[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by pstinard

We had our Bella spayed at 7 months, before her first heat. Spaying before first heat lowers the chances of mammary cancer and pyometra.

Problems caused by early spaying is more of an issue with larger dogs than with smaller dogs. Research is being conducted on this at the UC Davis Veterinary College.

Here is a long thread from Yorkietalk that goes over the pros and cons. The most recent information is towards the end of this thread:

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...n-if-ever.html

From this link:


https://www.acvs.org/small-animal/mammary-tumors



"Mammary tumors are more common in female dogs that are either not spayed or were spayed after 2 years of age. The risk of a dog developing a mammary tumor is 0.5% if spayed before their first heat (approximately 6 months of age), 8% after their first heat, and 26% after their second heat. "