What is the youngest age a dog/cat should be spayed or neutered? If they are spayed/neutered at a very young age will they have any health issues? Thanks R.G.
Dogs and cats can be safely anesthetized and spayed or neutered starting at 8 weeks of age. Animals less than 8 weeks old lack the development of some organ systems making anesthesia more risky. Many years of studies have now been published on early age spaying and neutering. Some of these studies followed the animals out for several years. There are a few growth items that are affected by early spaying and neutering (growth plates take longer to close for example) but they were not able to correlate any of these with any medical problems. The findings showed that both male and female cats can be safely spayed and neutered at 8 weeks of age and show no increased health issues over the animals spayed at six months of age. The same was found for male dogs. Female dogs spayed before four months of age did show a slight increase in urinary incontinence later in life. Current recommendations are for private practitioners to spay or neuter by four to six months of age but for animal shelters to spay and neuter all animals prior to leaving their facilities. The immense problem with pet overpopulation eclipses the minor chance of increased urinary incontinence in these situations. Click here for a link to the American Veterinary Medical Association’s statement regarding pediatric spay/neuter.