Hi guys - I’m after a bit of advice. My lab puppy is 5 months old and is booked in to be neutered next week. The advice from our vet was that the right age to neuter is at 5/6 months. But I’m now reading different advice online and being given conflicting views. Am I wrong to continue and go ahead with getting her neutered next week? We just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing for her!
Advice varies depending on where you live. In the UK our vets advice is 3 months after the first season. About 18 months or so. I have done that with 3 bitches with no problems. You will get lots of opinions on this.
Hi Edp - thanks for your reply. We are in the UK too. It’s just so hard to know what the right thing to do is when there’s so many different opinions and conflicting advice! My gut is telling me to wait but I am also very conscious of the increasing number of dog thefts at the moment, and having her done sooner rather than later will make her a less desirable dog to steal. I wish that wasn’t something I had to consider - but hard to ignore at the moment!
I don’t think dog thieves are always that planned as it is hard to tell if a dog is neutered or not, just by looking that them. I would do what you think is best for her, and be super vigilant.
Hi Edp in Australia a tattoo is placed on the inner part of the spayed bitch's ear. Easy to tell here whether a dog is desexed, assuming the dog will allow a stranger to lift a non-pricked ear. Am I correct in assuming that such tattoos are not used in the U.K?
Our vet in the UK will not spay our bitch until 3 months after her first season has finished so we have to wait. Having your puppy spayed will not have any impact on whether your dog is stolen or not. Apparently, puppy/dog thieves are not always looking for bitches to breed and will often steal puppies and older dogs to order.
Not providing an opinion just what we've done. I'm in NY and our vet recommended 5-6 months. We recently had our girl neutered at 5.5 months. Our last female lab was neutered at 6 months and our male lab before that at 6 months. Both prior dogs lived until 13 years old. I have read of some additional height growth in early female neutering but I never saw that with our last girl. I hope this helps.
We are in the US and waited until Cooper was over a year, and after her first heat. With our 2nd Lab Tilly I think we waited until 9 months, but now I would have waited longer.
Hi we live in Canada and our breeder recommended we wait until our girl had her first heat, which ended up being at almost 22 months old. Our vet wanted us to do it earlier but we took our breeder's advice and waited.
