Spaying before or after first heat?
 

I am reading some varying opinions when I google. Is it best to spay before or after a yorkie's first heat?

I've always heard it's best to do it before. That's the route I'll be taking with mine.

Before, but not too young so that all their baby teeth are out, otherwise they need to be extracted at time of spay/neuter. It gets costly.

I had Allie's appointment all set and I took her in for her pre-op blood work end she was in very early heat stage. My vet would not perform the procedure at that time. He said there are added risks so I had to wait. I was not a happy camper, but I felt it best to follow his opinion. She had to wear a diaper and she was still being potty trained...I hated that experience. Full blown heat cycle right thru the Christmas holidays.

My vet just told me to do it before, he said there's no benefit from waiting. If all goes according to plan I want to do it in the beginning of November, Lola will be 8 months old.

Bella is 9 months and I'm getting hers done on the 30 th. Hope she doesn't go into heat before then.

Before it knocks out there chances of getting certain cancers and lowers there risks of a lot of other things. I would not do it before 6 months and I would get all baby teeth pulled at the same time.

My Bella was done before her first heat....

Baby teeth pulled?

We just had our's spayed. The vet told us that if done before first heat, there is almost zero percent chance for getting breast tumors. If after first heat, the odds rise to 20 - 30% chance. Within one day after the procedure, she was back to her devilish self.

Before.

Before
 

My vet said before the first heat to reduce chance of breast cancer. She has two baby teeth to be removed also.
Sophie will be almost 8 months.

I had Tinks done at 7 months before her 1rst heat. I had her chipped at the same time.

Zoey was 9 mos when she was spayed. We visited the dog park everyday and I checked her vulva every time to make sure she was not coming into heat and have an accident with a male at the park. She also had baby teeth removed.

I personally would wait for the growth plates to close before spaying a little one.

http://www.caninesports.com/uploads/...tions_2013.pdf

http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongT...uterInDogs.pdf

Yorkies are known not to lose all there baby teeth on there own. Callie had doubles of some teeth because the baby ones just did not come out so they where pulled when she was spayed. Not having them pulled can cause food to get stuck between the teeth and then rott. It also will mess up the alignment of the mouth and teeth.

Lola needs at least 5 baby teeth pulled.

About how old are yorkies when their growth plates close?

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

Here is a link to this topic, where-in you can find further links to studies and articles.

Growth plates can close anywhere from 7 mths on up for the toy breeds. There is no guess work. Take a lateral Xray view of the tibia, as the tibial plate is the last growth plate to close.

There is much research in recent years that challenges the assumptions of spaying/neutering at 6mths old. It is all there in the articles linked; as well there are at least 9 studies currently on-going on this topic with publication dates out in he next year or two.

I share what I take right now believe to be the best practices on this question. For females allow maturation to take place, which usually means one heat for the toy breeds, and more heats for the large breeds. For males, there is no clear benefit health wise for neutering at any age, for a normal male. A case is justified if the male does not have two descended testicles.

You as the guardian and health care advocate for your dog, need to understand the ramifications, and to weigh other considerations in your decision; a very very important one, is to not breed and make sure breeding can't happen if you elect to keep your dog(s) intact. That means you need to educate yourself on how best to do this.

One day I would hope general vets will keep up on the current research and begin to advise the clients accordingly.

I was hoping you'd post. I just found one of your posts that I think really explains why closure of the growth plates is so important.

Post 14
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...ot-neuter.html

I recently read an article that compared US dogs to European, and how the cancer rate and other problems is so much higher in dogs in the US than in Europe, where most dogs are left intact. It seems spaying/neutering at an early age decreases the risk of some cancers, but increases the risk in others. Here's a link to an article similar to the one I mentioned. Spayed or Neutered Dogs Have Higher Disease Rates

Gah. Ok so I'm back to square one!
Gemy- thanks for the links. I will read through them!

Thanks for that information. I have been wondering about this.