This is a guest post by Dr. Matt Parker, a holistic veterinarian in Jupiter, FL who offers house calls locally and phone consultations nationwide. He’s also a My Pet Carnivore customer and generously wrote this article for us.
The thoughts shared here are based on Dr. Parker’s 15 years of clinical experience. While My Pet Carnivore does not take an official position on spay or neuter decisions, we always encourage thoughtful research and open conversation with a veterinarian when making choices for your individual animal. We hope this thought-provoking blog post serves as a helpful starting point in your journey.
You can learn more about Dr. Parker or schedule a consultation at https://drmattparker.com
Spay & Neuter Awareness
This is when Bob Barker would be proud- a whole month to help raise awareness that you should Spay & Neuter your pet. But, don’t most people already do that? Do you not find that you cannot even adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue until they have already been spayed or neutered?
More importantly- do you even understand what a Spay or Neuter involves, or why we do it?
Country-folk might refer to this as having your pet “fixed.” But your pets are not broken and do not need to be “fixed”- in fact, I assert that having them “fixed” does much more harm than good.
A Routine Procedure
To Neuter is to render an animal neutral, or “de-sexed”, as no longer male nor female- just neutral. For dogs & cats & ferrets, we tend to use the term “Neuter” for the Castration of males, which is to cut their testicles out of their scrotum. For females, we use the term “Spay” which is an Ovariohysterectomy (OVH)- to remove the ovaries and uterus.
The Veterinary Industry touts these as “routine” procedures, but the Spay surgery requires going deep into the abdomen to cut and tie-off ovarian arteries that are very close to the largest artery in the body- the aorta. It may be seen as routine, but it is quite technical and requires skill and experience.
Hormone Complexity
The problem is that Modern Western Medicine sees the ovaries and testes as nothing more than reproductive organs that are otherwise insignificant and expendable. But nothing could be further from the truth. These organs produce hormones that interact with and influence all other hormones in the body. The pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, the adrenal glands- are all influenced by the ovaries and uterus and testes in numerous complex relationships. The hormones produced by all the above glands all interact with all the hormones produced by all of the other glands.
The most obvious effect is on Growth Hormone. At the appropriate time in development- somewhere between 6 months and about 2 years- the sex hormones send a signal to tell the pituitary gland in the brain to stop producing Growth Hormone- signaling that the “growth phase” of life is ending. If the animal has already been neutered, then Growth Hormone stays around too long, or otherwise stops production at the wrong time.
Arthritis
This often causes the bones in the legs to grow longer than they should be. These dogs are often “tall in the hips” with a rump that stands taller than their shoulders. These dogs may have rear legs that appear straighter than normal. The problem with this is that it changes the direction of forces (vectors) on the ligaments that connect the bones to each other. This causes increased wear and fatigue on ligaments such as the Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL- analogous to the human ACL) in the knee, and this is one reason why we see so many CCL (ACL) injuries in dogs.
More than that, removal of the hormone-producing ovaries and testes will have effects on the balance of the body’s other hormones such as the thyroid and adrenal hormones, having detrimental effects on thyroid hormone function and your pet’s ability to manage stressful situations (adrenal glands). There are many other issues that we have yet to understand, because Modern Western Medicine does not investigate the potential consequences of a permanent organ removal procedure before ‘recommending’ that irreversible surgery.
Teeth
This is a good time to remind you that the bones & joints are not fully developed until these complex hormone relationships say so, and for the largest dog breeds this may be more than 2 years of age. The same is true of the teeth. It is rare that I meet a dog who has not already chipped off pieces of the largest upper cheek teeth, because they were allowed to chew on something too hard before their teeth had fully developed and hardened.
So, Why Do We Spay & Neuter?
From a pet-overpopulation perspective, it seemed like a good idea several decades ago to insist that all pets be spayed & neutered as soon as possible, but these surgeries cause irreversible damage to the individual pets, and it doesn’t seem to be reducing the pet-overpopulation problem because Rescues and shelters are as busy as they’ve ever been.
We- as a society- accept spay & neuter as a normal part of pet ownership without asking why we do it. We do it because we are generally inept at preventing our pets from reproducing, but all it usually takes is an appropriate amount of social structure within the home. We tend to be so busy and distracted with our modern lives that we don’t pay close enough attention to our pets, but in all fairness- it only takes a few seconds for our pets to get pregnant, and it’s very difficult for them to ignore their evolutionary reproductive hormones when they become active. I’m not saying it’s always easy, but with good social structure and responsible family members, we can prevent our pets from reproducing while allowing them to keep their much-needed hormones.
Additionally, you’ve likely noticed how our pets tend to become overweight or obese after we remove their sex hormones, although the carbohydrate-filled kibble foods are also a big factor with obesity.
Common Sense
Modern Industrial Society has molded us to just do as we’re told, so we don’t even question the veterinarians when they insist that we do these surgeries. It’s your responsibility as a pet-parent to make informed decisions about your pet’s health, instead of following the coercion of the veterinary industry.
But on the flip side, it’s almost impossible to live with an intact male and an intact female in the same house, because their hormones are too strong to be in such close proximity- the male dog may literally rip a door down to get to the female!
So, you must decide what’s best for you and your pet. You shouldn’t ever spay or neuter if possible- or at least try to wait until your pet is more than 2 years of age if you must. Or if there is too much risk of pregnancy and you must spay at 6 months, then at least you have a good reason. But there is absolutely no reason to spay or neuter a dog prior to 5-6 months of age, because the earlier that you remove the hormones, the more significant the harm.
What can you do to help your pet?
This information comes too late for most pets, but that’s not your fault. So, what can you do to support your pet’s hormone balance and bones & joints if they’ve already been spayed or neutered?
This is an excellent place to “emulate nature.” In nature, your scavenger dog or carnivore cat or ferret would consume all parts of their prey meal, including the ovaries or testes and most of the other glands such as thyroid and adrenals. The nutrients that support those glands and their hormone production are naturally found in those glands. So, feeding those glandular organs is the best way to supplement your pet’s endocrine glands and hormones. In the natural setting, your pet would choose to eat these when needed and might choose to ignore them when not needed.
The best way to help is to feed a cleanly-sourced raw whole-prey-model diet that includes as much of the animal and glands as possible.
