Determining Optimal Age For Gonadectomy In The Dog: A Critical Review Of The Literature To Guide Decision Making

Abstract

Gonadectomy is the most common elective surgery performed on dogs in the United States. Concerns have been expressed by veterinarians, dog breeders, and pet owners or guardians about the need to better understand effects of gonadectomy on individual animal health. Many studies to date on this topic have been performed on small or unique populations of dogs and data from those studies may or may not readily be extrapolated to dogs seen by veterinarians in private practice. Veterinarians should be careful to read manuscripts in their entirely whenever possible rather than to rely on brief summaries that do not permit the reader to make their own decisions regarding value of the data as presented to their clinical practice.