How Young Did You Spay Your Girls Under 3 lbs?

[nanahas3]

I was hoping Kyra would make 3lbs and her growth plates be done closing before her first heat as the vet prefers them to be 3lbs but she is now 27 weeks and still only 2lbs 4ozs. We had Laddy fixed a while back and she is not around other dogs but I really am concerned about the risks for cancer. Did any of you have your tiny's done early and did they do ok?

[bchgirl]

Don't rush it. She may not have her first heat for a long time passed 6 months.

[nanahas3]

Originally Posted by bchgirl

Don't rush it. She may not have her first heat for a long time passed 6 months.

Thank you Bchgirl that is good to know.

[gemy]

Look growth plates don't close anywhere near 6mths old. Look at maybe if you are lucky 10mths or more likely one year old in toy breeds.

There are more than a few studies that do show yes cancer for females does increase over their subsequent cycles, one heat and then spay is not a huge thing; particularly if your gal is a tiney.

[bchgirl]

Mammary cancer is a risk for older unsprayed females, not puppies. Other health concerns are related to unaltered females which repeatedly go into heat and aren't bred. Your puppy is fine. Let her grow "up" a bit.

[Yorkiemom1]

I agree with everything all has said already....I wouldnt fool with it until she is a year old at least....these tinys dont usually have their first cycle until at least a year old...

[gracielove]

Gracie was still very small at 6 months when I would normally have had a female spayed. I had a little Maltese almost die due to Polymetra at 6 months of age so it made me nervous to wait. Gracie went through her first heat just fine and she was spayed at a full year of age. Of course I was nervous about that as well. Our vet has quite a bit of experience working with Yorkies so that did give me some comfort in having it done. I don't think I would have let a vet that had no experience in working with small dogs do the surgery.

[MikaTallulah]

Roxy never went into a visible heat. I kept waiting so that I could spray her, Cozy, and Zoey all at once but it never came. She eventually was big enough weight wise to spay. My vet said she had to be 4 pounds at least. She was 2.5 years old when they got spayed I think. He said she was too trim to have a heat like a little female athlete- All muscle and no fat. She still is now, too.

[Roxi Ree]

Roxi is 1.5 years old now and weighs 2.14 lbs. Her vet and I decided to wait on her spay in the hopes that she also would reach 3 lbs (and we prayed that she wouldn't go into heat before that time.) At 9 mos it became apparent that she wasn't going to hit the 3 lb mark, so we went ahead an schedule her spay. I had preop bloodwork done and found out that she had some liver issues.

I went to a specialty surgeon who did an ovariectomy on her plus a liver biopsy (she was diagnosed with MVD). At the same time she also had some baby teeth pulled by the specialty dentist.

She did really good through all this. Never cried in pain and honestly, she acted as though nothing had happened afterwards. I have such a good litle girl

Good luck with your baby.

[EllaJoy]

Emma was spayed at 6 months - she weighed 2.8 lbs and did just fine with no problems whatsoever. The vet said her fallopian tubes were the size of pencil lead - soo tiny. We did the pre-bloodwork to check everything before putting her under. She just hit 3 lbs now at 8 months.