Spaying a 10 year old dog?

So, as many people know I have Jade now. A 9 1/2 - 10 year old female GSD dog cross. She's an indoor dog now, so she uses the bathroom all over the front yard now, instead of in a smaller space in the backyard. This is attracting DOGS.

The other day a dog walked up on us and I had to hit it trying to avoid a fight.. I posted here about that a while ago. I saw TWO more dogs here this morning. I used to see a few dogs here... but not this many! When I had Brownie.. maybe the smell of his pee warded off a few.. I have no idea.

Either way.. this is getting irritating! Also, she's been humping things occasionally. She's learning to stop as humping is not tolerated, but still. I think if I spay Jade, less dogs will come around. It worked wonders with tomcats coming around when we spayed our cat. The cat was 7 years old when she was spayed as well.

Anyway, my real questions are... Is is smart to spay a dog this old? Do you really think it will do anything? There's no chance of her breeding as she's not allowed off lead outside so I'm always right there, it's only so the dogs might not swarm our house. I've been reading up and I'm getting answers both ways. Thanks for any input!

I understand that it cuts down the risk from tumours and pylometria (sp?) to have the dog spayed. Both of which affected my GSD when she was around 10 yrs old. I wish I'd known this back then - she was never spayed although I didn't intend breeding her. So I didn't deem it necessary but I'd have done it for the health reasons had I known.

I'm no expert though. Others will be along or you could check with one of the vets online sites?

I had my two girls spayed last year, Fiji was 8 1/5yrs and Kia was 6 years, they have had no adverse reactions and recovered quickly.

If Jade is 100% healthy she should be ok. I lost an afghan to pyo and had another spayed because she kept getting mammary tumours.

Jade does have one mammary tumor. She's had it for years, but it doesn't affect her health or anything. She's a healthy dog though. I guess I'll speak to my mother and vet and see what they think.

I don't like speaking to vets about things because sometimes they aren't looking out for your dogs best interests. I've kinda grown not to trust many vets, even my own vet.. who gave my cat a shot for worms when even he confirmed she had no worms...

I would not do it at this age. I think she's getting on a bit to be coping with this

I adopted my last dog at ten years old and he had only just been done, and coped with it fine. I know it's a bigger op for bitches though.

It is a fairly big op for any bitch, so for an older dog it is obviously a bit more of a risk.

Spaying does of course remove the risk of pyometra and also some tumours, but as she has reached a good age without any problems and is healthy then I myself would be reluctant to put her through a big operation which may or may not stop the extra dogs paying your yard a visit.

I cannot think of anything else that you could try first though, unless there is something that you can put down to mask her smell.

I would spey,its cheaper and safer to spey whilst healthy then wait intil she has a pyo and needs emergency surgery also i would have her chest x-rayed to check the mammory tumours havent spread cos most end up spreading into the chest,just had a similar case with a 10year old un-neutered bitch with mammory tumours ,as far as the owners were aware she was healthy until she started struggling to breath one nite.