Female in house during heat - Page 6

Yes, it was mammary cancer and as they say, the chance to get it would have been lessened, if she were spayed at a very young age.  But then again, IMHO, she would have been less than what she was, if some of her key organs were removed via spaying.  In addition to that, when one lessens one situation (like say mammary cancer, or pyometra) via spaying, it increases the chances of other situations like bone cancer, hyperthyroidism, urinary tract tumors, obesity and several other situations.

I personally did not want (and do not want even now) any kind of alterations in my dog, without an imminent health problem that absolutely requires the action, and hence did not do the spaying and will not spay or neuter my dogs in the future too. 

The below article throws some light on the pros/cons of spay/neuter, even though the vets will typically only tell you about the pros:

http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongTermHealthEffectsOfSpayNeuterInDogs.pdf

I guess if one has never had a dog with pyo and/or has never been exposed to pyo surgery, spaying older bitches wouldn't be a big deal. However, that if it happens, there may not be so many objections to spaying a mature female after that. All any of us can do is learn from our own experiences. I've owned and provided long term boarding for a lot of dogs in 54 years, maybe 60, 70, about half were females.  Of those 30 some females, 2 older females died from complications of pyo surgery, one before she could have the surgery, one developed pyo on her 2nd season, was successfully treated and went on the whelp a healthy litter. She was spayed about 2 years later at the suggestion of the vet. One female was already spayed when I got her, she had pyo at 9 years of age. That closely matches the statistics stated in the article aakay linked above.I didn't suggest neutering for males unless they had a retained testicle.

When I sold pet females, I always asked that they were spayed before their first season to prevent breast cancer and accidental matings. I guess I bred maybe 10 pet females that were spayed young, I never heard of any that died young or that suffered from any lifethreatening illness that is now attributed to early neutering. They may have grown taller than expected, but I felt that was a small price to pay to prevent breast cancer. Never bred or owned a dog with osteosarcoma. Rescues could probably offer better stats on early neutering since most routinely neuter young dogs (of both sexes) before they are placed.  

Be careful of putting too much faith in most of the stats on osteosarcoma since most dogs studied are from breeds that are already at high risk regardless of if or when they are neutered.  We had a family of IWH's where few made it past 5 years of age without developing bone cancer and most of them were intact.. It's common in certain breeds and certain families of certain breeds and those breeds probably should be excluded from studies on the results of early neutering - IWH's, Dobes, Labs, Rotties to name 4.

I know a lot of longtime dog breeders with different breeds and with very few exceptions, sooner or later all have ended up with a bitch that pyo'd. 

Well, most of the time people are more concerned with what they have experienced previously - that doesn't mean that other people's concerns are somehow less valid. I personally would hesitate to spay/neuter for a variety of reasons, but for me personally the possible increased risk of hemangiosarcoma for altered males and females is cause for alarm, especially in a breed known to have higher rates of hemangiosarcoma.

Also...anecdotally...my parents' spayed cat died from what the vet called 'stump pyometra'.

Stump pyo is the result of the vet's not performing the surgery correctly.

A concern about hemangiosarcoma is certainly valid in this breed. If one of my spayed bitches developed it, I would probably reconsider spaying another until I felt I had all breed stats of both at hand.

Yes, I realize that about the stump pyo, but there is just no way for the average person to know if it is done correctly or not. I just hate for people to think that a spay procedure will eliminate pyo, and then miss the signs of pyo if the spay was done incorrectly. There's just a lot for a person to weigh in the decision to alter. I mostly just hope people actually think about it, rather than decide yes/no based on either the vet or a forum saying they absolutely should or shouldn't.

Mollyandjack,
two thumbs up.

I find a female in heat (with panties - twice a year for 3 weeks each) a lot less annoying than a hypersexed male humping my furniture (and guests) many times a year....
During her heat she has about twice the energy in training than usual.
You should never leave a female in heat unattended in your yard.
If you have her in an outside kennel, make sure that no smaller dogs can squeeze underneath the kennel door. We once found the neighbours poodle in our female's kennel ....luckily we got there fast enough...

I was wondering Blitzen, is it more to do with the lines you have chosen?

I have a female I spayed at about 4 after 2 litters and at 10  the vet thought she had it, but it turned out to be a cyst.
I was pleased. Though what you say about going through it so many time, is it the lines?