Quote:
Originally Posted by Lovetodream88  I know that 4 years ago when Callie went to the orthopedic surgeon and he said her ACL was tearing and the cause was her LP and that he never asked what age she was spayed and he prides himself on keeping up with the research. When we went back this time and were trying to figure out the best time to do the surgery and again he said the LP could cause the ACL to tear. Never once did he suggest the age she was spayed had anything to do with the ACL and tearing. I am so much more likely to trust my specialist then parts of a study we don't know the info on the dogs from. I feel if there was research that was important my specialist would have read it and told us early spaying was the reason. Callie came from a puppy mill there is no doubt in my mind her poor genetics are what caused her to have LP and the LP led to the tearing of the ACL not because she was spayed before a year. |
The reason your vet wouldn't mention it is because cause and effect has not been proven. I cited two studies, one of which had 46% small breed dogs, and the second of which was all small breed dogs, with Yorkshire Terriers heavily represented. The association between spaying and MPL/CCL problems was
small, but statistically significant. Cause and effect was not implied at all, and one of the possible reasons given for the association is that spayed dogs might (in general) receive better veterinary care, resulting in the the diagnosis of MPL/CCL issues that would otherwise go undiagnosed in unspayed animals receiving less frequent veterinary care. Direct cause and effect have not been proven, and that is why no specialist would mention it at all, unless they were actively involved in this type of research and collecting data for their studies.