Video by Dr. Lera Clone discussing considerations and timing for neutering/spaying dogs. Dr. Lera advises waiting until at least ~13 months for most pets, especially noting that exposure to sex hormones during the first year may protect joints in large-breed dogs; she recommends individualized evaluation and notes historical reasons for early widespread neutering (overpopulation in 1980s–90s).
Hey guys, my name is Dr. Lehrer here today with Archie. Archie is a six month old little Havanese and he's here today because mom and dad were wondering if he had some enlarged testicles. And so one of the things that we did really primarily is they have his sibling and his testicles seem to be larger than his siblings. And during the exam, really the primary things that we look for is to make sure that the testicles feel normal. Obviously, you know, some dogs may have larger testicles or smaller testicles or whatever and every patient is different. And so what we have to do is we just go ahead and also ask how are they acting? Otherwise mom and dad said they wouldn't know anything was different. And honestly, if they didn't have his brother, they wouldn't even have noticed. Now that brings us to the next topic, which is whether or not to spay or neuter. And so in this particular situation, what I was telling mom and dad was that I don't really think, you know, they were asking when to neuter him. And I typically said if people are planning on spaying or neutering their pets, usually to wait till at least 13 months of age. The reason or the thought process behind that is in larger breed dogs they have shown that there are joint and ligament protective effects if the dogs have have exposure to those hormones during the first year of their life. That being said, it is recommended that what I would say is you evaluate each patient on an individual basis. The reason we really pushed spaying and neutering pets back in the early 80s and 90s was because people were being so irresponsible with their pets where they were letting them roam the streets, going ahead and impregnating other animals or getting pregnant. And, and then all these animals didn't really have homes. And so we as a veterinary industry were having to euthanize millions of animals a year. Nowadays, people are being much more responsible and we're realizing that if we remove these ovaries or if we remove these testicles, there is a greater possibility that there may be some side effects. And so now it's not necessarily going to be black and white, neuter or not neuter. Now it's going to be if we neuter them at a certain age, what problems are they going to be more prone to? The data right now for the smaller breed dogs is not really as prominent as it is for the larger breed dogs. We have a lot more data on golden retrievers, German shepherds, Rottweilers and Labradors. And so watch out for some more data to come out, probably within the next six to 12 months. If you guys have any questions about this particular topic, go ahead and leave it in the comments. Otherwise, give us a thumbs up. Subscribe and share. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
