# neuter at 6 months.... stunts growth??



## sb_nati (Jan 18, 2009)

Fellow pitty lovers.. this is my first post and i was looking for some experienced opinions on my situation. A couple days ago i took my girl, mya ( 1.5 ) years old to get spayed... her newly adopted brother zeus (6 months) was unfortunate enough to be in the car at the time. When talking to my vet about the new pup, trying to retrieve any vaccination records etc., he told me that he had a somewhat open day and offered to vaccinate/neuter zeus at the same. Although I didnt have my previous male (R.I.P.) fixed... i've been extremely frustrated with the over population, unwanted pit/pit mixes etc., and decided i wanted to take no chance at contributing to even more pittys that would either fall into bad hands (hurting the breeds reputation) or end up in the pound .

ANYWAYS.. my QUESTION is this... do you feel that by neutering him at six months i have potentially stunted his growth? I love him all the same either way, but I've tried to do some research and keep getting mixed answers, and all sources online cant be trusted. does anyone have any first hand experience with this?? thoughts, comments?


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## wheezie (Aug 4, 2006)

good question bro, i ws wondering the same thing, i have asked this question and have gotten mixed answers as well. have there been any scientific studys on the subject?


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## PeanutsMommy (Sep 21, 2008)

I think that you will continue to get mixed responses on this because I think personal opinion on spay and neuter will cloud scientific studies.


Really IMO if you are responsible enough to keep your intact animal away from other intact animals so that there are no accidents. Then you can wait til any age to spay/neuter. I really dont feel that there is an age to spay/neuter by. 
however, I highly disagree with doing it before 4 months old because we had one dog done at 4 months and she started to leak pee around 1 year old took her to the vet and they said it was early spay incontinence due to the fact she did not get all her hormones that control the "pee sphinter" (I couldn't remember the scientifical term for that body part) now every 6 months or so she just leaks pee. She will have this the rest of her life. My family opted not to put her on pills for it and just deal with leaky dog. 
due to personal experience I do not agree with early age spay/neuter. 
Again, this is my experience and opinion.


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## wheezie (Aug 4, 2006)

i dont plan on breeding this new pup i have, but i do want to have the opportunity to show ( yes i know its fo fo but hey maybe i will like it lol ) and WP, as far as i know the only way to competively do this is using an unaltered dog


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## OldFortKennels (Mar 10, 2006)

It does not stunt their growth.


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## PeanutsMommy (Sep 21, 2008)

as far as i understand you can still compete and show with an altered dog in fun shows...


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## wheezie (Aug 4, 2006)

yeah i dont want to do fun shows when i compete i want to win lol. and i want to play with the big dogs lol


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## koonce272 (Sep 16, 2008)

well ive done a lot of research on this subject and this is what i came up with.

I second that it will NOT stunt growth, actually the opposite. There is a hormone or some chemical this is released during maturing that salitifies the growth plate. By eliminating them the growth plate with take longer to salitify creating a taller lankier built dog than what would have been.

just do some searching around the web, you'll find much more than what i can explain.


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## Mrs_APBT_America (Jul 19, 2008)

koonce272 said:


> well ive done a lot of research on this subject and this is what i came up with.
> 
> I second that it will NOT stunt growth, actually the opposite. There is a hormone or some chemical this is released during maturing that salitifies the growth plate. By eliminating them the growth plate with take longer to salitify creating a taller lankier built dog than what would have been.
> 
> just do some searching around the web, you'll find much more than what i can explain.


Actually I also heard this. When getting my stud horse gelded I was told by someone that if I did it when he was still a yearling that his growth would be stunted so when I took him to the vet they gave me the same exact answer as above about the growth plate and that he would actually grow taller but not as built and muscular as your typical stud horse!!

Soooo...if that is the case with horses I would think the same thing for male dogs! But I don't think they would be so lanky though if you made sure to exercise with him daily.


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## Jr. (Nov 3, 2008)

Great question! Thanks for starting this discussion.


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## vegasbound (Dec 5, 2008)

IMO you will have a taller lankier dog if you neuter young.

I would say for a dog to reach it's full potential wait until two years.

This is a battle I am currently losing with my wife, I want to wait to neuter our pup, but she thinks I'm crazy!! lol...


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## Jr. (Nov 3, 2008)

Man, Kaden is supposed get neutered at the end of next month. Now I'm not too sure if I wanna get this done so early.


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## melrosdog (Dec 21, 2008)

I work for a vet and have seen a lot of dogs that have been nuetered early and they dont seem to grow up to be any lankier then other dogs. Female dogs on the other hand should wait until they are 6 months old. Sometimes if they are done too early the will have incontinince. Males wont have this problem.
I personally would rather have a male done early before he developed any bad habits. I know it doesnt stop them all but usually they will mark less. I had my puppy done at 4 months and he doesnt lift his leg on everything like most unuetered dogs dol.


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## Sydney (Aug 14, 2007)

Good articles on spaying/neutering the working dog...

To Spay or Neuter

Spaying the Canine Athlete

I think in your standard pet 6 months is fine, in the case of working/athlete dogs it can be beneficial to wait at least 2-3years or not at all.


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## PeanutsMommy (Sep 21, 2008)

informative articles Sydney:goodpost:


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## bahamutt99 (May 14, 2008)

Here's another one. Not sure if it directly relates to topic at hand, but it has interesting info. http://www.nospayneuter.com/SpayedFstudy.pdf


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## Coletrain (Oct 26, 2008)

My boy Sugar Ray was fixed at 8 weeks. Really too early imo but he was a rescue and he would not be released to me without being fixed. He is now 1 year old and stands 23.5" at the shoulders at weighs in at 62lbs. He is pretty much done growing height wise but has a little more weight he should put on. Shugs is a Boxer/Pit mix and if getting him fixed that early stunted his growth then he would have been a monster.


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