pup with small vulva delaying spaying

[cansleepanywhere]

Help!!

Pup (lab) had health check with the vet today for possible spaying in 4 weeks time, she'll be 6 months old by then.

Vet said that her vulva was too immature, that he could do it but would wait until after her first season. That if he did do it then she'd have an increased risk of being incontinent. I asked if it was inverted and he said no.

I have entire male dogs on either side of my house, we have a high fence but they're big dogs and if they really wanted to they could get over it. Vet suggested I keep her indoors for first season. I have two small children, this just isn't an option. I think we'd all go crazy.

At the moment we've left the appointment in 4 weeks time, if it's still too immature then I guess we'll be turned away.

Any information you guys have would be helpful. I hate the particular vet but I'm tied in at the moment as bought all her injections/wormers and spaying as part of a package.

I thought long and hard about getting her spayed before her first season. I understand that there's an increased risk of incontinence for early spaying anyway. Thing is, I have no confidence in the vet, he talks down to me, is very vague and always forgets the dog and any conversation we have had.

Is she a very small breed? 6 months season is rather early as is usually 9 months when dogs are sexully mature. However, my friend's Yorkshire terrier came into season at 6 months just a few weeks ago and vet thought it could be the hot weather that caused it.

"Thing is, I have no confidence in the vet, he talks down to me, is very vague and always forgets the dog and any conversation we have had."

I wouldn't let this person do surgery on my dog, for starters!

You've obviously done your research and there's pros and cons either way. I really think you'd benefit from a second opinion from someone who will actually bother to discuss it with you! :)

Anecdotally, we see as many leaky entire bitches as we do neutered ones. And it's the entire and late-spayed ones that have the drastic pyos and mammary strip surgeries. Again in my own experience I had a large breed bitch spayed at six months, now aged four her vulva still appears very small but with no health consequences at all.

I have kept the appointment for 4 weeks time and did ask if the 'other' (older, wiser, friendlier and genuinely more interested) vet would be doing the surgery. He confirmed that it would be the 'other' one so hopefully we can discuss things more then.

If she needs to go through a season for her health then of course I'll accept but this guy actually said 'wait until after her first season' some weeks ago before even taking a look at her, discussing anything with me or indeed looking at his own surgery's policy.

Grrrrrr.

To add to what toboldy has said there was a very large study carried out in 2000 that showed that age of spaying had no effect on whether a bitch developed incontience or not.
As a vet I feel the rapport I have with the client is the most important part and that it is my job to make the client feel that their opinion is important (which it is).

thank you so much lonecatwithkitten it's good to have a vet reply and thank you to the other replies too (vets or not!).

I felt so stressed when I got back this afternoon. I just wanted an explanation rather than to be fobbed off i.e. why does it increase the chance of incontinence? and what kind of increase are we talking about?she's never had a UTI and is clean, although her vulva is kind of underneath her back end and not 'up' there's nothing nasty lurking on the skin. Also why backtrack and say I could still go ahead....surely he should have my pup's best interests at heart??

I don't consider myself a total idiot but then again I'm not a vet either. In future I shall be requesting to see someone else.

We had a dog that was incontinent post spaying, not immediately, but still from a young age. Every time she lay down, she left a small damp patch. It was controlled on medication but that was lifelong daily medication.

Whereas the studies didn't find a link, there are still many vets who urge on the side of caution, so I sctually think your vet is being reasonable about advising against it in your pups circumstance, and I think you're being a bit harsh.

twooter sorry if I'm coming across as harsh about his decision. That's not my intention, he may well be right. What I'm mad about is that he was very vague and didn't explain his reasoning to me. He had formed the opinion to wait until after the first season before even examining the dog or discussing things with me.

As I said earlier, if the second vet says she's not ready at the end of August then of course I will wait but I want a good reason why.

I'm so sorry about your dog.

That's ok, I just wanted to put into context why it might be worth to wait.