What are the benefits and risks of spaying my female Golden Retriever?

Hi there and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Typically, spay surgery is recommended around 6 months of age but current research has shown it is a little better to wait until 9 months to a year of age especially for large breed dogs to avoid certain orthopedic problems. I hope this helps!

Thank you for contacting PetCoach with your question about Lav. I've heard many owners quote the UC Davis study, and there are a number of things wrong with the study. Check out this article on it: https://humanepro.org/magazine/articles/deconstructing-spayneuter-debate Not spaying her can cause a pseudopregnancy reoccurrence, but it doesn't increase her risk of mammary tumors. That's already going to be 25% because she's had more than two heats. Keep in mind, 50% of mammary tumors in dogs are malignant. She is eight years old, so she is already at a higher risk of developing cancer simply because she is an older dog. She is also at risk of a pyometra, which is an infection of the uterus that is fatal without treatment. The treatment for a pyometra is spaying the dog, which is an emergency during a pyometra and can cost many thousands of dollars. In all honesty, it's best to spay her. It will keep her from developing a pyometra as well as a pseudopregnancy, and it will keep her from getting pregnant if she accidentally mates. Dogs over the age of six should never have puppies. In my opinion, it's best for her to health to get spayed asap. I hope this helps!

Not really, at least not a proven benefit. some believe that it can prevent incontinence in the future which is more common in spayed females in general but this has not been proven. at out surgery we usually recommend having a female dog spayed at the age of 6 months, before her first season.

Yes, absolutely it is worth getting Banba spayed! It has many health benefits including eliminating the risk of a pyoemetra (a life threatening infection of the uterus) and a significant reduction in the chance of mammary tumors if you get her spayed before her next heat. If she has gone into heat once, her chance of developing mammary tumors will be 8% versus 25% if you spay her after her second or any subsequent heat. There will also be behavioral benefits as well. I highly recommend getting her spayed!

There is some evidence that waiting until an adult has reached skeletal maturity, which for a female dog occurs around the same time as the first heat cycle, is beneficial for bone and joint development and could decrease the risk for orthopedic disease in the future. This is relatively new research however, and if you have reasons to want to schedule the surgery now it should be fine too - many shelter animals are spayed when they are 8 weeks old prior to adoption.

Hi there. You're right that the question of when to spay a large breed dog isn't as simple as we might like! It sounds like you've done some research on the pros and cons of spaying at different ages, which is great. In general, for my large breed patients, I recommend spaying at around 10-12 months of age (as long as the owner doesn't mind dealing with a heat cycle, since most dogs will go into heat for the first time prior to this). This still gives us an extremely low risk of mammary cancer, but also minimizes the risk of orthopedic issues since she should be finished growing by then.

There is absolutely no reason not to spay your pet, unless of course you are purposefully wanting to breed Bella. Spaying pets early (before their 1st heat cycle), reduces the chance of mammary cancer to less than 3%, which is a huge deal. There is no decrease seen after the 3rd heat cycle. However spaying Bella will still prevent her from ever having a spontaneous infected uterus or Pyometra event int he future. Which is an emergency situation that would require immediate surgery if Bella ever developed this. And considering that a Pyometra event is much more common in small breed dogs like the Maltese, this is reason enough to highly consider spaying her.