Getting a dog neutered - pros and cons

[SmileyMylee]

My beautiful little Cavalier boy is now 8 months old.

What are the pros and cons of having him 'done' and if we do decide to do it - when is the best time?

He's not an aggressive dog but is a bit over interested in the ladies IYKWIM.

There are some pros for getting your dog neutered (no risk of testicular cancer, reduces the risk of roaming, calms dog down, stops humping)
But, there is a risk when having this operation done as a general aneashetic is used. You need to weigh them all up before making a decision.

Could you speak to your vet to find out what they think and suggest. They could also check your dog to make sure he is fit and healthy.

I have my own views on neutering but they are my own feelings. You need to make a decision on your findings and your dog.

There are health benefits as mentioned by kid - no testicular tumours, greatly reduced incidence of prostate problems, reduced likelihood of injury from cars (side effect of less roaming). There's also, provided the op is carried out before the behaviours have been learned, a reduction in humping and marking. I never promise a client that it will calm a dog down - usually a dog needs more stimulation and training to achieve this! There are disadvantages - with every neutering op comes a small but real surgical risk (things like bleeding, infection) and likewise any anaesthetic always carries a risk. These should generally be discussed by your vet and you will be asked to sign a consent form to say you understand. In my opinion the main long term disadvantage is the reduced metabolic rate of neutered animals - that doesn't mean they automatically get fat, just that you need to feed them less! I agree that your vet should be your next port of call for advice specific to you and your dog.

It is unlikely to calm your dog down or have any positive effect on his temprement. Humping, 'marking' etc are behavioural problems and can be stopped or prevented with training. Roaming is also a training problem or one that can be solved with better boundaries.

Discuss with your vet, but make sure they tell you both the positives and negatives and the risk of surgery. Many vets, I have found prefer to leave the latter parts out...

I personally would wait until a dog is mature if possible.

I know my vet totally left the latter out

Thanks for all your advice.

I'll make and appointment with the vet to discuss in more detail.

I couldn't bear for anything bad to happen to him.

Has your dog ever had a general anaesthetic before? The reason I ask us, the operation itself is very straight forward, it's the GA that carries the risk.

I wasn't going to mention my dog, but feel I have to just incase something happened. Also, you could easily read my pet posts to discover what happened.

My 7 month old dig died during his neutering op. It had nothing to do with the op itself, it is believed he had heart disease that could not be detected by any test. His heart stopped under the GA and could nit be restarted.

This is extremely rare, but it does happen. I really didn't want to mention it as you need to make your choice based on facts and figures not on my experience.
So, please do talk to your vet and share my experience with them if you wish and see if they can reassure you.
Even if you speak to your vet, you can always change your mind.

Kid, I have to correct you here. The operation itself does carry risks. As does any surgery.

The risks are small, but they do exist, and it's not true to say the majority of the risk lies with the GA itself. In the majority of cases any surgical complications can be easily managed (as can many anaesthetic complications) but their presence can't be eliminated.

Also, a dog which has had a problem-free anaesthetic before does not have a guarantee of a problem-free anaesthetic in the future. It doesn't work like that I'm afraid - in many cases, even where a postmortem examination has been performed, the cause of an anaesthetic death remains unknown.

Fair enough SoBloodyTired. When I asked the vet about the risks, he told me it was a routine operation. I wasn't told of any risks at all

I had no previous experience of neutering so had no idea of the procedure or risks. I don't know if I would have gone ahead with the op had I known. As the risks are low, I probably would have tbh.

Speaking as a vet the benefits of neutering both male and female dogs to my mind outweigh the risks of an anaesthetic and surgery. What happened to Kid's dog was a tragic but thankfully very rare event. In 16 years in practice I am pleased to say that I have so far not had a death associated with a routine neutering, but I know it can happen. It is good to question and know all the facts but I hope you take some reassurance from knowing that I had my own (female) pup neutered a couple of weeks ago. (A colleague did it for me...can't cope with dealing with my own pets! [embarrased] but I have done the same for others that I work with.

The risks are very low, I hear the all the time and I know it's true. Even had we been told of the risks involved, the outcome would have been the same for us and our beloved puppy as chances are, I would have gone ahead with the op but ben prepared fir the tragic outcome.

It's a rottn choice to have to make. I hope your vet can help you work out what us best for you and your dog.

We had our male dog neutered and it definitely improved his behaviour. He was marking, humping and very territorial beforehand - extremely hard to manage. Neutering has made him a much better pet, without a doubt. I'm very glad I had it done.

Having said that, we now have a 10 week old female puppy, and reading kid's posts has scared me a bit. I think we may well not get her done. Also our dog's recovery time took longer than expected because we were told the op had been more complicated than usual - one of the tubes sprang back inside or something. So I think he may have had a near miss.

I think it depends how your dog is without it. If the only problem is a bit of a one track mind I'm not sure what I would do, tbh.

Another vote in favour of neutering here, unless there are medical reasons not to.

Aside from the benefits from a health POV (testicular cancer etc) often it will inprove a dog's temperement and desire to roam. As a rescuer I get a lot of appeals for help in finding dogs whuch have gone off in search of a bitch. We've also seen many great successes whereby a dog has been neutered and his antipathy to other males - sometimes humans too - improves tremendously. That's aside, of course, from the number of dogs, hundreds a week, put down in pounds due to lack of homes. A neutered dog is another which isn't going to get a bitch pregnant and cause another litter of unwanted pups. Remember too, that even if an unplanned litter is homed, those pups are often depriving several pound dogs of their chance to live.

Resccue should be shot for not having him done prior to adoption, bedlambeast!

My (hopefully) soon to be new boy is unlikely to be neutered though. The rescue owners and I were discussing it today and currently we feel that the risks outweigh the advantages in his case. He's extremely nervous with strangers and unknown situations and is epileptic. We are leaning towards the view that the added risk of a GM during the op and the stress factor, which could in itself cause him to fit, are reasons not to neuter in his case. This is a very rare decision for this rescue but his incredibly unaggressive, unconfrontational approach to everyone and everything and the already ingrained knowledge that he MUST be kept in a secure environment with no chance to escape, even more so than most dogs, indicate that the benefits would outweigh the risks.

With a normal, healthy dog, I wouldn't hesitate to neuter and both my boys are done. I am 99% sure that there would be no way that they would accept another dog as they have Fish unless they were.

Oh rollocks, I meant that the risks would outweigh the benefits of course!

I had my spaniel done when he was three and a half and I was pregnant and he suddenly became dominant and aggressive towards me. Must have been some hormonal thing, bit of a mystery. Asked a lot of people, especially at my dog training club where there's lots of breeders and they all said the same thing - have him done. And gues what? They were right. He went back to being a soppy old spaniel.

He does tend to keep his weight on now but aside from that, he's my lovely little man.

I think that unless you intend to breed from your dog, it doesn't really matter, it's just down to personal choice. Personally I would leave dog breeding to the professionals!

For me the big difference when I had my dog neutered was the reduction in the attention he got from other dogs. He is not remotely aggressive (the opposite, in fact - when approached by a horrid dog he used to try to hide behind me). We live in an area with a lot of lovely dogs, but also quite a large number of dodgy youths with 'status' dogs and that caused a problem - these dogs, running loose, would sense that my boy was an intact male and just go for him. After it happened a few times, which was very scary, I went ahead and got him neutered (we hadn't intended to). It did also calm him down and made him more focussed on me, and less on running away (although I was training v. intensively at the time, which probably also helped).

We planned to get our dog (a Shiba Inu) neutered in the long run but didn't do it initially as we wanted to show him. Subsequent to his show career we've not done it because he is a fit and healthy dog with no doggish personality traits - other than marking when out on walks.

However he has become a bit of a "victim" out on walks though and we have to avoid some dogs who want to attack him even though he has a great nature and never barks or snarls at anything.