To snip or not to snip!, at age five?

[monroe35]

My boy dog Eddie is 5 yrs old, I don't want to snip him, but am I doing more harm by letting him go without? Also would he be at more risk to have it done this late in his live?

[ginger899]

Unless you do definitely want to breed from him, it is a good idea to have him neutered.
It is a quick, routine surgery, with fast recovery time. He'll be done in the morning, and probably back to normal by late afternoon.
I have a friend who had his dog neutered at an older age then yours. There were no problems, no dangers involved. As long as the dog is basically fit and well, a good candidate for anesthetic and surgery generally, there should be no cause for worry. And at age 5 your dog is young, in the prime of life, so that in itself is nothing to worry about.

It is easy to fall into the trap of 'humanizing' our feelings about neutering. Some people, especially men, can be a little squeamish about the idea, or feel they are depriving the dog of some essentials of masculinity. Or may be concerned the dog will feel it has 'lost' some natural part of itself. Or even worried that the dog will gain weight afterwards.
These fears are all unfounded. For a start, dogs do not think like we do. All they care about is feeling OK in the moment. And they are not going to miss a thing, believe me, as long as they are having a happy life. He has no emotional attachment to his testicles. In fact, they could cause him to have a certain amount of stress and tension caused by high testosterone in his system, which could  make him restless at times, or even possibly competitive with other dogs. Remove that, and he will be more relaxed.

But.....it will not alter his basic character as far as I have experienced, in any way. And as for weight gain -there is usually one reason for that: too much food/wrong food plus too little exercise. (with the exception of dogs with specific health problems which cause them to gain weight) Neutering in itself will not cause weight gain.

[mtgoat911]

i am the last person to give advice for the medical treatment of animals but i did want to tell you what happened to my little dog who is also named eddie
i bought him when i was 22, he was my first dog, i thought at the time that it was cruel to fix a dog who had no way of over-breading since he is always inside or on a leash
well now eddie is 11 and has to take prostate medication and have regular exams, not only is it expensive it has caused him to be in pain and have trouble going to the bathroom
now his doctor will not do the surgery because of age and weight, infact i wanted to have his teeth cleaned and they would not even do that because of the sedation medication
hope this helps

[ginger899]

That's true. A dog who hasn't been 'fixed' does have a higher chance of developing Prostate problems in later life, even incidences of Prostate cancer are higher.