Did you know that spaying and neutering has side effects that can lead to an early death? Find out what your veterinarians and shelters have not been telling you. But don’t worry! We have Dr. Danny Cox, the pet vet, and pet longevity expert Lauriston Crockett, host of Your Pets Radio™, to discuss the truth and the advancements in pet sterilization.

“This has been a passion of mine because I’ve lost two pets because of the side effects of spaying and neutering.  Joe Cocker died of a horrible skin cancer back when I was actually going to be a Franciscan monk at a time and he was my companion. Then also right after that, I got Samantha, my beautiful English Springer Spaniel, and we were starting competition and at two years old, hypothyroidism hits. It was a very very tough life for her. 

What I want to talk about today is a study that came back out in 2013 from the University of California Davis. It talks about the side-effects of spaying and neutering.  I’m going to read a little abstract right here about what this actually does.

The age at which a dog is neutered may affect the animal’s risk for developing certain cancers and joint diseases according to the study of Golden Retrievers by a team of researchers at the University of California Davis.

The study, which examined the health records of 759 golden retrievers found a surprising doubling of hip dysplasia among with male dogs neutered before one year of age. It also talks about the increase of three different forms of cancer: Addison’s disease, Cushing’s disease, and the list goes on. The relationship between neutering and disease-free remains a complex issue.

In Europe, however, the study goes on to say neutering is generally avoided by owners and trainers and not promoted by Animal Health authorities. During the past decade, some studies have indicated that neutering can have several adverse health effects for certain dog breeds.

We have an overpopulation of pets in America.  We’re not doing our part to keep these pets. We need to take responsibility as pet owners to make sure the dogs and cats are not breeding. And the first thing we need to do is also go to the shelters and adopt.” 

At this point in the episode, Crockett took a commercial break, returning back to the show 40 seconds later with Dr. Danny Cox, a Veterinarian who has owned and operated several animal veterinary hospitals in the North Dallas area for over 34 years. The pair tackled the controversial issue of spaying and neutering. Dr. Cox first presented his stance on the issue:

“What I encourage veterinarians all across the country to do includes ovary spaying in the females and vasectomies and non-surgical neutering in the males, so we leave those valuable hormones in place.”

Crockett then asked Cox a series of questions about vasectomies: how hard is it? is it more expensive? And how effective is it? Cox offered his response: 

“Generally it’s not more expensive at all. It can be a relatively routine procedure once you learn how to do it. It’s probably simpler than doing a true castration; it’s just a matter of learning how to do it. Most veterinarians are not trained to do that. My position is that vasectomies are an easy way to leave those hormones in place and allow the normal development and longevity of these pets.

What I feel is not an accurate representation is that if you neuter the dog, you will change his behavior. That’s just not the case you change you modify Behavior through training and teaching the pet. You don’t do it with a scalpel.”

Given the advancement in veterinarian medicine for sterilization, Crockett asked Cox why we aren’t using it instead of neutering and spaying. Cox responded:

“I think we’re not using it generally because it’s hard to change the public’s mind, but it is the right decision to make. A passion of mine has been to encourage people to do that. Having those natural hormones is tremendously valuable to those pets.”

Passionate about changing the outdated practice of neutering and spaying, Crockett promised: 

“If you’re a shelter out there, if you’re an organization, and you using veterinarians and they don’t know how to do leaving space ovaries, if they don’t know how to do zinc neutering, if they don’t know how to do vasectomies, I can promise you that your pets radio and our sponsor of the Gift for Life will sponsor a seminar. I’d even like to shoot video that you can actually get a certification from [to] teach these vets. Let’s change this and let’s give these animals to their life back. We can do better. Our pets deserve better.

It doesn’t cost more money. It’s actually so [much] eas[ier] to do than giving full operations. This is what’s so frustrating to me as a pet health and longevity expert.”

If pet owners go down the traditional route of neutering or spaying their pet, Crockett and Cox both encourage owners to supplement their dog’s nutrition with The Gift for Life: 

“The Gift for Life is a peptide and also has naturally occurring growth factors that actually stimulates the adrenal cortex that will help them produce 24 lost hormones. The Gift for Life is the best supplement that I’ve been able to find that you know helps. It’s economical. This isn’t a commercial today about The Gift for Life. We’re just letting you know that there is an alternative to give hormonal support if you’ve already done the elective surgery of spaying and neutering.”