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Spaying English Mastiff. Please help.

rdeborah

Member
My vet told me to spay my English Mastiff between 6 and 9 months. I will now wait until after her first heat cycle. May question is: At what age do English Mastiff's come into heat for the first time.
 

TylerDurden

Well-Known Member
Not sure about the heat, but every Mastiff experts, as well as my breeder recommended to wait until 18-24 months at least. There is a variety of topics around that question. I‘m sure you‘ll be able to find some additional answers through the search functionality.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Heat happens at different times based on the individual. And determining spay/neuter time is much more tricky (in my experience) for a female then a male. With a male it is a no brainer. Wait til he is two years old minimum then do it. For a female you don't want her to go through too many heat cycles because that increases the risk of pyo but if you do it too soon there are different and equally bad risks.... For Kahlua we just waited until she completed her first heat (around a year old) and waited another couple of months after that. I felt like it was too soon but I was really concerned about the pyo risk as well.

Unfortunately, a lot of vets will try to push for early spay or neuter because they are concerned with overpopulation of pets. And while that is a valid concern it is not in the best interest of the dog's health to neuter or spay so early. I do wish that more vets were upfront and well versed in the risks for our large breed dogs.
 

marke

Well-Known Member
i think a lot of vets push for early spays because the surgery is much less traumatic on a reproductively undeveloped dog , at least it has appeared that way to me ...... with laparoscopic ovariectomies i think that is no longer the case ........... the risk of an unspayed bitch far outweighs any side effects resulting from a spay .......