new puppy

Question
Hello, i have just bought a new puppy. He is a Male, shetland Sheepdog. When i purchased him they said he was already neutered, and is only 2 months. At first i thought this was great, but now I am suspicious. I have read that the proper age for fixing is at least 6 months. Is it possible for him to have a problem and thats why they had to fix him at a early age?

Answer
You need to ask for a certificate of neutering from the veterinarian that did this. Where did you buy him? If you bought him from a shelter then he probably was neutered at a young age. Way too young in some vet's opinions but that is the way they are doing things now to combat the explosion of unwanted animals.

See, the problem is that even when people pay a huge deposit that they will get back once the animal is neutered at say, six months, some people never come back, some animals get pregnant before six months, etc. So the population kept growing. The way to fix that was to start shelter neuters very young- as young as 4 weeks old!!

Now the problem with this is that no one knows what the life span of an animal neutered so young is. No one knows for sure what kind of problems this might lead to due to bodily systems not being maturing properly since the hormones are removed so young.

The jury is basically out on it. One thing that is noticeable pretty early is stunted growth. Now some animals catch up and do grow to their potential size, some do not.

Health wise he should be fine. You need to get him to the vets office, have him looked over, wormed, put on heartworm prevention monthly and get him on some good quality puppy food like Science Diet Puppy Growth. That way you can be sure he is getting optimal nutrition to help him grow strong and healthy.

I hope this answers your question. The whole juvenile neutering thing is a personal opinion for the most part.