gideondavid40
New member
@sqs1 Look here's our experience;
My husbands been breeding for 20 years now and I've been in it for 10 years. We specialise in medium breed dogs.
We've seen alot of stuff over the years, since I saw it mentioned, we've had a few pyos luckily ours were open and we haven't had to spay any bitches from them but we learned alot. Some bitches need antibiotics from the get go of breeding and others don't. Also breeding the heat cycle after a pyo definitely seems to stop another pyo.
Note that all our unspayed bitches were bred at some point in their life although a handful never took. The average Lifespan of our breed is set at 12, most of ours live between 12-14. A handful lived longer. A handful passed young.
With regards to cancer, I'm torn. We've had pet bitches who were spayed young, die from cancer and we've had adult unspayed bitches live to 15 and die from natrual causes. But over all the years and the many, many dogs we've had I will say it appears that once a dog gets to around 12-13 they almost always in our case get cancer or kidney failure. We've tried variations of many things, diet changes, supplements, different genetics etc. but it has never seemed to change much and this is with the males too. Often we have seen prostate/testicular cancer in our males as well as they enter their late senior years. From our experience and also from what our Vets tell us, it's almost inevitable for dogs to get cancer in their late senior years and sometimes people don't even realise their senior dog had cancer.
So do I think unspayed makes a difference. Yes and no. I will say I've seen more mammary cancer in unspayed bitches than spayed. But in regards to the cancer I've seen overall it seems to even out to making little difference overall.
There is one thing I found in our years. We got a bitch from a line that we loved and she was lovely, but in the end she got mammary cancer and despite our best efforts of spread and she died of cancer. But what was fascinating was her in her litter, 3 of her sisters all died of mammary cancer and one of her other siblings died under strange circumstances which I think was likely cancer. Now one of her sisters was spayed young too. Which leads me to think there was a huge genetic component there. Luckily for us (although at the time we were devastated) we never did get any pups off her, as we got her when she was a bit older. She was a brilliant dog though but yeah I definitely think genetics plays an even bigger role than we think.
Overall I think all dogs get cancer when they reach a certain age, its inevitable as the cells can no longer replace themselves correctly it's bound to happen. But I do think there can be genetics at play for certainty and some lines are way more predisposed which makes selcting your lines and knowing their history super important. And I think unspayed and unneutered dogs have a slightly higher risk of cancer of reproductive organs for sure. This is all on our own experience. Other breeds might be completely different. Hope it helps.
My husbands been breeding for 20 years now and I've been in it for 10 years. We specialise in medium breed dogs.
We've seen alot of stuff over the years, since I saw it mentioned, we've had a few pyos luckily ours were open and we haven't had to spay any bitches from them but we learned alot. Some bitches need antibiotics from the get go of breeding and others don't. Also breeding the heat cycle after a pyo definitely seems to stop another pyo.
Note that all our unspayed bitches were bred at some point in their life although a handful never took. The average Lifespan of our breed is set at 12, most of ours live between 12-14. A handful lived longer. A handful passed young.
With regards to cancer, I'm torn. We've had pet bitches who were spayed young, die from cancer and we've had adult unspayed bitches live to 15 and die from natrual causes. But over all the years and the many, many dogs we've had I will say it appears that once a dog gets to around 12-13 they almost always in our case get cancer or kidney failure. We've tried variations of many things, diet changes, supplements, different genetics etc. but it has never seemed to change much and this is with the males too. Often we have seen prostate/testicular cancer in our males as well as they enter their late senior years. From our experience and also from what our Vets tell us, it's almost inevitable for dogs to get cancer in their late senior years and sometimes people don't even realise their senior dog had cancer.
So do I think unspayed makes a difference. Yes and no. I will say I've seen more mammary cancer in unspayed bitches than spayed. But in regards to the cancer I've seen overall it seems to even out to making little difference overall.
There is one thing I found in our years. We got a bitch from a line that we loved and she was lovely, but in the end she got mammary cancer and despite our best efforts of spread and she died of cancer. But what was fascinating was her in her litter, 3 of her sisters all died of mammary cancer and one of her other siblings died under strange circumstances which I think was likely cancer. Now one of her sisters was spayed young too. Which leads me to think there was a huge genetic component there. Luckily for us (although at the time we were devastated) we never did get any pups off her, as we got her when she was a bit older. She was a brilliant dog though but yeah I definitely think genetics plays an even bigger role than we think.
Overall I think all dogs get cancer when they reach a certain age, its inevitable as the cells can no longer replace themselves correctly it's bound to happen. But I do think there can be genetics at play for certainty and some lines are way more predisposed which makes selcting your lines and knowing their history super important. And I think unspayed and unneutered dogs have a slightly higher risk of cancer of reproductive organs for sure. This is all on our own experience. Other breeds might be completely different. Hope it helps.