To spay or not to spay now given the New Findings

[Rboy]

We have a spay scheduled in 12 days for our sheltie who will be 13 months then. She had her maiden heat in July at 10 months. Initially, her spay had been delayed due to Covid, a juvenile vulva, and a small eruption of demodectic mange which surfaced just after her heat and has since fully resolved.

This is our first female and we are essentially clueless on female sheltie matters. We just saw the recent article and ASSA recommendation to consider a spay delay to 2 years of age due to the 33% increase in UI in their sheltie sample group spayed between 1-2 years. Can anyone provide anymore guidance or clarification on the numbers involved and what could be the factors contributing to this? Is there an expert we can contact directly?

We will bring this new study to our vets attn, however, earlier when asked about UI and growth plate matters, he thought the risk was lower in the former and the latter mostly applied to larger dogs.

Just like the TV show.... we would love to hear "WHAT WOULD YOU DO? We are waffling...and want to make the best call possible...

Additionally, we would really appreciate any/all input from other sheltie parents with their spaying experiences.

if we do go ahead, we have been doing several test runs with the suitical onesie as an alternative to the cone. It has resulted in our sheltie going bonkers... running and pacing, panting excessively, scratching her bed etc. Can anyone suggest other alternatives? We do have the inflatable cone.. (doesn't seem to tolerate this well either) Any other tips, products, reassurances, advice etc would be most appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Piper's mom]

Unfortunately I don't have much insight to add for spaying as I currently have 2 boys however my last female (a Cocker Spaniel) Daisy I didn't spay until she was 7 and I learnt a hard lesson with girls and heats as she developed pyometra and needed emergency surgery. I'm not saying that it'll happen to your girl, just thought I'd mention it. Vets don't know why it occurs or when it might or even if it will, just an added risk the further you wait.

 

[Rboy]

Unfortunately I don't have much insight to add for spaying as I currently have 2 boys however my last female (a Cocker Spaniel) Daisy I didn't spay until she was 7 and I learnt a hard lesson with girls and heats as she developed pyometra and needed emergency surgery. I'm not saying that it'll happen to your girl, just thought I'd mention it. Vets don't know why it occurs or when it might or even if it will, just an added risk the further you wait.

Thank you for sharing what must have been a terrifying experience. That is definitely a risk that will be eliminated if we do proceed with this spay.

 

[Calliesmom]

so my first girl was from a sheltie rescue and came to me spayed.
my second girl- I already had her littermate brother. I got him in Jan as an 8 week old puppy but later that year, needed a buffer dog as I'd lost the older dog who played with the puppy. so I brought her home in October. the breeder and I agreed that she would get her spayed before I picked her up as with 2 intact young dogs, there might have been issues....
so she was about 10-11 months when she was spayed. she is now 10 yrs old and we've had no issues. all the boys were neutered later- 13 months - 2 yrs.

 

[Sharon7]

We have an 8 month old and I brought this study up with my retired vet of 40 years, who is also a friend. He said this study would mean more if it followed the dogs for a lifetime which it doesn't. He said his recommendation remained the same, spay after 1st heat at about 11 - 12 months of age. We've had girls spayed at 6 months (1980's), then at 1.5 years, one at 2 years and one at almost 8 years, none had any problems with UI.

Still waiting for Meadow's first heat, then we will spay her by a year of age.

 

[Hanne]

He said his recommendation remained the same, spay after 1st heat at about 11 - 12 months of age

Rboy - I was so much in doubt whether I should or not
- I probably have the longest about "spray thread" here on SN
- but as I got so much help from everyone that I made the decision.

After much research,
I decided that it should be between 1st and 2nd heat
exactly when Minnie turned 1 year old

 

[Rboy]

Rboy - I was so much in doubt whether I should or not
- I probably have the longest about "spray thread" here on SN
- but as I got so much help from everyone that I made the decision.

After much research,
I decided that it should be between 1st and 2nd heat
exactly when Minnie turned 1 year old

Thanks for sharing... No problems arose then from your spay procedure with Minnie?

I was good with doing this between the 1st and second heat at 13 months of age, until this new study just came out saying that doing a spay between 1 and 2 years of age has a 33% SI rate. I do recognize that studies usually raise more questions than they answer

 

[Piper's mom]

Thanks for sharing... No problems arose then from your spay procedure with Minnie?

I was good with doing this between the 1st and second heat at 13 months of age, until this new study just came out saying that doing a spay between 1 and 2 years of age has a 33% SI rate. I do recognize that studies usually raise more questions than they answer

I can certainly understand your concern. I remember with Piper (he was my first Sheltie puppy) I was not going to neuter him, (my vet believes neutering early increases their cancer risk) and was actually considering having him get a vasectomy however his marking was so incredibly bad that I had him neutered at 2 (vasectomy wouldn't have stopped the marking). I figured that it was better to wait and then neuter than neutering early. Perhaps wait until after her second heat if it bothers you so much...as Ann said she probably wouldn't have another heat for 6-10 months which would make her almost 2 and thus lessen the risk and ease your fears a bit.

 

[Lexi]

The changes I saw after my sheltie was spayed are: more coat, she doesn't want to play with other new dogs anymore. But despite this life is so much more easy with a spayed/neutered dog. My first dog was a male and he got his appointment after lifting the leg on the bedroom door. After that he never did it again and dogs left him in peace. I think they didn't find him as a competition anymore.
This leaves spay incontinence. The only thing that scares me. I hope my dog is fine... only an infection.
Living with neutered and spayed dogs is realy calm and I was thinking that perhaps I should just get males in the future and get them neutered since they don't get incontinence

 

[Hanne]

No problems arose then from your spay procedure with Minnie?

Rboy - Absolutely not

She is happy and playful and kind to all other dogs,
but I think she has more undercoat,
so therefore she needs to be brushed a lot
all summer to remove all the dead undercoat.

Should I get a new female - then I would definitely do it again