Early-age Desexing (EAD)
What is early age desexing?
Early-age desexing (EAD) is the desexing of cats and dogs at an earlier age than when the procedure is traditionally carried out. The traditional desexing age for dogs and cats is generally between 5½ and 6 months of age, although this can vary between cats and dogs and according to breed. In contrast, EAD is usually carried out between 8–12 weeks of age, although in some studies it is defined as desexing carried between 6-16 weeks 1,2, and in others as desexing before 5, 5½ or 6 months of age. Bodyweight, in addition to age, is another major consideration in determining when EAD should be performed. EAD is also referred to by some as prepubertal or paediatric desexing.
What are the potential benefits of EAD?
As well as preventing unplanned pregnancies, there are a number of widely-accepted health and behavioural benefits associated with desexing at a traditional age which also apply to early age desexing.
Male cats
• prevention of testicular cancer
• decrease in interest in wandering/roaming to find female mates and therefore less likely to be get lost or be in a traumatic accident e.g. hit by car
• decrease in fighting with other male cats and therefore reduces risk of cat fight injuries and cat fight related diseases such as Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)
• reduction in urine spraying
• reduction in aggression
• increase in affection towards people
• reduction in interspecies aggression
Female cats
• helps to prevent mammary cancer
• prevention of reproductive organ disease such as ovarian cancer
• prevention of unwanted/unplanned pregnancies
• prevention of potentially undesirable ‘on heat’ behaviours such as restlessness and being highly vocal
• increase in affection towards people
• reduction in interspecies aggression
A number of studies have compared the veterinary outcomes of EAD and traditional age desexing. These indicate that EAD may also offer certain advantages related to surgery and anaesthesia, and health and behavioural benefits when compared to desexing at the traditional age.
There are a number of specific benefits relating to surgery and anaesthesia when desexing is carried out on younger patients (ie between 8-12 weeks of age):
Desexing surgery is faster and easier when carried out on younger patients as their anatomical structures are less developed. There is less tissue trauma and less tissue handling involved as there is less fat and other tissues to incise. Generally the surgery incision site is smaller and bleeding is reduced and minimal, providing significant animal welfare benefits.
It takes less time to prepare the animals for surgery which means less time under general anaesthesia. The anaesthetic recovery and wound healing time is shorter providing significant animal welfare benefits.
The incidence of peri-operative complications is low due to significantly shorter surgical and anaesthetic times. One study showed that there were significantly less overall and minor complications in animals desexed at < 12 weeks of age compared to animals desexed at ≥ 24 weeks of age.
The enhanced response by younger patients to relatively low doses of anaesthetic agents means that less anaesthesia is require which equates to a reduced cost per patient.
There are also some benefits of desexing prior to first oestrus which also apply to animals desexed at an earlier age:
1. Desexing sexually immature animals removes all risks associated with pregnancy in the first oestrus cycle, especially in cats.
2. Patients are not in heat or pregnant at the time of desexing, which simplifies the surgery.
3. Desexing prior to first oestrus significantly reduces the risk of cats and dogs developing malignant mammary cancer:
Mammary tumours are the third most common tumour type in cats with >85% of all tumors being invasive malignancies. The incidence is greatly reduced when cats are desexed before their first oestrus.
4. There is evidence of behavioural benefits resulting from desexing earlier than 5.5 months:
One study found that hyperactivity was reduced in male and female cats that were desexed earlier than 5.5 months of age. For male cats, the occurrence of abscesses, aggression toward vets, sexual behaviours, urine spraying, and hyperactivity were also reduced. This study also found a reduction in asthma and gingivitis in cats desexed early.
Source: RSPCA Early-age desexing of dogs and cats Research Report