Anyone here used chemical castration? I'm considering for my dog.

[TheMauveTiger]

As title. DDog is booked in for surgery in a month but I've been told that chemical is better. I'm having a consult with a vet nurse who is of that view and has a castrated dog, but wondered if dog owners who have direct experience can say from experience. Also, those who've gone the traditional route because now I'm not sure what way yo go.
TYVM.

No direct experience as I have girls but I know quite a few people who've gone for chemical castration but always as a try out to see the effects before going for a permanent surgical option. They've all gone on to have surgical castration within a year/18 months. Chemical castration works out very expensive as an ongoing thing.

My dog is chemically castrated and I'll have his nads off before it wears off as it has made a big difference to him. He's always been soft, friendly, obedient and well mannered but was finding it hard to control his adrenaline and calm himself back down if something triggered him. I tried chemical castration to see whether eliminating the testosterone rush would help and it really has, so we'll be making it permanent.

I did on two dogs and I'm so glad I did.

One had no effects, the other became a nervous reactive wreck and it took him a good year or two after the 6 months had worn off to start acting like the old dog again.

Can either of you give ne an idea of tge expense? I would definitely want to try chemical to see the effects.

My regular vet didn't offer it so I called around all the vets in the area. Quotes were from £300 per dog to cost price of the medicines (plus consult fee). I went for the lowest, but was so impressed with the vets and how they were so open with me about their pricing and their communication that I still use them, 3 years later.

@ToBeOrNotToBee that's interesting as I've heard that surgical castration can have the same effect!

£120.13 for both the 6 and 12 month chemical castration at my vets.

I had mine done twice then full castration. Mine went reactive for a couple of months but resolved reasonably quickly with dedicated training. It was the right choice to do it and the right choice to fully neuter in the end. It was about 150 for each 6 month jab

My dm has her lab boy chemicaly castrated as he's unfortunately got terrible elbows and has had major suegery on both the front legs at under a year old.
Parents had amazing hip and elbow scores, whole litter are all problem free apart from him, he's never even been up stairs as none in dms home.
The vets said castration would make him more at risk of problems as he ages so they opted for chemical.
You can tell when it's wearing off he's 4 now and doing great.
I think its about £150-£200 at our vets

This just doesnt make sense. Either he needs the testosterone or he doesnt. A dog that has been chemically casrated will have zero testosterone whereas a medically castrated dog may have a very small amount of testosterone.

If the dog needed testosterone for his joints then having chemical castration will remove it just like sugical castration

We've chosen chemical castration for our almost 3 year old lab (he's just had his second jab). It's been very successful and we'll be continuing with the jabs each year as we don't want him to go through the operation.

Is there a reason you need to do either?

@GSD20 yes. The contract of sale with the breeder which I was happy to agree.

In that case providing your dog is sound, confident and fully mature (or a large/giant breed) I don’t think it makes too much different to castrate surgically vs chemically.

In any doubt over nervousness or even being slightly shy I would go suprelorin, because once it’s worn off your dog will be back to pre castration so any issues caused by a lack of testosterone will be gone. Saying that it may cause issues with your breeder?

Ideally in a balanced dog with no issues I would leave a male entire.

My boy was really unsettled by the operation and I wish I hadn’t done it. I thought it was the same op as men had with a vasectomy and didn’t realise they took the testicles away.

We have a golden retriever he’s quite nervous/anxious so we did 2 chemical before deciding to move forward with the op he was 3 so last December had had his bits operated on. Best decision and we knew how he’d be due to chemical and yes expensive (120) the vets we use are great, he went in early for sedation and was done first so he could come home as soon as able. He knows and loves the staff so the experience wasn’t as traumatic as I thought. No I’ll effects 8 months on.

Our dog had a couple of rounds when he was young. It did help the humping - which was the main reason for doing it - but he was almost zoned out when under the effects of it. We have regular pet sitters and they commented how different he was when not under it. We have not had it done since and didn’t get him castrated either.

I don't think chemical castration is better, unless you want something temporary. If you think it works well for your dog, go ahead and get the snip done. No reason not to :-)

We have a rescue dog (collie/spaniel cross) he is four now and we have worked hard to try and ameliorate his reactivity.
He has his good days and bad days. Most days now he can walk past two other dogs without loosing the doggie plot. Cars, objects that have small wheels, and odd noises are not reasons to lunge, bark and flee.
(I just read another post about stock and I can hear my bloody husband scrapping the remains of his spag Bol into the dog bowl when I told him not to)
We were told by two vets not to consider castration or chemical castration until he is calmer. At the moment he is on 50mg trazadone which started again when we got a new kitchen. I asked for it to continue as we are now moving house. My DDog is as stressed as all of us.
I worry about getting chemical or surgical castration for a dog that still has reactivity issues, however improved and wonder if it would benefit him at this point as trazadone doesn’t seem to.
help his reactivity much.
my apologies for hijaking your thread OP.

I thought I'd update this thread and @GSD20 as your response was so helpful.
Ddog was given superlorin and he's fine.

However I am rethinking the whole neutering question because recently had a chat with the vet about surgical neutering once the superlorinwears off next Feb. Obviously he was transparent about this being my decision but he also explained some of the risks of surgery weighed againstany benefits. I asked him to direct me to the current research which he did . It was so helpful to have access to very understandable explanations of the benefit/risk ratios.

So it really looks like chemical (superlorin) is the safest, I.e. best long term option in terms reducing potential for malignancy. Or, I may decide to leave him intact. But I'm certain surgery isn't how I wish to proceed.

Can I ask what risks he thinks surgical castration can come with? as most vets recommended it due to cancer and prostrate issues when they are older.

Also be aware that it doesn't always last the 6 months, I had the suprelorin implant done on my boy, he was very unsettled around the 6 week mark as expected with hormone surges we were warned about, and then we had a lovely level two months and then he started getting unsettled again and old patterns of not eating and behaviour changes back to how he was and his testicles started getting enlarged again, we went ahead and had him castrated surgically as we really didn't want to do the implant again as he really didn't do well with the changing hormones levels, we are now 6 weeks post surgery and he has levelled back out again, but we had to go through the hormone surge again of him humping, not eating, not listening and generally being an arse.

There has been studies recently suggesting neutered males are more at risk of joint disease (mainly cruciate rupture), particularly those neutered pre 12m. I also believe the evidence suggests some types of cancers (lymphoma, osteosarcoma and haemangeosarcoma) are more prevalent in neutered animals. Neutered males are also shown to be more prone to prosthetic carcinoma, although less at risk of benign prostate disease.

Neutered males can also become nervous or show nervous aggression when the testosterone giving them a bit of bravery is taken away, so I would never neuter a nervous male if I could help it. I looked into a few studies for my behavioural degree and although neutering did help with entire male to entire male aggression, it didn’t do much for other negative behaviours (unless it’s running away after a female 😄) Entire males are more statistically involved in serious aggression but you’ve got to factor in the breeds and types of owner (being less likely to have considered the above) in these cases too.

It’s a balancing act really. In females I always recommend neutering once mature because of the risks of pyo and mammary tumours. In males it’s not as clear cut, so if the male is of sound temperament I would recommend the owner makes an individual decision based on if the dog has any undesirable behaviours, risk of meeting a female, age, breed, breed cancer risks etc etc. Mine are entire and I’ve had no problems at all, but these are the first ones I haven’t neutered because evidence has changed over time.

Glad your dog is doing well @TheMauveTiger!

@GSD20 yes that's the research he shared with me and it was enough to help clarify things. But at no point did the Vet say I should or shouldn't do any one thing, he just made me aware of the current research and shared it with me at my request.