I was gonna start a thread like this too for the same reason and to address some concerns I've heard about females being incontent after being spayed early..We have vet at my clinic that has participated in a study to see if in fact there are risks or reprocussions to earl s/n. Her findings are the same as described in these links. The risk is low blood sugar from fasting. It's suggested to supplement the smaller puppies with nutrical during the fast to mainian the glucose levels. The surgery is the same no matter the age or size. Your vet needs to have the best anesthetic (SEVO) and be skilled in doing puppies especially toy breeds. Fasting is done differently No more than 6-7 hrs in puppies and kittens. And there is no proof that early spaying causes health problems, perosnality probelms or incontentence. Positive findings are pups recover quicker.
My vet prefers to spay females that are more than 2 pounds age is not the driver. What I produce is around that size at 12-14 wks. Read the studies done by other vets with the same findings. As a breeder who incorporates this, it gives me comfort to know these studies have been done. Not only on puppies but kittens too.
http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/ope/ivb/spay-neu.htm http://www.canismajor.com/dog/earlysn.html http://www.danesonline.com/earlyspayneuter.htm
This site said it all for me..these are experience shared by other breeders proving rumors of incontinece to be untrue. Surgery is a risk period. Age or size doesn't make it any more of a risk from what I've been told by my vet or from what I've read.
http://regaliapyrs.tripod.com/early_spay_neuter.htm
My vet by the way has done a spay on a 1.5 pound female Chi and it was succesful, that's the smallest she's spayed thus far..yet again, she recommends them to be 2 pounds at least.
By the way, I did do a search for complimations and all i found were assumptions..nothing proven by studies ..just occasional bad experiences..
Good thread Kim!