I'm in the midst of a palm-smacking-the-forehead moment of enlightenment. After two decades of blithely altering my companion animals with the theory that it's "good for them," I am questioning this practice, and with good reason.
Over the past few decades, the call to spay and neuter dogs and cats has become an imperative. Sanctioned by licensing agencies, approved by veterinarians, sanctified by humane organizations, and honored by trainers and behaviorists as the way to achieve a happy, well-adjusted pet, any owner choosing to keep a pet intact can be met with fines, lectures, blame, even outrage. Humans have decided nature made a great mistake creating animals with the ability to procreate, and we – in our infinite wisdom – have "fixed" it.
The paradigm of early spay and neuter is deep and wide. Imagine not altering your next dog and think of it as a good thing, and you'll see what I mean. You'll risk downright vilification from some quarters (until very recently me included) but let's look at the scientific evidence. (This is sounding eerily familiar to me, like the war on cancer, see Paradigm).
Dogs who are spayed and neutered before reaching maturity have a doubled risk of osteosarcoma, a common bone cancer with a poor prognosis. They have a two-and-a-half to five times higher risk of hemangiosarcoma, another common deadly malignancy. Altered dogs have increased rates of hypothyroidism, obesity, diabetes, urinary incontinence, and chronic urinary tract infections. In return, they are protected from the relatively small incidence of reproductive tumors, since these organs are removed.
Altering dogs during their growth phase, up to twenty-four months for some breeds, can have a profound effect on bones and joints. Bones normally close their growth plates at different times, allowing each bone to grow just the amount of time it needs for a perfectly proportioned animal. Spaying and neutering sends a hormonal message saying "this dog is still a pup – keep growing." At the time that message comes, the bones with closed growth plates can't grow any more, but the others now delay closing and continue to grow out of proportion, resulting in untenable stresses on cartilage and tendons. Lower leg bones (tibia) often outgrow upper leg bones (femurs) causing a too steep angle at the knee and resulting in an eventual tear of the cruciate ligament. The hip bone and the thigh bone often become disproportionate. Studies show that altered dogs are twice as likely to experience ruptured cruciate ligaments, and seven times more likely to develop age adjusted hip dysplasia. Both of these conditions cause pain and disability for the animals and cost thousands of dollars for their people to treat.
Nicholai was neutered when he was six months old. As he continued to grow, we noticed his back legs becoming lanky and his back end shot up higher than the front. By middle age, Nicholai had torn the cruciate ligaments in both knees, and evaluation showed that the angles of his knee joints were incorrect. Nicholai underwent surgery on both of his knees to rectify the instability caused by the torn ligaments.
When we adopted Izzy, we of course had her spayed right away. Indoctrinated in the compassionate thinking of humane organizations toward reduction of unwanted pets, we never gave a thought to the health repercussions of spaying and neutering a dog before it went through puberty and became an adult naturally. Meanwhile, I saw more and more dogs in my work with knee problems and soon, Izzy too came up with a torn ligament in her knee.
When Kelley was abandoned in a park, and I picked her up, she hadn't been spayed. Today, she has come into her first season, my first dog to be allowed this gift and blessing of nature. We're being careful about keeping her on leash, keeping her home from doggie daycare, cleaning up drops of blood that escape her flowered panty. I am hopeful that she will grow the way nature intended her to, strong and beautiful, powerful and fully female. When she is an adult, not a mere teen, when her skeleton has reached maturity, and her body has gone through the cycles nature meant it to have, we'll get her spayed.
It has become clear to me while studying human nutrition over the past two decades, that every time we humans decide to improve on nature (isolating one vitamin – oops it needs cofactors; eliminating saturated fats – oops, polyunsaturated fats increase cancer) we find that nature had it right all along. Perhaps this is one more instance where humans playing god just doesn't work out.
More on this later, meanwhile, I invite your comments and input.
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