It really depends on your situation. Personally, I would definitely spay your female if she were mine because dogs with autoimmune/immune deficincy problems do better without the fluctuation of hormones. That's solely my unscientific opinion, but in humans far more women than men have autoimmune problems. Deciding about spaying before or after the first heat is really dependent on your situation. There's no need to rush the decision. See how easily you can control the demodex without dips/chemicals and let that help you decide. If it's very hard to control then you don't want to possibly make it get worse when she goes into heat. I wish there was an easy answer.

NOTE: I am not a vet and I am not giving veterinary advice. I am simply stating my opinion of what I would do if the dog was mine.

Berenice,

I must agree with Lauren on this. If your pup were mine, I'd spay her before the first heat--mainly because of the Demodex, but also because of the health benefits. These 2 reasons combined would cement my decision. But Lauren is correct: there is no need for you to make a rushed decision.

I have to say, though, that neutering is not quite the same for animals as it would be for people. Yes, there are definitely biological differences--they are missing "parts"--but you would not see the same lack of "manliness" in a dog that was neutered as you would in a person. Animals just aren't like that. Please don't ask me why as I also am not a vet. I am basing my statement on years of experience with neutered (both male and female) animals--and unneutered as well. The best I can tell you is that the dog's CHARACTER will remain the same. Spaying or neutering really has nothing to do with the dog's personality.

Best of luck to you!

PS -- Lauren, that last one you posted was an interesting study. Thanks! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Getting back to the Demodex problem. If the problem is really localized then why not just treat the infected areas? I had a 6 month old pup with a small patch on her back. I assumed it was just a hot spot and tried to treat as such. A week later I took her into the Vet and it was confirmed that it was Demodex. However, instead of dipping her we just put a slightly more concentrated dip into a syringe and applied it just to the patch and surrounding area about every 5 days. It cleared up pretty fast and has never returned. If it's generalized, there are some that have used ivomec daily for a few weeks but this sounds harsher then dipping every two weeks.

Wow...didn't realize the original Q. was back from March. Hopefully this will help someone else just reading this post.

I have both a question and a comment.
1- what does Demodex look like when it presents itself?
2- The animal rescue group in my area spays and neuters as young as 8 weeks old( puppies AND kittens!!)They are then adopted out immediately, to no ill effect.

Originally posted by Jeannette:
1- what does Demodex look like when it presents itself? It starts out as an area that slowly becomes bald, and it will sometimes itch. In worse cases there can be open sores, and it can cover the whole body instead of just little patches. With the localized version the patches are usually no bigger than a 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter.

Originally posted by Jeannette:
2- The animal rescue group in my area spays and neuters as young as 8 weeks old( puppies AND kittens!!)They are then adopted out immediately, to no ill effect. To no IMMEDIATE, VISIBLE ill effect. I wonder how many of those females later become incontinent and if the dogs ever develop a mature adult temperment. It's impossible to say, though, because all of the dogs are of unknown origin. I think it's wonderful for strays, but I'm intelligent enough to know how to keep a female on leash while she's in heat (and Berenice is too) so I'd rather make the best medical decision for my future female instead of the easiest one.

Richard, I'm glad you mentioned that! It reminded me that I have also heard of mixing the dip with mineral oil and just applying it (with a gloved finger) to the areas that need it.

Demodex signs in my dog were two round inch and a half circles of dry, slightly flaky skin visible because of hair loss. The vet took a scaping and showed us the parasite under his microscope.
I've been frictioning her whole body every six days with the prescribed procuct (details above) and it seems to be clearing. 3 done, I have another 7 treatments to go. However the smell of disturbed dog-smell is strong. I suppose all her body faune and flora are killed off by the Extodex. In humans, yogurt applications can help. I wonder if yogurt is OK for dogs??
About spaying : Neutered and unneutered dogs are different!!! It's a question of Testosterone basically in both sexes. However, we shall spay her as we don't intend to breed her. But - perhaps after the first heat... I would like her to reach her full physical potential. Aside the Demodex, she is a really gorgeous big-boned Malinois. And having met an owner of two female Malinois crosses, one spayed before, the other after their first heats, the woman swears she regrets not having waited in the case of the early spaying. She claims the early spayed dog remained more juvenile and never matured mentally or physically in the same way....
Interesting Lauren's remark about auto-immune deficiencies. Do you think if women were neutered aged twelve they would suffer less from arthritis and so on later??? There is a lot of info on Medieval Castrats, but none that I know of on (physically) neutered women

Berenice

PS : the breeder half denies that contagion could be due to the mother... And half admits. Embarrassing situation.. Difficult to handle. But our dog's mother at age seven was on her last litter. Perhaps as with (human) Fetal Alcohol Syndrome if the mother is young, there are few side effects, whereas if the mother is older (in the case of FAS), there is severe damage???

Berenice, demodex mites are transmitted from the mother to the young shortly after birth. However, ALL dogs have them. Humans even have them in their eyebrows. Some dogs just have a weakened immune system that allows the mites to become out of control. So blaming the mother doesn't really get anywhere, even though the mites did come from the mother.

When you think about it, the female cycle stresses the dog's body in a way that a male isn't stressed. It would be interesting if this area had been studied more (maybe more information about autoimmune diseases will come about when cloning lab animals becomes common). I have a strong family history of autoimmune diseases, but it has only appeared in female family members so far (lucky me ).

Originally posted by Laureen Moran:
Some organizations have been doing pediatric altering since 1970, to no ill effect... Either that, or enough vets haven't taken the time to associate the problems with the cause. Auster's vet is a prime example. Auster had a bladder infection and was on cephalexin. The vet gave Auster shots, and then when Auster had demodex she blamed the breeder (a vet's favorite catch all excuse to make sure that the owner isn't suspicious of something they said). Combine that with all of the other completely un-natural things that we do to dogs and any kind of conclusive study (either way) is almost impossible.

Intact animals/humans can have the same problems later in life when their body quits making hormones in the same amounts. So hormonally, sometimes the body does something similar just much later in life.

Pediatric altering is great for average Joe that wants a pet. I'm not arguing that at all. However, when you want to work with a mature dog in advanced training it's very different and goes beyond anything that has ever been studied.