June 03, 2024

What are your thoughts on keeping a dog with a retained testicle intact?

Full Question:
I've been exploring the benefits of keeping dogs intact and encountered a predicament with my 5-month-old blue heeler who has a retained testicle. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this specific issue.

Local vet recommends neutering him, and I came across the Leerburg article Neutering Male Dogs: Should You or Shouldn't You, which supports neutering monorchid dogs. However Chris Zink cites a study only about 12.8% of dogs with retained testicles developed cancer in the retained testicle, typically around age seven. Neutering all these dogs would result in unnecessary surgery on about 87% of them. So she recommends keeping them intact with regular abdominal ultrasounds every two years to monitor for cancer and, if needed, remove only the affected testicle while preserving testosterone.
Cindy
Cindy Cindy's Answer:
If I had a monorchid I think when the dog was mature I would have the retained testicle removed and leave the descended one. I've had two friends with dogs recently experience testicular torsion with a retained testicle and it almost cost their dogs their life. One of my friends did not even know the dog had a retained testicle, he was adopted from a shelter and was supposedly "neutered"

Both of my friends' dogs were between 8-10 years old and the surgery was hard on them and expensive. I might opt to do it when the dog was younger and more likely to easily bounce back from a surgical procedure. I guess abdominal ultrasounds would be a good idea too but I think if it was my dog I'd have the retained testicle removed in 2 or 3 years.

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Expert Dog Trainer Cindy Rhodes
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