 2 years for bigger dogs. I had no problem keeping my male intact past two years and honestly, if I had my place properly fenced I likely would not have neutered him at all, he was perfectly fine. But if I get a female I would definitely spay at 2, way more risks if you ask me.
We have shepherds, so not necessarily parallell, but we spay around 2 ish. Ours are 13, 7, 4, and almost 3. We’ve had no health issues related to the spay.
I have two females. One is Buma and is will be 8 this July. She had a litter with her previous owner. I have kept unspayed due to her size and age. She was given to me as a 3 yr old. I played around with the idea of breeding her. But now that is not in the cards, (I have no time and I would want homes lined up for the pups) Now, I am afraid to spay her due to her age and weight. She is 105lbs and if she died on the table it would kill me.
Every vet appointment raises the question on whether or not to do it and I get the waggy finger from the vet, “she could get cancer or pyrometra and DIE!!!” Well, she could die on the table too.
She’s easy. Wears her cute little dog diapers (I put a pany liner in them to get more wear out of a pair of diapers). Its 2 weeks every 8 months. She does not run, the propery it tightly fenced like yours but she is not a wanderer anyway. She is my shadow.
My second female is a 7 month old Labx, Lilly. She will be getting spayed after her first heat. I want to do rally and agility with her and it will just be easier with her spayed.
Thanks for that article @alpine1 I am going to need someone that can read science to translate for me, but it looks like there is a higher risk of joint issues and more cancer risks with altering a dog… did I read that right?
ETA that article was published in 2014.
I’ve been told by my vet ro wait until after 2yrs old to spay/neuter to avoid orthopedic issues. Some cancers have also been linked to pediatric spay/neutered. We did spay my current bitch at 18 months due to ovarian cysts causing her to cycle every other month. The risk of a pyo outweighed the risks the orthopedic injuries.
I have historically not spayed mine. Like you, I don’t find heat cycles to be burdensome.
We’re considering spaying our current young dog, mainly because it gives us more flexibility with the farm sitter. I just find it really challenging to sign up for such a large elective surgery :-/
I recently came across some research that examined the risk of mammary cancer in intact girls, and they found it difficult to show any link. The data is certainly unclear on what the best path is.
She will be two in July, and she is in heat now. If I do spay her, it will likely be around mid summer.
Yes, the link is being altered prior to full maturity. The thinking being that they need their hormones to finish building all their tendons and such.
My interpretation of the articles about spaying young is that there are joint issues in females, and interesting, but in a comparison of females v male Labradors, the females should be spayed a little later than males neutered. A bit of reading this morning says that spaying after two heat cycles is about the same risk of mammary cancer as not spaying at all, leaving pyometra as the main risk.
I just wish the shelters would get on board and start doing vasectomy and ovary saving spay. I saw a post about a 4 month Dutch Shepherd a rescue advertised as needing an experienced owner and that he would be great for agility. They bragged that he was already neutered. What are the odds that he will have blown both cruciates by the age of 2?
Thank you both @clint and @Mosey_2003, I am going to ask about leaving Lilly’s ovaries vs a full spay regarding cost with my vet and I think I will wait until she has had her 2nd heat.
In the article, it looked like a really small presentage, less than 5% of intact females get pryrometra.
Simkie, do you have a link to the research about mammary cancer?
I have a link in my response.
Interesting subject. I just recently had my two at the vet for routine shots and tick prevention, and got a quote for spaying my 1 year old Pyr. I have been told (and read) that it is better for them to be a bit older, especially the big dogs. I kind of got the same finger wagging about getting her spayed. You would think the vets would be up to date on the recent literature? It doesn’t really matter now, she has already had a first heat, so it’s all gonna cost the same. I might as well be cautious and wait a bit longer? My male was neutered at about 1 1/2 years, I don’t think it affected him (at least I hope not!!)
My unspayed female had to have an emergency spay due to pyometra when she was about 7. In hindsight I wish I would have done it when she was younger to maximize benefits with having less risks. She lived a long happy healthy life afterwards. No visible/known cancer and minimal lumps for a 15 year old lab when she passed in her sleep at home after slowing down in the last 2 weeks. Developed lupus in the last year of life and had elevated liver enzymes for the last 3 years. If it were me I would be looking into ovary sparing spay for later this year.
That is a very interesting study, and one which makes me think I will leave my dog intact. Thank you.
We had our 2 girls spayed, one when she was around 7 months, she was spayed by the rescue center and she didn’t have her first heat yet. The second after her first heat, when she was around 1 year and a half. Neither had any problem from spaying, both are sheperd dogs. Regarding the boys I had the first two intact, the last two neutered because greyhound rescues neuter both males and females to avoid people breeding them for money. I didn’t see any difference in health problems referring to neutering among them.
Regarding the current girl the vet heartly recomennded spaying after first heat to avoid pyo and cancer. Onestly among friends with unspayed females the percentage of pyo is quite high, less for cancer but there were a few cases
