Photo by Verena von Eichborn
Should I spay or neuter my Deerhound, and, if so, when is the best time? Two longtime breeders who are both members of the SDCA Health & Genetics Committee and veterinarians give their recommendations.
Editor’s note: This post contains two columns, the first on when to spay a bitch and the second, below, about when to neuter a dog.
When to Spay
by Betty Stephenson, DVM
SDCA Health & Genetics Committee
Reprinted from the March/April 2025 issue of The Claymore.
The SDCA Health and Genetics webpage has a function for the public to request information, and there have been recent requests for information regarding the best time to spay a Deerhound bitch. I’m a retired (for two years) companion animal veterinarian and longtime Deerhound owner/breeder to whom one of these requests was forwarded. Dr. Dillberger felt the reply I wrote might be useful to others, so I’ve made it more generic and reproduced it for his Claymore column.
My answer to the question is going to be pretty subjective; I can see you already have conflicting information!
I have always argued against spaying and neutering immature animals, knowing that reproductive hormones are essential for normal growth and development, but that was just my personal preference for decades. Now, however, there’s a growing body of evidence that some serious health issues can result from early neutering, including some kinds of cancer, cruciate ruptures and urogenital issues. The kicker here is that each breed has to be studied separately, as neutering seems to affect some differently from others. There is no objective information to date regarding these risks in Deerhounds.
The risks of leaving any bitch unspayed include pyometra (abscess of the uterus) and mammary cancer, both of which I have seen in Deerhounds. Pyometra is much more common in bitches that are not bred throughout their lives, and it is life-threatening when it occurs. Mammary cancer is approximately four times more common in unspayed bitches as it is in humans. The older the bitch is when spayed, the less benefit spaying gives in preventing mammary cancer.
My experience with my own dogs and those of my Deerhound friends does not lead me to believe that neutering increases the risk of osteosarcoma or cruciate ruptures. Cruciate ruptures, while uncommon in our breed, appear to occur in neutered dogs no more often than unneutered.
Until the last few years, Deerhound owners were afraid to spay a bitch because she might bleed out after surgery. We now know that this life-threatening complication is caused by an adaptive mutation in a gene that causes blood clots to dissolve. Dogs with the mutant form of the gene are at risk for excessively bleeding in the first few days AFTER being spayed because the blood clots made after the surgery dissolve too fast. But now you can remove the risk of DEPOH (Delayed PostOperative Hemorrhagic syndrome) by finding out your bitch’s genetic status with a simple cheek swab test. If you do not know your girl’s DEPOH status, you need to find out before you have her spayed. Do it as soon as possible—you never know if an emergency requiring surgery will occur, and recommendations for each of the three possible genotypes are very different. Here is the link to order the cheek swabs and test from Washington State University.
If your bitch carries the mutant gene for DEPOH, then you still can spay her safely, as long she is given one of two drugs that can counteract the effect of the mutant gene: aminocaproic acid (Amicar) or tranexamic acid. Having the needed drug on hand can be the difference between uneventful recovery and death.
Before you spay your bitch, you also should know her genetic status with respect to a gene that codes for a blood clotting protein called Factor VII. Deerhounds that carry a mutant form of the Factor VII gene may not make blood clots properly. Affected dogs can bleed excessively DURING surgery. A bitch with this condition, called Factor VII deficiency, still can be spayed safely, but it is important that your veterinarian has fresh frozen plasma on hand to give the bitch if she starts to bleed excessively, or if a blood test before surgery shows that her Prothrombin Time (PT) is elevated.
So, to get back to your question, while Deerhounds are really not fully mature until they’re around four years old, they are sexually mature by the time they’re about two. My personal preference for my own bitches is to wait until they’re about four if there’s some reason they won’t be featuring in my breeding program, and once their reproductive responsibilities are done if they will, which is usually around six or so.
The bitches I produce that go to pet homes are another matter, and in my dual role as veterinarian and Deerhound resource for my puppy buyers, there are more factors to consider. One is that Deerhounds often have terrible post-season depression, which includes lethargy and anorexia—some of them won’t eat for weeks, and even getting them up and outside is a daily trial. I know a veterinarian who breeds Borzoi, so she’s well-acquainted with sighthound physiology, and she had a Deerhound as well. Even she (and I admit that even though I’ve been through it countless times, I second-guess myself sometimes) called to talk to me about it, as she was worrying that she was missing something. She had run a CBC (complete blood count) and serum chemistry tests on the bitch and found nothing amiss. I asked her when the bitch was last in season, and she said Oh, quite a long time ago. I told her to get her calendar and count the weeks. Sure enough, it was still within the nine weeks of false pregnancy. Within a couple of weeks, her bitch was back to normal.
False pregnancy is normal for ALL dogs. I have no idea why Deerhounds have to suffer so much more than other breeds, but they do. For someone like me, who trains my dogs in obedience, this causes a tremendous loss of training time. For anyone who lives with Deerhounds as companions, it can be terribly upsetting because it IS practically impossible to distinguish Deerhound post-season blues from illness. Add to all that, seasons can be very messy, and if you board your dog or want to take advantage of day care or dog parks, many have rules against intact animals, and you will not be admitted.
So, I tell my pet-owning people they need to wait until after the bitch’s second season, which is covering sexual maturity thoroughly. Two years should probably be the minimum age, though there are some bitches which will have their second cycle before that time. Some of mine don’t come into season the FIRST time until they’re nearly two. Only two of all the ones I’ve sent to new homes in the last 30 years have come in the first time as early as 12 months old. Average age for mine has been about 14-16 months old.
Five years old is a kind of arbitrary age, and in my opinion, you can prevent a lot of suffering by spaying earlier. Add to that the risk of post-operative bleeding being much higher the older the dog is, and of uterine pathology, which makes spaying more difficult and riskier, and I think the risks outweigh the benefits of waiting. Also, I have been doing ovariectomies and not ovariohysterectomies (removing only the ovaries and not the whole uterus) for many years now on bitches which have normal uteruses—risks are much lower and recovery quicker. And I find that five-year-old bitches are much more likely to have some uterine pathology, such as mucometra (dilation of the uterus with mucous, which makes it much larger and more likely to bleed), or cystic endometriosis, or early pyometra which hasn’t led yet to symptoms. Any of these uterine conditions greatly increases the risks associated with bleeding, whether the bitch is DEPOH-affected, Factor VII-affected, or not.
Keep in mind that every case is different and there is no answer that’s the right one for everyone. Make sure you question things you hear that don’t sound right.
Veterinary medicine is changing pretty rapidly, and thankfully, spaying and neutering babies is finally falling out of favor. But as with the rest of popular opinion right now, I think we’re at risk of running too far in the other direction!
Should I Neuter my Male Deerhound?
by Dr. John Dillberger
Also printed in the January/February 2026 issue of The Claymore.
The SDCA Health website has a function for the public to request information. Not long ago, someone asked about whether and when to neuter a male Deerhound. This month’s column responds.
To be clear, neutering a male dog means surgically removing both of his testicles. Doing so will have two consequences. First, it will render the dog sterile. Second, it will substantially decrease the level of the male sex hormone testosterone. Neutering will not completely remove testosterone because the dog’s adrenal glands also make this hormone.
There are several reasons that you might choose to neuter your male Deerhound. Some are behavioral; others, medical.
Behavioral Reasons to Neuter
If your male won’t be used for breeding and lives with an intact bitch, then neutering will prevent an accidental pregnancy. Also, if your male pines, whines, and refuses to dine when the bitch is in season, then neutering can make those twice-a-year episodes easier on him and everyone else in your household.
Two intact male dogs living together sometimes will fight. If one of them won’t be used for breeding, then neutering him might reduce such aggression, because testosterone can influence this kind of behavior.
However, neutering does not guarantee peace, because many factors besides testosterone influence behavior. In one small study (Neilson et al., 1997), 17 dogs that showed aggressive behavior toward other dogs were neutered. Neutering reduced aggression in only 20% of them. A more recent article (Irving 2021) summed up the situation like this:
“Due to conflicting evidence surrounding the effects of [neutering] on unwanted behaviours, it is suggested that clinicians consider individual clinical and behavioural history, and discuss potential behavioural benefits and contraindications with the owner prior to the procedure. It may be prudent to trial temporary medical contraceptives in dogs with behavioural issues… and evaluate the effect of reducing testosterone and oestrogen on overall behaviour, before opting for permanent removal of reproductive hormones.”
Medical Reasons to Neuter
There are three situations where you might choose to neuter your male Deerhound to treat an existing health problem or prevent a future health problem: if he has two retained testicles, if he has cystinuria, or if he has prostate gland disease.
Retained testicles
A testicle that does not descend into the scrotum during the first few months of life is “retained.” The medical term for this is cryptorchidism. If only one testicle is retained, then the dog is referred to as a monorchid. If both testicles are retained, then the dog is a bilateral cryptorchid.
Because both monorchids and bilateral cryptorchids are disqualified from showing, they usually are placed in pet homes and never bred from. They are not used for breeding because cryptorchidism is at least partly heritable. To date, no genetic variant associated with cryptorchidism has been identified.
We know that if a testicle doesn’t reside in the scrotum, then it is likely to become cancerous, presumably because it lacks the temperature regulation provided by the scrotum. To prevent cancer, retained testicles should be removed.
If a dog is a bilateral cryptorchid, then both retained testicles should be removed, effectively neutering the dog. This surgery usually is done when the dog is young, because young dogs generally tolerate anesthesia and surgery better than old dogs do.
If a dog is a monorchid, then the retained testicle should be removed so it does not become cancerous. But there is no medical reason to remove the normal testicle.
If you do decide to remove a monorchid dog’s normal testicle as well as the retained one, then you ought to wait until the dog is full grown and sexually mature, which is about four years old.
If you decide not to remove a monorchid dog’s normal testicle, then you may want to remove the retained testicle when the dog is young, as very young animals handle anesthetics and surgery better than older ones.
Cystinuria
A male Deerhound with cystinuria is at risk of developing cystine bladder stones. Most such dogs will develop them.
If your male Deerhound has cystinuria, then neutering him will insure he does not develop cystine bladder stones. You want to prevent bladder stones because they can get stuck in the urethra (the tube through which a dog urinates), preventing the dog from passing urine. This is a life-threatening emergency requiring expensive surgery and a long, complicated recovery.
In Deerhounds, cystinuria appears to be testosterone-related because it occurs only in intact males. Neutering a male Deerhound will prevent cystinuria and thereby prevent cystine bladder stones.
Cystinuria is common enough in Deerhounds that anyone owning an intact male should be vigilant about potential bladder stones. Watch your dog urinate every day to learn what is normal for him and to spot a potential problem early.
If your male Deerhound develops cystine bladder stones, then you know he has cystinuria. But there are two other ways to find out. Microscopic examination of urine sediment might reveal cystine crystals in the urine. Or you might have a urine sample specifically tested for cystinuria.
There are two urine tests for cystinuria. The nitroprusside test used to be standard. However, this test is dangerous for the technician because it uses cyanide as a reagent. The preferred test is the cystine/creatinine ratio (CCR) test, which is offered by both PennGen and the UC Davis Amino Acid Laboratory. You can ship frozen urine to either lab, or you can get the PennGen test free at our national specialty shows.
Deerhounds with cystinuria often do not begin to excrete cystine in their urine until their second year of life. That’s why the SDCA recommends that a male Deerhound first be tested for cystinuria when he is 18-24 months old. Unfortunately, some dogs with cystinuria excrete cystine only intermittently. Consequently, a positive result from any cystinuria test means the male does have cystinuria, but a negative result does not confirm that he is free of the disease.
If your male Deerhound undergoes surgery to remove cystine bladder stones, then you should neuter him at the same time to keep the stones from recurring. But what if you don’t know at the time of surgery whether the stones are made of cystine? This can happen if your dog has never been diagnosed with cystinuria before he needs emergency surgery to unblock his urethra.
In that situation, the surgeon can examine the urine for cystine crystals. If crystals are present, then you can assume the stone is made of cystine. But if there are no cystine crystals, then you and the surgeon have to discuss whether to neuter the dog at the time of stone removal surgery. There are other types of bladder stones that can occur in a male Deerhound, but these other types are rare.
What if your male Deerhound has cystinuria but has not formed bladder stones – should you neuter him to prevent them? That is a personal decision. While neutering completely removes the risk of future expensive and painful bladder stone surgery, neutering itself is a surgical procedure that carries some risk.
Prostate gland disease
Prostate gland disease includes benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlarged prostate), prostatitis (inflammation of the gland), or prostatic cysts or abscesses. Prostate disease can affect an intact male dog of any breed or a mixed breed male. Prostate disease normally arises in middle-aged and old dogs because the constant influence of testosterone causes the gland’s size, structure, and secretions to change over time. Therefore, potential future use of the dog for breeding normally is not an important consideration.
Neutering a dog with prostate disease reverses the changes caused by testosterone, and almost always is recommended as part of the treatment for prostate gland disease. For benign prostatic hyperplasia, an alternative to neutering is hormone treatments to shrink the prostate gland.
Benefit versus Risk
Any time a Deerhound is anesthetized or undergoes surgery, there is some risk, and neutering is no exception. You can find more information about anesthetizing Deerhounds on the SDCA Health website.
I can write about the risks of elective neutering from personal experience. Last year, I neutered my 6-year-old Deerhound, Cullen Burn, because his prostate gland had gotten so big that he was straining to defecate. When Cullen recovered from anesthesia, he was knuckling in one rear foot and had scraped the skin on top of that foot. The knuckling was from sciatic nerve damage during surgery due to the way Cullen was positioned. When an anesthetized giant dog lays on its back with rear legs extended, the position can stretch or put pressure on the sciatic nerve (Marti and Summer, 2021). The nerve damage caused by positioning during surgery often is temporary, and that was true for Cullen.
Cullen came home with his foot bandaged to protect it from further injury. Two days later, he was walking normally. But when I removed the bandage, I found the skin on top of the scraped toes had turned black and sloughed off, leaving open sores. Lab testing revealed that Cullen’s foot was infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. MRSA bacteria cause many hospital-acquired infections in humans and pets. Not only are MRSA bacteria resistant to most antibiotics, they also can make a toxin that kills living tissue, as in Cullen’s case.
During the next month, I treated Cullen’s infected foot with topical and oral antibiotics. His wound slowly began to heal, but his appetite evaporated, perhaps because of the antibiotics. Despite my force-feeding Cullen, he steadily lost weight. A month after surgery, he developed a bleeding stomach ulcer that would not heal, and he was put to sleep. Was the ulcer caused by the stress of dealing with the infection? I will never know.
Another risk specific to neutering a giant dog is that he will develop a scrotal hematoma and edema after surgery. If this occurs, then the scrotum can reach shocking proportions, and the dog sometimes needs additional surgery. Performing a scrotal ablation (removal of the scrotum) at the same time as neutering can be a very good prevention for this painful post-surgical management problem. The procedure takes a little longer, but it is worth it.
Conclusions
You might decide to neuter your male Deerhound for several reasons: to modify his behavior, to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, to treat prostate gland disease, or to prevent cystine bladder stones. If you do make this decision, then try to wait until the dog is physically and sexually mature at about four years old. Doing so will reduce the likelihood of later bone and joint problems or certain cancers. You should always remove a retained testicle. If only one testicle is retained, then you need not remove the normal testicle at the same time.
References
Irving J. Effects of neutering on undesirable behaviours in dogs. Improve Veterinary Practice 30 December 2021. At https://www.veterinary-practice.com/article/effects-of-neutering-on-undesirable-behaviours-in-dogs.
Marti L, Sumner JP. Development of sciatic neuropraxia following abdominal surgery in 3 giant breed dogs. Hindawi Case Reports in Veterinary Medicine, Volume 2021, Article ID 5313684, 5 pages. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5313684.
Neilson JC, Eckstein RA, Hart BL. Effect of castration on problem behaviors in male dogs with reference to age and duration of behavior. J Am Vet Med Assoc 15 July 1997; 211(2): 180-182.