Early Spay/Neutering—Fact and Fallacy

There are still 8-10 million healthy animals killed every year due to lack of homes.
Many people are surprised when they adopt an 8-week-old kitten from a shelter to find it already altered (spayed/neutered).   They are still under the misconception that you have to wait 6 months before performing these surgeries.  Fortunately, early spay and neutering is a very safe procedure and an important key step in helping to solve the pet overpopulation problem.   There are still 8-10 million healthy animals killed every year due to lack of homes.  If we can alter these animals as kittens and puppies then they are unable to accidentally have an unexpected litter or two or three. Many people do not realize a cat can have multiple litters in one year.  They often get pregnant while they are still nursing the previous litter.

Early spay and neutering has been practiced for over 20 years now. It has a proven track record of safety when proper preparation and anesthesia protocols are used.  It is important the kittens/puppies not be fasted prior to the procedure as we do with adult pets.  This is because kittens/puppies are much more prone to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) while under anesthesia.   If they are allowed free access to food before the procedure, they do not develop this problem.  The anesthesia protocol also needs to be adjusted.  They don’t seem to recover as quickly if injectable anesthesia is used. Therefore, we use gas anesthesia (Sevoflurane) because they fall asleep very quickly and wake up just as quickly.  The best part about it is the kittens and puppies recover from the procedure faster than the 6 month olds do.  It is not uncommon to spay a litter of kittens in the morning, feed them immediately post surgery and have them up, jumping and playing on their cat tree by that evening.  It is also easier for the surgeon due to lack of body fat in the abdominal cavity- much easier to see the uterus.

The big concern many people have is what are the long-term side effects.   Many people are under the false misconception that if you neuter a male cat too early it will have urinary problems.   This is an old theory, never proven, that unfortunately is still thought to be true by many individuals.  However, multiple studies have proven age of neutering has no effect on the frequency of this disease. Early spay and neutering actually helps to prevent some diseases. The older a cat or dog is when they are spayed the greater their risk for breast cancer and uterine infections.  The older a dog is neutered the greater its risk for prostate problems.  Other people worry it will affect their growth rate.  This is also not true.   It will however prevent the male from developing secondary sex characteristics such as the big jowls you see in unneutered male cats.  But, it also helps to decrease, if not eliminate, the very unwanted marking behavior of male dogs and cats.  I’m very happy that many shelters are using this procedure to help solve the pet overpopulation problem.

-Dr. Sue Marshall, Feline Medical Center, Inc.