Female dogs often get life threatening uterine infections if not spayed. I've seen plenty. Also, mammary tumors are common in unspayed dogs, and almost unheard of in dogs that were spayed early. (By 6-9 months or before the first heat) Male dogs can get testicular cancer, and obviously, if you remove the testes, this won't occur. Weigh the risks with the benefits. Weight gain? Common, but just cut back a bit on the food and exercise. Simple fix. I personally believe the benefits greatly outweigh the risks.
Well, I would not argue about female dogs.... the research is less conclusive. The benefit of no pregnancy is a tough one to outweigh. I have done both neutered/spayed and unneutered/unspayed and for the male dogs, the unneutered ones were so much healthier later in life, it was like night and day. The females too in my experience although I do not doubt what you say about the plumbing problems.
I get it.... Sometimes you have to neuter a male dog, but most times, it is not really necessary and is done because the vet tells you it is a good idea....It would be far better if Vets would learn how to do vasectomies.... That would be a useful thing but there is no money in it, and because the animal retains it's health later in life, no repeat business.
Let's face it, castration is something that is commonly done on the farm... why is that?
Well first of all, you know the animal is not going to live that long. He is going to be made into burgers or pork chops.... so long term health is not a concern.... so then, what benefit is castration? Well, it makes them put on weight much more rapidly, their muscles do not develop normally and they are more tender. You do it to fatten up and tenderize a farm animal.... why would you do that to your best friend?
My male dog is 11 years old, lean, healthy, active. He runs, jumps, does everything. His littermate, his brother, lives across the road. He was neutered when young. That dog is smaller, considerably wider, fatter, and has a host of medical issues. Putting him on a diet will not fix what is ailing him. People say weight gain can be combatted by diet, that is not true. This weight gain from endocrine imbalance is a outward sign of other terrible things going on inside the dogs system.
For my dog, if he gets testicular cancer at this point, I would remove them. But that whole testicular cancer thing is a red herring.... how often does that happen? And if it does, what other situations were avoided? I take it you have heard of Cushings Syndrome... Diabetes..... all these crazy things they are diagnosing in neutered dogs, that you never see in unneutered animals. And starving the poor victim to make him lose weight (after you gutted his endocrine system) seems a little callous. My dog eats what he wants. As he should.
Cushings is related to neutering. Vets will deny it, then if you ask them if they ever saw it in an unneutered animal they have to think for a minute.... , Truth is Vets don't see nearly as many unneutered animals. The waiting room at my vet is packed with the victims of veterinary butchering. People don't think about the terrible things they do to their best friend, all on the advice of a veterinarian who never bothers to really look and see the evidence that parades through their examination room on a daily basis. And there is no shortage of people with apparently low observation skills, who say it is no problem at all.
