Castrating my dog

[LisaD1]

Hi all,

I’ve never had a male dog but we do now. We have a spayed female and an in-neutered male (small breed), the plan has been to show him and they have to be entire (we are very responsible, he’s never a risk to in season females)

unfortunately he has a retained testicle so no chance of showing and I’m concerned that it hasn’t dropped. Vet said they couldn’t feel it and surgery is the only way to sort it out. This feels like quite heavy surgery for a little dog but equally I don’t want to risk his health.

i asked for data on the risk of doing nothing vs the risk of surgery and she didn’t have any to give me.

so wise mumsnetters has anyone experienced this and what did you do?

Hello. Our English Springer had a retained testicle and our vet was very clear that he was at increased risk of testicular cancer if we didn't have hom castrated. We had hoped to put him out to stud, as his bloodline is so good, but I wasn't prepared to put his health at risk and wait until he was the recommended age to be a stud (2 years), so we had him castrated when he'd just turned 1.

A good vet will make sure the surgery is safe, no matter the size of the dog. Hope this helps.

Thank you, that is helpful :)

Your vet can operate to remove the retained testicle, but leave the other, until he is of an age for full castration.
It can be a large surgery/ scar, so check out the credentials of the vet who will operate.

Vets tend to wait until dog is 12 months old to operate, but yes it’s because of the increased risk to cancer having one retained. The operation is a bit longer than just neuturing, and also recovery.

Yes, increased risk of testicular cancer with a retained testicle. It does need sorting out. I don’t see it as any different to a spay in a small dog.

Hi OP not a dog but our maine coon cat had this problem. He is actually larger than our dogs, also small breeds, at 9kg!

Our vet performed a laparoscopy (belive that's the wording) on him, he was the first cat they'd ever done it on and we were anxious but he was absolutely fine after it. I think it's likely quite common and a fairly straightforward procedure. Our cat was back causing chaos within hours of being home.

Dont panic. Vets used to panic and removed the retained testicle really early. There is no immediate rush to do so.

It is highly unlikely for the testicle to become cancerous immediately. You can wait until 2 years to remove it.

You DO NOT have to have the other testicle removed - vets like to but behavioural there may be benefits to keeping the other testicle. I have kept the remaining testicle in 2 of my dogs with undescended testicle.

Depending on where the undescended testicle is it may not be too big surgery some are just not quite in the drop down position but some may need a bit more rummaging around to find it. In one case it was a weeny scar in one dog it was a little bigger. Usually dogs recover really well from the surgery. Hardest problem is keeping the dogs a bit calm for the days after the op. Both were back to feeling fine in a day.

Although unlikely some dogs testicles do drop down very late so after 6 months of age so depending on your dog it is worth waiting a bit to see if he is one of those dogs.

Thanks everyone. My dog is 15 months old and we had hoped it would drop but at this age it’s clear it won’t. He is booked in to be neutered at the end of this month when the most senior/experienced vet is able to perform the surgery. This was a family decision as everyone agreed the cancer risk isn’t worth taking.

My dog also had this, not uncommon and it’s a slightly bigger op but he was fine afterwards .