What Age To Neuter Golden Retriever

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For many years now, it has been an accepted practice that the owners who werent interested in breeding their Goldens chose to have them neutered and spayed. The recommended time for these procedures was six months of age. However, recent research has shown that this was not good practice and that it carries significant health risks and implications. You need to understand that spaying or neutering your Golden Retriever is not a risk-free operation. However, most professionals still consider that the benefits outweigh the risks.;

Now, let us dive deeper into this subject.

For Female Golden Retrievers

For females, their sexual hormones play an important role in their growth. It is ideal that you wait out at least one heat cycle before you get their reproductive system removed. ;Again it is important that you keep them on a tight leash and not let them leave the house.

The ideal age for neutering is around 8-10 months, right after their first heat. Some females can go into heat as early as five months so make sure to watch out for that.

Again these are our suggestions and it is best that you consult a vet to determine the best age to neuter a Golden Retriever.

When Should I Spay Or Neuter My English Golden Puppy

We believe that part of being an ethical breeder is protecting;your breed. Part of protecting the English Golden Retriever is to make sure our Golden Retriever puppies go to incredible pet homes or highly ethical breeder homes.

Here at Recherche Goldens, we sell almost every one of our pups with a spay/neuter contract because we simply do not have the time or energy to fully vet potential breeders. We have decided to only sell full registration to established English Golden Retriever breeders that have a solid history of breeding ethically. Because of our rules in this area, we are quite often asked the question; when should I spay or neuter my English Golden Retriever puppy?

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Benefits Of Spay & Neuter

Our vets know that you may not feel like it at the moment, but going through the emotional process of having your dog spayed or neutered is worth it, both for you as a loving pet parent, and for your canine companion.

Having your dog fixed can help to curb undesirable behaviors such as roaming, mounting and animal aggression. Spaying and neutering may also offer your dog a number of health benefits including a decreased risk of some serious illnesses, as well as preventing;unwanted puppies.

An estimated 3.3 million dogs enter shelters every year! By having your dog spayed or neutered you are doing your bit to help reduce the overall number of unwanted pets in your neighborhood.

Disadvantages Of Tubal Ligation Hysterectomy Or Not Spaying Your Dog

An OHE eliminates most, if not all, of the female hormone production. In so doing, the real advantages of this procedure are realized. In human cases, great efforts are undertaken to maintain or restore hormone production in the body, but the same is only rarely true in canine practice. These hormones play key roles in reproduction in the dog. However, they can also have many unwanted side effects.

Estrus: During the heat cycle there are behavior and hygienic problems that develop. Females in heat will actively search out male dogs and may attempt to escape from the house or yard, putting them in the danger of traffic, fights with other animals, etc.

Often there is a sudden influx of male dogs around the home and yard. These dogs leave numerous droppings and spray plants and trees with urine in an attempt to mark their new found territory. Owners also need to contend with the vaginal bleeding that typically lasts for 4 to 13 days.

Mammary cancer: Estrogen is one of the primary;causes of;canine mammary cancer, the most common malignant tumor in dogs. Animals that are spayed prior to one year of age very rarely develop this malignancy.

Spaying a dog before her first heat is the best way to significantly reduce the chance your dog will develop mammary cancer. The risk of malignant mammary tumors in dogs spayed prior to their first heat is 0.05%. It is 8% for dog spayed after one heat, and 26% in dogs spayed after their second heat.

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The Dog Training Programe

If you are looking to learn how to train your dog or puppy using force-free training methods then I recommend this online video course. I purchased it last year and some of the tips I learned I still use today. Most of the training methods arent available on the internet.

You will learn

• Obedience skills
• Relationship skills and lots more

Each session is bite-sized with the focus on getting the student to take the action with information and demonstrations, find out more here.

Golden Retriever Behavior After Neutering

Just like after spaying, you should keep your male Golden calm for up to 5-7 days after his neuter procedure. This will help decrease the risk of his scrotum becoming swollen and allow his incision to heal properly. Your veterinarian will guide you on if they want to see him again after the surgery to remove any stitches. They will also prescribe you pain medications to give him for a few days. If your dog starts to lick at his incision, you will need to put one of those cones of shame on him to prevent his incision from becoming infected.

If your dog had some aggressive-type behaviors or was old enough to want to seek out female dogs prior to getting neutered, you may notice those behaviors subside after he is neutered.

Neutering does not necessarily stop your dog from marking things, such as when they spray urine on objects. This is a learned behavior. If your dog had already started marking things with their urine, neutering them will not necessarily stop this unwanted behavior.

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Best Age To Neuter A Golden Retriever

• Our Final Thoughts

Neutering a pet is a common practice that offers a number of benefits to the animals and owners alike. Most golden retriever owners get their pets neutered or spayed to avoid unwanted breeding. Others get it done to avoid health issues.

A study in 2016 found that 61% Golden retrievers die from cancer. Neutering can be a solution to this in some cases. In this article we will talk about the best age to neuter a Golden Retriever.

What Are Cons Of Spaying

• Some owners report a side effect of spaying their bitch is urinary incontinence . Some studies suggest this is only an issue if they are spayed too young/before any heat cycles as the lack of hormones can cause weak muscle tone around the bladder. However, anecdotally, our Goldie was spayed at 2 years 9 months of age and she developed mild urinary incontinence afterwards
• According to this study, the occurrence of Cranial Cruciate Ligament Tears was significantly more prominent in bitches that had been spayed before age 1. In fact the study suggests that almost 8% of the bitches studied that had been spayed before age 1 had an incidence of this painful injury, whereas no incidents were reported in intact bitches. The study did also consider bitches spayed after age 1 and they found they also had no incidence of this injury
• Increased incidence of Hypothyroidism/obesity Spayed Goldens have a higher incidence of becoming overweight due to a change in hormones/metabolism;
• Increased risks for certain common cancers for Goldens including Hemangiosarcoma, Mast Cell Tumours, Osteosarcoma and Lymphosarcoma

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Spaying Or Neutering My Golden Retriever: Are There Any Other Options

Now that you know the risks, its natural that you ask:;Are there other, safer options?;

The answer is;YES!

The most probable cause of elevated risks of developing orthopedic disorders and cancer is the lack of critical hormones in the dogs body. So the logical step is to perform procedures that will prevent your Golden from breeding, but still, keep the production of critical hormones.

Hysterectomy

With this procedure, your female Golden will have its uterus and part of fallopian tubes removed. However, ovaries will be left intact, thus ensuring the production of body critical hormones. The downside is that there is a probability that your female will still have a breeding instinct.

Vasectomy

Vasectomy is a procedure with which we remove the tubes that run from testicles . Thus removing your male Goldens ability to breed. However, his hormone production will be intact.

Chemical Castration

In Europe, particularly in Nordic countries such as Denmark, Sweeden, and Norway, the most common way to stop unwanted breeding is chemical castration. If you opt for this procedure, your Golden Retriever will have an injection every six months. This will decrease the levels of testosterone by 50%, thus removing breeding instinct for some time. This method is very effective. Besides, your Golden Retriever is still capable of breeding in the future if you decide you want to do that, something that is impossible with spaying and neutering.

Data Collection And Presentation

The computerized hospital record system of the VMTH provided the dataset. The hospital, with currently over 50,000 cases admitted per year, is a secondary and tertiary facility as well as being a primary care facility. The statistical evaluations, with standardized diagnostic criteria applied to various diseases and taking into account sex and different ages of neutering, required a large database with a computerized record system. The study focused on proportional differences in disease occurrences between the neuter age groups and intact dogs of the same breed and sex.

The study period represented 15 years of data for most breeds. The inclusion criteria were date of birth, age at neutering , and age of diagnosis or onset of clinical signs for diseases of interest. As mentioned, age at neutering was designated as <6 mo., 611 mo., 1 year , and 28 years . The term early neutering is sometimes used below to refer to neutering in the first year, combining cases for both the <6 mo. and 611 mo. neuter periods. For MC, PYO, and UI, only females were examined. While UI does occur in males, it is predominantly an issue in females.

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Chemically Sterilizing Male Dogs

One chemical that will sterilize your dog without removing the testacles, meaning your dog will not have its sexual hormones affected.

Approved by the FDA, zeuterin will disrupt at least 40% of the cells producing testosterone, but not enough to affect behavior and health. Unfortunately, this method is unavailable in the US, despite some thinking it will make a comeback.

In Spaying A Labrador Retriever

Spaying a Labrador Retriever bitch is a recommended course of action for all Lab owners.

The procedure has positive implications for both the dogs health and also the troublesome issue of unwanted pets.

In this article expert vets from Drs Foster & Smith take a very in-depth look at the issues surrounding spaying a Labrador Retriever and other dogs and also discuss the many advantages and benefits in carrying out the procedure.

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When Should You Neuter A Golden Retriever

As previously mentioned, people tend to get their Golden Retriever neutered at around the time they become 12 months old.

But how do owners decide when to neuter their Golden Retriever? When do you know whether your Golden Retriever is mature enough to be neutered, and when is it too late to neuter them?

Well, when it comes to female Golden Retrievers, most vets will advise that you dont spay them too early. Instead, they will tell you to wait until a female Golden Retriever has had at least one heat before you spay them.

Whereas when you have a male Golden Retriever, the advice tends to be to wait until around one year after they become sexually mature, to help them to grow in a healthy way and to prevent early-onset orthopedic problems.

Summary: The Best Golden Retriever Spay & Neuter Times

Golden Retrievers will benefit from a delay in the age of desexing. The authors add the option of leaving females intact through life based on the ongoing high rate of cancers. However, if you look at the data, the predominant cancer of mature females is the mast cell tumour, which is easily detected and removed.

Recommendation:;at 1 year of age for both sexes, but the decision may be based on other factors such as:

• health problems associated with intact dogs

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When Should I Spay Or Neuter My Golden Retriever

So, youve just arrived home with your adorable new Golden Retriever and youre totally enamoured. All you want to do is cuddle and squeeze them, and spend literally every day locked in the house playing with them forever

But, theres a serious side to the first few months of owning a Golden Retriever. Vet visits, injections and health checks are all too often in the early stages and, following all that, the final decision you have to make is whether or not to have your Golden Retriever spayed or neutered.

Its a major decision we get that so heres all you need to know about what you should be considering and whats best for your Golden Retriever.

When Should I Spay Or Neuter My Pet

As part of the battle against pet overpopulation, it used to be common practice to spay and neuter young pets as soon as it was safe to do so, and sterilization still is routinely performed on shelter puppies and kittens. When it comes to privately-owned pets in secure homes, here are AAHAs most recent recommendations.

• Cats: Female kittens can enter their first heat cycle as young as four months, but usually not until they are five or six months old. AAHA has endorsed the Fix Felines by Five initiative, which recommends sterilization of cats by five months of age. This recommendation prevents unwanted litters and greatly decreases mammary cancer risks in female cats as well as spraying/marking in male cats, but still allows kittens time to grow. Kittens sterilized at this age quickly bounce back from surgery.
• Dogs: According to the AAHA Canine Life Stage Guidelines, small-breed dogs should be neutered at six months of age or spayed prior to the first heat . Large-breed dogs should be neutered after growth stops, which usually is between 9 and 15 months of age. The decision on when to spay a large-breed female dog is based on many factorsyour veterinarian can help narrow down the recommended window of 5 to 15 months depending on your dogs disease risk and lifestyle.

What are the benefits of spaying or neutering my pet?

• They show or breed the animals
• Financial constraints
• Fear of anesthesia
• Lack of understanding of the benefits

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When Should A Golden Retriever Be Neutered Age Pros And Cons

Timing can play a huge role in the consequences of neutering your dog, which is why you should know exactly when you should do it and why you should do it at this age.

So, when should a golden retriever be neutered? You should neuter your male golden retriever one year after their sexual maturity and neuter your female golden retrievers 8-10months after their first heat cycle. ;

We all want the best for our dogs and neutering your dog is a very important subject, so keep reading to learn more about and to know what is the right thing to do?;

When To Spay & Neuter

The UC Davis Golden Retriever Study on the effects of early Spay & Neutering, and the age at which a dog is neutered, may affect the animals risk for developing certain cancers and joint diseases, according to a new study of golden retrievers by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The study, which examined the health records of 759 golden retrievers, found a surprising doubling of hip dysplasia among male dogs neutered before one year of age. This and other results were published Feb. 13 in theonline scientific journal PLOS ONE.

The study results indicate that dog owners and service-dog trainers should carefully consider when to have their male or female dogs neutered, said lead investigator Benjamin Hart, a distinguished professor emeritus in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

It is important to remember, however, that because different dog breeds have different vulnerabilities to various diseases, the effects of early and late neutering also may vary from breed to breed, he said.

While results of the new study are revealing, Hart said the relationship between neutering and disease-risk remains a complex issue. For example, the increased incidence of joint diseases among early-neutered dogs is likely a combination of the effect of neutering on the young dogs growth plates as well as the increase in weight on the joints that is commonly seen in neutered dogs.

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Neutering Health Effects More Severe For Golden Retrievers Than Labradors

Labrador retrievers are less vulnerable than golden retrievers to the long-term health effects of neutering, as evidenced by higher rates of certain joint disorders and devastating cancers, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine.

Results of the study now appear online in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

We found in both breeds that neutering before the age of 6 months, which is common practice in the United States, significantly increased the occurrence of joint disorders especially in the golden retrievers, said lead investigator Benjamin Hart, a distinguished professor emeritus in the School of Veterinary Medicine.

The data, however, showed that the incidence rates of both joint disorders and cancers at various neuter ages were much more pronounced in golden retrievers than in the Labrador retrievers, he said.

He noted that the findings not only offer insights for researchers in both human and veterinary medicine, but are also important for breeders and dog owners contemplating when, and if, to neuter their dogs. Dog owners in the United States are overwhelmingly choosing to neuter their dogs, in large part to prevent pet overpopulation or avoid unwanted behaviors.

Health records of goldens and Labradors examined

Neutering and joint disorders

Neutering and cancers

Neutering in female Labradors increased the cancer incidence rate only slightly.