Joint Disorder Risks from Early Neuter/Spay in the GSD - Page 1

I saw the following on my veterinarian's Facebook page:

"A new study in the journal Veterinary Medicine and Science finds that neutering or spaying German Shepherd dogs before 1 year of age triples the risk of one or more joint disorders — particularly for cranial cruciate ligament, or CCL, tears."

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/early-neutering-poses-health-risks-german-shepherd-dogs-study-finds
 

This has been known for years just they have tried to keep the information quiet. The Humane Soc. wants everyone to believe that spay and neutering is safe and that it can be done at or before 4 months as they do and encourage everyone else to do.

Is the entire study available somewhere?

Gunther, you are lucky to have a vet who is more willing to educate his clients rather than buying a new car.

 

Bavarian Wagon, the complete study is available in a link in the article linked by Gunther.

Muscles, ligaments, and tendons are influenced by both male and female hormones. Better to wait until 18 months to two years for a GSD male or female. Exercise and hormone levels influence bone density, bone strength, and bone development.

A discussion of why spay and neuter can cause health problems

https://youtu.be/enPCZA1WFKY

I know its probably the only way to do a study...but the sample sizes are way too small to be statistically significant. Historically over the past decade or so, we've had 40,000 GSD registrations through the AKC...and that's just AKC. Many more can't be registered and some just never get registered. So assuming more than half a million GSDs were born over that 14 year period, this study's sample size cannot be statistically significant because it doesn't eliminate or smooth out any outliers that just happen to occur within such a small sample size.

I also don't know if the breakdown of dogs in the sample is in proportion to the population. Highly unlikely as that is very hard to figure out.

There is plenty of huge amount of scientific evidence that spay neuter before sexual maturity for the breed or dog increases health problems including HD and a host of others later in life.  Spay neuter is like corn in a bag dog food .. it is quick, cheap and easy for the humans and catastrophic for the dogs.  The mantra should be do what is best for the dog not what is easiest and cheapest for humans.  The correct solution would be sterilization that leaves the hormone producing sexual organs intact but prevents pregnancies while maintaining the dog's health with normal sexual hormones.  If the present programs of spay neuter were changed to sterilization the public and the dogs would be better served.  The spay neuter problem is totally a political problem created by vet schools teaching a one solution answer to birth control in pets ( spay neuter ) as well as politicians and spay neuter advocates not knowing the science behind their political decisions.

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/spay-neuter-and-joint-disease/

https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/130401s.aspx

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055937

Put another way .. incorrectly telling responsible dog owners that spay neuter is the holy grail is a lie and does nothing to address the real problem which is irresponsible dog owners.  The political decision to promote spay neuter has been preaching to the choir of responsible pet owners and does not address the real problem of irresponsible pet owners who are unlikely to do what is best for their dog(s) irregardless of cost or convenience.  Current spay neuter programs sacrifice the health and life of pets to address the stupidity and irresponsible behavior of humans.  Sterilization programs would accomplish the same imperfect solution but would spare the innocent animals much pain and suffering.