Risk of Cranial Cruciate Ligament Disease is highest in dogs that undergo early gonadectomy, study shows

9 February 2026

Gonadectomy before 2.9 years of age in female dogs and 2.2 years in males is associated with a substantially increased risk of Cranial Cruciate Ligament Disease, according to new research published in the Journal of Small Animal Practice.

Cranial Cruciate Ligament Disease (CrCLD) has previously been suggested to be associated with gonad status, but there is no consensus on the definition of “early” gonadectomy in male or female dogs.

The new study performed secondary analysis of data from over 20,000 dogs spanning 36 years, to explore the association between cumulative gonadal hormone exposure and risk of CrCLD in dogs. The study took a different approach by treating gonadal hormone exposure as a continuous variable, rather than categorising dogs by arbitrary age cut-offs.

The prevalence of CrCLD was 2.49% in females and 1.89% in male dogs in the study. The risk of CrCLD was highest in dogs with the least gonadal hormone exposure, before 1054 days and 805 days old for females and males, respectively. The minimum risk was at approximately 2.9 years for females and 2.2 years for males. This suggests that gonadectomy is very likely to be associated with an increased risk of CrCLD, and that previously suggested arbitrary cutoffs of 2 years of age may not be scientifically grounded.

Overall, these findings reinforce that removal of gonadal hormones should be performed after musculoskeletal maturity, if at all.

Dr Daniel Low, lead author of the study, said: “There is an increasing body of evidence associating the development of CrCLD with neutering in both male and female dogs, and that the timing of neutering matters. However, we should not overlook the health benefits of neutering in reducing the risk of other diseases. In today’s day and age, practice neutering policies may no longer be appropriate and every decision to neuter is a clinical decision made by the attending veterinary surgeon after consultation with the animal owner”.

Read the full article in the Journal of Small Animal Practice: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsap.70023