What age is best to spay?

Zeita is now 8 months old , she has not yet come into season and not showing any signs of one coming soon either. I do not intend to breed from her and want to get her spayed. Now I have been told different times as when is best to spay her.

One said at 6 months before her first season

Another said under no circumstances spay her till 18months

Another said app 3 months after her first season....

What guidelines do you advise?

Melx

Our vet recommends before the first season from 5 months onwards.

Given that she's 8 months now and could come into season at any time I would wait till she has had her first season and then a further 3 months to allow all the blood vessels etc in the uterus to contract down as it makes for a much safer operation.

My own particular preference in any event is that if i am spaying or castrating a dog i would want them to be physically mature, if not mentally as well - so probably not before 18 months.

I agree with KateM. I like to wait till my animals are at least a year old before neutering them.

I had both my girls done at 6 months both lovely natured, well grown girls.

My dogs have come from rescues and they wont spey until they have had their first season and then its 3 months after that.

When she is fully mature, depends on the breed.

Fudgely i would love Tonks to be done before her first season but can't find a vet to do it.

In America in resuce centres they are now doing it as young as five weeks.

Aparantly (from the horses/vets mouth) the reason they like to do it before the first season because the tubes- technical term - are very small and it makes the operation more fiddely so mistakes can happen more easily resulting in incontinence if the nerves their are damaged.

I read a paper on this a while ago. Here's the abstract:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...bmed_RVLinkOut

Thats very interesting thank you - still can't find a vet to do it though and Tonks is 5 months.


That's what i like about this site people are actually interested in reading about things rather than just sticking to the old point of view because that's what has always been done.

One vetnurse/receptionist waffled on and on when i asked the reasons for not spaying before the first season. I don't know why i asked really because i know the real reasons.
Her answers were about bone growth and the long bones wouldn't develop because of lack of hormones so it should be done at a year old, but when i asked when males dogs could be done, she said "oh we can do them much younger". She sounded really pleased until i said " so male dog's bones are effective by the change in hormone levels? "

She mumbled and faffed then - ....i know i'm, mean but wanted to know if they could give me a real honnest reason why they wouldn't do it!