Growth plates and desexing

Hello vets, I have a question about growth plates and desexing before maturity. I had my American staffy x mastiff, female spayed at 6 months old, she's now 11 months old. I've now learnt that the hormones close these plates and if not left to mature and desexed before hand can lead to joint problems later in life because the joints are delayed closing or grow uneven. Should I be concerned having her done before maturity??

Hello -  As far as I understand it, many vets currently reccommend that larger dogs should wait until they are over one year old for neutering, based on a study by the University of California in 2020.  They concluded a 'clear cut' increase in cruciate injury and hip or elbow dysplasia in dogs that were neutered earlier.   It was suggested that male dogs of giant breeds may benefit from waiting longer.   However, this was only looking at joints.  There are a lot of factors involved and is still a lot of debate on this subject - it seems likely that different decisions are appropriate for different dogs in different situations.  Your vet should help you to weigh up the pros and cons in each individual case.

I've found the study - Hart and Hart, University of California, Davies school of medicine in a journal called Frontiers of Science.   As reported in the Veterinary Times, UK

Ok, thankyou,  my dog is a female amstaff x dane/mastiff, her mother was pure amstaff and her father was the dane x mastiff so she does have 2 big breeds but she's more staffy, well untill she's fully grown, she's 11 months atm