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closeOther Breeds
Posted by mdean2014 on 31 Mar 2014 at 04:03 GMT
Do you have any early data/correlations on Chihuahuas or Dachshunds? My spayed Dachshund died of a hemangiosarcoma last fall. I recently adopted an intact female 3-year-old Chihuahua/Dachshund mix. I'm being told that my state requires her to be spayed, but I have concerns about the long-term health effects of removing the ovaries. Thank you.
RE: Other Breeds
blhart replied to mdean2014 on 02 Apr 2014 at 01:10 GMT
Thanks for mentioning your concerns and the important health implications of spay and neuter. Our further work, unpublished for now, indicates that with both Chihuahuas and Dachshunds the joint disorders are not a concern with neutering or spaying, as they are with larger breeds, and especially the Golden Retriever. With the work we have done so far, there is no indication that spaying females increases the risk of cancers in these breeds. This is a contrast to the Goldens. Hemangiosarcoma is devastating cancer and your experience with your spayed Dachshund is indeed sad. These cancers do occur from time to time regardless of being spayed or not. We have some more work to do on the effects of spay/neuter in these breeds, but this is my best answer at this point. One of the points we will emphasize in future publications is that there is a great deal of breed difference in vulnerability to cancers with spaying and neutering.
RE: RE: Other Breeds
mdean2014 replied to blhart on 02 Apr 2014 at 23:33 GMT
Thank you, that is interesting. Were the Chihahuas and Dachshunds also 1-8 years old, like the Goldens, or was the study group inclusive of older animals? Since the smaller dogs have a longer life span, would some cancers be missed if the study cutoff was 8 years of age? Thanks again. I think it's great that you are researching this.
RE: RE: RE: Other Breeds
blhart replied to mdean2014 on 08 Apr 2014 at 03:35 GMT
Clearly small dogs generally live longer. But we are concerned about the confounding of occurrence of cancers stemming from neutering versus the effects of aging. We figure the most impactful effects of neutering on cancers will be those that come on in the younger ages. Currently, we are using 2-8 years as one period because the data do not suggest a logical division within this time span. In the current work the neuter periods are: up to 6 mo., 6 -11 mo., 1 year, and 2-8 years.
It is certainly possible that neutering at say 7 years could play a role in the occurrence of a cancer at 10 years, but the attribution of such a cause would be hard to evaluate. We focus on neuter-cancer links that will be evident in statistical evaluation (if there is a link), which means there has to be a number of cases with the same disease.