Any vets about - Pug puppy spaying question

[blockpavingismynightmare]

Can I have my puppy neutered before her first season ?
Is it safe?
Would it be better to wait until after she has had the first season?
Born 22nd Feb this year and no sign of season yet
What would you recommend please?

Call your vet and they can advise for your particular situation.

There are pros and cons each way.
The main health pro of spraying before the first season is that you virtually eliminate the risk of her developing mammary cancer later in life, risk increases with each season until the 3rd season when the risk is about the same as for unneutered bitches, just of course they also have the risks of uterine and ovarian cancers and pyometra which is very common and also life threatening/expensive to treat.

If you allow her to have a season first her risk of developing urinary incontinence in later life reduces.

There was was a recent study from the US (which had lots of faults) but did show some comparisons for the different breeds. Also you have a pug so also depends on her anaesthesia safety profile, how extreme her BOAS is and whether she would benefit from other surgeries at the same time (eg hernia repair, soft palate resection, nares augmentation).

In short, speak to your vet as lots of individual factors will come into play and you want specific advice about your bitch not generic advice.

Spaying not spraying, darn autocorrect

Thank you very much for this. I have read conflicting info on the net and wanted confirmation. I called the vet yesterday and they are calling me back within the next day or so but I just wanted to be better informed before we speak and now I am.

@nowaynotnownotever There was was a recent study from the US (which had lots of faults) but did show some comparisons for the different breeds.

Out of interest what where the faults?

Pugs where not mentioned in that study I dont think?

@forumsempronii pugs were included the UC Davies study. There are others studies too which are also helpful but for me each bitch needed to be assessed and a risk/benefit decision made on an individual basis by the client who is informed and makes their own choice. The advice on pugs from that study says just that - it's the owner's choice.

Main problems with the frontier study include small sample size, a hospital patient cohort not the general pet pop and the fact that these are US dogs so totally different population genetics to the UK when assessing risk of some of these conditions.

I have a pug - she was spayed at 6 months before her first season. I did read the study that included pugs in the pros/cons of waiting and concluded it was down to owner choice. On that basis I took my vet's advice that they would be keen to do it asap. They advised about urinary incontinence risk is raised but that it 'tends' to be larger dogs and symptoms can be medicated.

She had general anaesthetic rather than keyhole as they fixed a small hernia at the same time. Due to that meaning a longer surgery and her breed she had extra fluids during the op but otherwise everything was very standard and she recovered no problems.

Bottom line though, I didn't want any risk of an accidental litter, I wanted to lower risk of pyometra and mammary cancer. Plus, I'm not a vet, so was happy to take their advice.

Definitely want to reduce the risk of cancers and do not at any cost want her to get pregnant. She has a very flat face and although my vet has examined her and assures me she is OK I would not want to pass this on.

@nowaynotnownotever are you calling the UC davics study the New Frontiers study?

The peer reviews were in favour of amount of dog used so surprised to hear otherwise. Nearly 400 pugs were studied that is a large number of dogs of one breed.

15 years of monitoring over 35 breeds with well over 14000 dogs studied is not a small scale study.

Agree re USA breeding etc but it is certainly a good starting point for discussion for many vets and owners.

IIRC there were 60 something female pugs in the study. I don't think I can base a mass recommendation on that.

So 63 intact and 118 neutered. I agree is useful and adds to the body of knowledge but I'm not hanging my hat on it.

"iirc 63" Good memory

Id rather hang my hat on that than comments from unsubstantiated ancedotal posts from unknown people on the internet

Yeah I think my main advice was speak to your vet who knows you and your vet.

You seem very invested in this study..are you the author perchance? 🤣

*pet 😁