Effects of Early Neutering

[Jan]

This is another interesting article on the Effects of Early Neutering.

PLOS ONE: Neutering Dogs: Effects on Joint Disorders and Cancers in Golden Retrievers

 

[whiskers]

Thanks for sharing!

I wish we gave this sort of information to new puppy owners, instead of just telling them the blanket statement of "they should be spayed/neutered at 6 months old." I can agree that most owners are probably better off just getting it done at that age, but it would be nice if people could be given more information on the subject so that they can make their own decisions, instead of believing that the ONLY option is to have it done when they're still puppies.

But heck, even the other techs I work with balk and roll their eyes when an adult dog comes in to be spayed/neutered, like "OMG these people are out of control for not having it done when they were 6 months old."

Clearly, this is a hot button issue for me.

 

[DiverDiva]

The study is indeed very interesting, but I would like to know if the diets of the dogs were comparable. There is no way to know, based on the paper, but if the subjects were matched with respect to other characteristics, I would expect that to be stated in the abstract. I am guessing that the subjects were not matched in other aspects.

I can envision that more of the intact dogs that are involved in showing and breeding are less likely to be fed a low quality kibble and less likely to be given low quality treats with possibly carcinogenic preservatives such as BHA/BHT.

I seems to me that the difference between the dogs of the early alter/ late alter / intact trait might not be the only difference. This is frequently a difficulty with statistics.

Disclaimer: When in college, I wrote a class paper titled, "How to Lie with Computerized Statistics", inspired by the book, "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff.