Although still a tragic number, it’s at least down from about 15 million a few decades back, primarily because of the newer practice of sterilization before adoption. Some 2 million healthy cats and dogs are euthanized annually in this country because the shelters are overrun. “Spay and neuter services are a critical piece of continuing efforts in population control and informed decision-making by owners in the care of their pets,” said Brittany Watson, VMD, PhD, MS, BS, associate professor of clinical shelter medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The health advantages of delaying spaying or neutering in a particular animal must be balanced against the backdrop of pet overpopulation. Even the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) stays mum on timing and states, “Veterinarians should use their professional judgment to determine the optimal time for sterilization.” 5 A harsh reality The choice of when to spay or neuter is nuanced and best incorporates many factors unique to a particular animal. 3 Similar inconsistencies also exist between different breeds of similar size and different size categories of mixed-breed dogs. The rules that apply to most small dog breeds don’t hold fast for larger ones. In fact, they’ve shown that there is no gold standard for puppies. One thing investigators found is that what works best for kittens isn’t necessarily the gold standard for puppies. Multitudes of studies have set out to link alteration age with the later onset of various diseases and protective benefits. Only in the last decade has the question of “best timing” been addressed systematically. In a 2011 PetSmart study surveying owner attitudes about sterilization, 3 out of 4 survey respondents either did not know when to “fix” their pet or pegged the best age at 6 to 9 months old or beyond. But the lack of universally accepted rules leaves most generally confused. However, for animals acquired intact, owners have a choice to make. In shelters, puppies and kittens routinely lose their gonads before they've lost their “milk” teeth. 1 But anesthetic protocols have advanced, rendering surgery in very young animals safe. This norm had little medical reasoning behind it but possibly arose in the early 1900s in response to high anesthetic mortality in younger animals. In the United States, the traditional age for sterilizing dogs and cats has hovered between 6 and 9 months old.
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