Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello!
David Harris's blog on this site (September 4th 2020) reports on research suggesting that neutering a dog before one year can lead to an increased risk of a specific joint disease, DJD, and suggests that in some cases and breeds, vets may therefore consider late neutering - ie over one year of age- once more.
Being overweight is known to be one the biggest risk factors for many kinds of joint disease. However, if a dog is fed an appropriate diet (ask your vet) and their weight regularly monitored and dietary changes made as required (most vets have a scales in the waiting room that you can help yourself to when you're passing by), obesity can be avoided, whether or not they have been neutered.
The science of neutering is not clear cut and nor is there a one-fit rule for all animals. For any specific dog, we strongly recommend speaking to your vet about the advantages and disadvantages of neutering them. Hopefully their comments will be research based but if not, you should be able to ask them to refer to the scientific evidence.
I hope that this helps.
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