# Early neutering and cancer



## nofate (Jan 27, 2012)

I read an interesting article in the Toronto Star today that indicates golden retrievers that get neutered before one year are more suseptible to cancer.

Don’t want your golden retriever to get cancer? Don’t neuter it | Toronto Star


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## Allie (Nov 30, 2008)

Interesting - I'm supposed to get my pup, Bailey spayed on the 22APR when she is 6 1/2 months old. 
I wonder if difficulties with the spay surgery after 1 year are taken into account?


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

Allie said:


> Interesting - I'm supposed to get my pup, Bailey spayed on the 22APR when she is 6 1/2 months old.
> I wonder if difficulties with the spay surgery after 1 year are taken into account?


Since I breed, all of my girls are spayed (if they are spayed) after 6 or 7 years of age and I have never had an issue with them. Especially now with the different options available for spaying. The uterus is larger, and there is more blood suppy to it, so the vet must be careful to tie everything off, but that is about it. If you do the ovary only spay, the uterus doesn't even figure into the equation.

I think this article by Rhonda Hovan, breeder/judge/GRCA health liason, is a great breakdown for Goldens:

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/2...her_and_when_to_neuter_a_golden_retreiver.pdf

It is interesting to me to see that more and more breeders are advocating waiting till after one heat cycle before spaying. That is my preference too but it can be hard for pet people, especially those with small children, to go through a messy heat cycle and all it entails.


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## JeffP (Jun 30, 2011)

Kirby's breeder forwarded that to me and it convinced us to leave him intact. He doesn't mark indoors and has no behavioral problems that neutering "might" solve, so in our view the positives outweigh the negatives for not neutering.


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## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Molly was spayed at 13 months. Her breeder preferred that I wait a cycle, so I did. I would do it all over again. The decision is a bit more complicated for females, but I felt that the benefits outweighed the risks.

The procedure itself may have cost more because Molly was an adult and full grown (more anesthesia) but she bounced back the next day and the recovery process was not any longer than usual. 


Sent from Petguide.com App


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

This is the actual study PLOS ONE: Neutering Dogs: Effects on Joint Disorders and Cancers in Golden Retrievers

It is Golden Retreiver specific, and does not claim to have results applicable to other breeds. There has also been a study involving Rottweilers. Some of the people they chose to interview in the article who spoke against the findings also have biases that were not acknowledged! I think that in a breed where the predominant cause of death is cancer, the findings of the study are significant. (Of the seven Goldens I have owned, two have now passed, both of whom were neutered, and both of whom died of hemangiosarcoma...)


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## Kalani (Feb 4, 2013)

Our previous two goldens died of hemangiosarcoma. We learned from a couple of breeders that English goldens are less susceptible to cancer than American goldens. They thought the English goldens had a larger gene pool than American goldens; i.e. that American goldens were more inbred and propagated a genetic predisposition for cancer. So, we now have a nine-week old female English golden.
The breeder we got the puppy from pointed us to the article by Torres de la Riva, et al. The authors note in the introduction that in America dogs are generally neutered early whereas in Europe neutering is generally avoided. The authors do not address the question of whether the increased rate of cancers in American goldens is due to genetics or neutering, nor do they separate their sample population into American and English. Their study does have the benefit of analyzing real data even though they do not discuss the details of cause and effect. They analyze for hip dysplasia, cranial cruciate ligament tear, lymphosarcoma, hemangiosarcome and mast cell tumor and they separate each into intact, early (younger than one year) neutering, and late neutering. They conclude that for females early neutering increases the rate of CCL and LSA and late neutering increases HSA and MSA. Unfortunately, they do not discuss the tradeoffs between early and late neutering, saying only that the timing of neutering for females is problematic.
The article by Hovan appears to have synthesized a number of articles and says there is “good evidence” that females should be neutered after the first heat cycle and before the second. It is difficult to tell which, if any, of the referenced articles provides this “good evidence” or how she balances the tradeoffs in the Torres de la Rive et al. analysis. 
Are there any other scientific studies that would help?


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## Wyatt's mommy (Feb 25, 2011)

My Cody was neutered after the age of 2 and he died of cancer. Wyatt was neutered at 7 months so time will tell.


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