Meet My Puppy Anabelle. Now let’s decide WHEN to spay her.

Wahalo, you guys, and welcome to The Longevity Vet. I'm Dr. Kevin Toman, and this is my little pal Annabelle, and she is the subject for today's YouTube visit. Why? Because I'm trying to figure out when to spay her. Now listen, when I worked for animal shelters back in the day, we used to spay puppies as early as 3 to 4 weeks of age, and the reason we did that is because they'd wake right back up, go back to eating like nothing ever happened. However, over the last decade or so, There's been increasing evidence suggesting that early age spays or neuters leads to a higher incidence of orthopedic issues and sometimes even cancer. And so the latest recommendations for Golden Retrievers were that you not spay them at all, ever, which drives me crazy because not only is that a health risk for them, but also, as I just found out, it's a little bit of a nuisance to have them go through a heat cycle. And so the question around these so-called studies is whether it's the spay themselves that create this issue or whether it's the fact that spays and neuters create a fat dog who then runs into more problems. Listen, I'm going to keep you posted on this. I'm Dr. Kevin Toman. We'll talk to you soon.