Speutering

[kitari]

Ive been seeing varying opinions on the time frame to spay/neuter (aka spueter)
With Syble and NubNub the vet refused to spay til they were 6 months old.. We did find someone who would do it sooner however as they came into heat at like 4 months.

With dogs generally everyone says to wait longer that early speutering can be detrimental to their health. Is it the same with cats?

What about spraying? and heat marking?

We are getting a kitten around august, haven't decided male or female yet so im trying to find out now vs waiting.

[MowMow]

Vets saying to wait (for dogs) until after first heat/first litter or until males are full adults is pretty old school. Most modern vets are realizing the earlier the better and spaying early significantly reduces the chances of breast cancer/uterine in females and testicular cancer in males.

Same for kitties. The earlier the better, the more heats they go through the higher the chance of cancer.

I believe the rule of thumb is 2 lbs. Once they weight 2 lbs they can be spayed/neutered.

[6cats4me]

The vet who does the medical work for the resuce I fostered for will spay/neuter the kittens as soon as they meet the 2-pound weight requirement. Seems to work out fine this way as the ones I've seen have all turned into healthy happy adult cats.

[kitari]

ok so once Micha (premptive name be it boy or girl darn it!) hits 2lbs speuter? Thats great. One thing that about did us in with Syb and Nub was the heat marking especially on the beds!

[def kitty]

With dogs it depends on the breed, generally larger breeds shouldn't be speutered (love the word ) until at least one year old (and rottweilers even later) because it increases the risk of osteosarcoma. Source:

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[librarychick]

Originally Posted by kitari

ok so once Micha (premptive name be it boy or girl darn it!) hits 2lbs speuter? Thats great. One thing that about did us in with Syb and Nub was the heat marking especially on the beds!

If you have a vet who is comfortable with doing it at that weight go for it! Where I am there is no vets who will do any animal younger than 4 months (males) and 6 months for females. The only places that can get animals done earlier are rescues who work with their own vets.

Originally Posted by def kitty

With dogs it depends on the breed, generally larger breeds shouldn't be speutered (love the word ) until at least one year old (and rottweilers even later) because it increases the risk of osteosarcoma. Source:

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The risks associated with early spay/neuter in most breeds are much lower than the risk of someone being irresponsible and having an oops litter. From everything I've read/heard most breeds are fine to do at 6 months. The breeds where it is important to wait longer are the breeds that mature slower and have more growing to do, aka giant breeds. Danes, Mastiffs, Irish Wolfhounds, ect. If you compare where a great dane is at 6 months to a shih tzu (for example) they are developmentally really far apart. Shih tzus are almost done, or done, growing at that point. Whereas a dane might stil have 50-70 lbs worth of growing left!

Basically a breed like a rottweiler I'd still do it at 6 months. Speutering reduces the risks of a lot of agression issues. I've worked with rotties lots (and love them) but any chance you have to reduce their chances of developing issues and I'd reccommend taking it.

I've read the research on osteosarcoma, but it's a much lower risk than they make it out to be IMO. The real risks are removing the hormones before the body is at least close to maturity. IME dogs do best when spayed before their first heat, but as close to physical maturity as possible within that boundry. For males the age ranges pretty widely depending on size ect...generally speaking as soon as they start lifting their leg seems to work well.

Sorry about the lecture, lol. That's the dog trainer in me piping up

[kitari]

We have a spay neuter clinic who does it once they hit 2 lbs. We have to book appts in advance though, by a month or two.

[def kitty]

I mentioned rottweilers because as a breed they're prone to getting osteosarcoma, so when speutered (can't help but giggle every time I use this word!) before one year old the risk multiplies and becomes really high (28% for males and 25% for females). So it really is best to assess breed health risks but also individual health risks (say, if you know your dog has a risk of getting cancer because one of his parents got it, if it's the kind of cancer that speutering before sexual maturity can influence in a negative way, you might choose to wait.)

But I don't really know of any negative sides to speutering cats early, even at 2-3 months of age. I think it's important to have it done before sexual maturity, especially in females, because their chances of getting malignant mammary cancer are so much higher than in female dogs. (90% compared to 50%, if I remember correctly).

[praline]

We couldn't bring our kittens home until they were spayed and they had to be 2lbs for the surgery. This was the rescue groups rules but the SPCA in our state has the same rules for adoption. Unless there is a real medical reason the animal is fixed before going to its permanent home.

I guess they don't like "oops"

Our kittens had their surgery on Monday. I was told to watch the area and wipe it with a warm damp washcloth if it should get dirty (like pieces of litter)
So far the girls have been very good about keeping that area clean on their own.