Pet Sterilization

Why is it Recommended?

By: Michael Lamping, DVM

I recommend that most male cats and dogs be neutered when they are 5-6 months old if there is no serious intention to breed them.  Most cats and dogs enter puberty near 7-9 months of age.  This is when males begin to show interest in females who are “in heat”.  In addition to helping control pet over-population and euthanasia, neutering male pets prevents problem behaviors such as roaming and urine marking.  Because they are not motivated to find “in-heat” females, neutered pets are less likely to escape, roam neighborhoods, or fight, decreasing the chances of bite wounds, heat stroke, being hit by a car, and getting lost.  Of all the dogs and cats admitted to the Dallas Municipal Animal Shelter in between 2005-2007, 93% were unsterilized.

While cats are neutered mostly to reduce the number of unadoptable kittens and to limit their pungent urine spraying, dogs can also receive benefit to their health.  Older male dogs can develop testicular cancers and prostate illness that bring with them surgical and anesthetic concerns.  Therefore, performing the sterilization surgery while young is recommended.  I’ve seen the consequences of not neutering firsthand.  When an 8 year-old Boston terrier with testicular cancer came to me, we had to schedule a short-notice surgery because the cancer had caused a grapefruit-sized prostatic cyst to form in his abdomen.   Similarly, I neutered a 12 year-old golden retriever with bone marrow suppression due to testicular cancer.  Without surgery, he would have died from deficient platelets, a component crucial for blood clotting.   Thankfully, with the aid of a blood transfusion and carbon dioxide laser surgery, he recovered well, as did the Boston terrier, once the suppressive cancer was removed.  If the owners had come in even 1 year earlier, the surgery and anesthesia would have been much less risky and quite a bit less costly as well.  Still, it would have been best to neuter them when they were young because puppies rebound from anesthesia and surgery faster than geriatric dogs.

For these reasons, I recommend juvenile neuter for non-breeding pets at 5-6 months of age and at 5-7 years of age for those beyond their prime breeding age.  Neutering benefits their health by preventing hazardous roaming and by protecting them from common cancers and associated prostatic conditions.  Beyond that, curbing pet over-population is a huge task that requires every pet owner to be responsible.  In Dallas shelters alone, an average of 74 dogs and cats were euthanized every day in 2006-07.  We can all help reduce this tragedy by sterilizing pets when young.