[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by impish

Sorry but not so fast. Please post the article. And yes the statistics at first glance make it seem like it's a no brainer. But there are a lot of other factors to consider. It's really not so cut and dried:


Snipped from here: Benefits and Risks of Neutering, An Evidence Update: Effects of Neutering on Longevity and Cause of Death in Dogs | The SkeptVet Blog
"Several specific infectious diseases occurred with sufficient frequency to be analyzed individually. Sterilized dogs were at lower risk of death due to four of these five disease. However, these results are a bit more problematic than those concerning cancer risk. Unlike most cancers, the parasitic and infectious diseases listed are almost all completely preventable with proper vaccination or other preventative veterinary care. This raises the question of whether differences between sterilized and intact animals in these causes of death may be confounded by differences in the level of care they receive, in the socioeconomic status of their owners, in the time and place in which they lived, and many other variables not specifically addressed in this study.
It is interesting that the same patterns in differences between cause of death in neutered and intact dogs were seen across many different breeds, each with their own specific risk pattern for particular diseases. Cancer, for example, appeared to be a more common cause of death in neutered compared to intact animals even in breeds with relatively low rates of cancer. This strengthens the idea that neutering is directly associated with the risk of such disease and also emphasizes the importance of considering the absolute, rather than relative risk, and the overall risk picture in any individual patient.


In a nutshell - Spayed and Neutered pets are more likely to die from cancer and have many more serious ailments. Intact animals die more from trauma and infection.


Now what are the reasons for this? Could be more dogs that are not fixed are out running free. That doesn't mean if you have a dog inside and cloistered it will be likely to have the same level of risks.


The study isn't definitive. The cases taken from a teaching hospital so not representative of the overall population.


Also please read this:


Health Issues Linked to Spaying and Neutering Dogs


UC Davis is well regarded. It's not as cut and dried as a one line statistic.


Also WHEN you spay and neuter is starting to change. Educate yourself for your sake and your dogs, then make a decision.


If someone tells me my dog is more likely to die of cancer, if I neuter; or die from an infection that I can immunize against, if I don't, I might consider the latter. Just wanting to offer more information for thought.

There are infections that females can get that you can not immunize against as well as the fact that immunization is not 100%. It also seems most of these articles focus on neutering more then spaying. I feel the research shows that spaying and neutering is much better then the research showing the contrary. I also feel for the poor dogs who don't get fixed and have "accidents" happen and have to live through a pregnancy and or die and lose there pups for lack of concern and knowledge from the human. At least half of the dogs that end up in shelters are because of these "accidents" which is causing millions to be killed yearly. The article was from an actual modern dog magazine so I can not post a link because it did not come from online. But it said the study came from Banifield which they also go one to say is the largest vet practice in the US. I highly doubt they would just make up these numbers.