Retained testicle

[Rachel Ryan]

Hi All

 I have a question to seek advice on, Perry is now 9 months old and only one of his testicles have dropped, I have contacted the breeder for advice and she has said it may still drop and wait until 12 months, for the growth plates to fully form ( the vet has said it will not, and can locate the other one in his stomach region and has said it is a genetic fault and in the bloodline and he needs to be fully desexed) and if not get him desexed, I am so unsure of what to do and also very upset as we went through a breeder who had lots of show dogs and checks etc and was expensive, for this to occur. I have read previous post that it will affect his coat and growth but if I leave it , it could develop into cancer. Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks Rachel

[silvia]

Oh Rachel I am very sorry to hear this: hopefully some of the experienced people and breeders in this site may advise.. I am not a breeder and cant judge properly but as far as i know is very unlikely it will drop after 6 months.. The coat will change, there is little doubt i am afraid.. still lot of people manage to deal with by doing a lot of regular brushing (if you google this site you may found some advise).. I leave the floor to somebody more experienced to respond, but my guessing is that your vet is right :(

[silvia]

http://irishsetters.ning.com/forum/topics/when-to-castrate?commentI...

dear rachel have a look at this old post.. sometimes it is possible to remove the retained one but leave the other in place, so hormons dont change quite.. maybe is an option??

[Rachel Ryan]

Thank you so much for comments, I wondered whether Perrys coat has already been affected given one testicle hasnt dropped. Its sad but we still adored Perry, and didn't intend to show or breed him, however it is annoying as we had 1st pick of the puppies and the breeder never said anything to indicate any issues as such and Im not sure what right of reply i have now, I just know we need to make the best of him for the years we have him. thanks again. Rachel

[silvia]

When dog puppies are born their testicles have not descended into the scrotum. Usually by the time they are 8 weeks the testicles can be clearly felt by a vet or an experienced breeder but may take a few more weeks to descend fully. However, occasionally, one or both do not descend but are retained inside the body; this is cryptorchidism.

Surgical removal of the undescended testicle(s) is recommended as the retained testicle can become cancerous; the descended testicle should also be removed to stop unwanted breeding. Replacement with prosthetic testicles is practised in some countries but is considered unethical in the UK.

==> i dont think there should be a reason why the coat has already changed? never heard about this.. the guidelines i have copied suggest to remove he undescended one "to stop breeding" bu, of course, if you are careful with that i see no reason why they cant leave it there.. so the coat and the character /hormons are those of an intact dog :) maybe is more expensive than normal castration, but i would investigate this possibility in your position:)

i understand your frustration..maybe the breeder was unaware...

 

[Rachel Ryan]

thank you, I have done lots of reading about the condition but still not 100% sure of the best way to go in the long run. The breeder didn't mention at 8 weeks that the one testicle hadn't dropped, when I let her know at 10 weeks , after the vet appt, she said it was not a hereditary condition but due to other conditions, I did question this but she said if it has not dropped by 12 months , get him fully desexed. End of story so to speak, I see her dogs have had 2 more litters since then, though not through Perrys parents. It is very annoying, given I did so much research to get a good breeder and dog, however you get what you get and Perry is a lovely dog, full of love and adventure and is in the right home. I dont think it would matter so much about the desexing in other breeds but it does seem to matter with the IS - and people on the forum have some heated discussions and views. My main concern is for Perry and that he can live  a long and happy life - cancer free.

[Sue Paterson]

Hi Rachel.

I have had two boys with retained testicles and chose not to castrate. One suffered a twist of the retained testicle at about age of 6 and he was in excruciating pain so obviously out it came ,but the vet left the other testicle. he was finally fully castrated several years later due to a severe prostate problem. That's when his coat suffered but we managed to control it.

The second dog was of our own breeding, and same breed line going back a fair way. We kept him uncastrated also, with the vet keeping an eye on the size of the retained testicle, which could be found easily enough. He too suffered prostate problems late in life which then meant we had him fully castrated. his coat also required much more attention but  was ok.

The testicles can drop much later than the vets would have you believe, and is well known in the show world. the second of the boys I spoke of was in the ring early on but the testicle kept popping up and down, finally staying up!!!

In that case it would have been difficult for your breeder to have known he had a problem, if when she checked him it was 'down'.

I'm sure you'll come to the right decision for you and Perry to live with, and I don't believe its all or nothing right from the word go if you don't want it to be and are prepared to be vigilant.

Good luck.

[Rachel Ryan]

Thank you so much Sue for sharing your personal experiences. I can relate to them, I am at this stage inclined to leave  Perry as he is and wait and see. I understand about the breeder, I think its one of those things, it is really useful hearing from other owners and the decisions that they made. May i ask about the coat - what actually happened ???

[Sue Paterson]

In both cases the texture changed and the coat thickened and became more unruly...a gentle wave became rather more than a wave! there seemed a more orangey undercoat which came through more. It took a lot more by way of conditioner and very regular grooming and use of a  Mars coat king to keep it looking good and still maintaining colour and shine. I guess I was luckier than some as it never became 'woolly'. I think it may depend on the type of coat the dog has before. The coats only deteriorated after full castration and I don't think they were noticeably different in colour and quality from the other entire dogs I've had.

[silvia]

http://www.isbc.org.uk/Rescue/Help.htm

Dear Rachel, maybe this website can help.. Now, I heard people saying in their case the coat hasnt changed much, but they were quite lucky i reckon.. in more cases, the coat becomes unruly and maybe wooly/wavy and quite difficult to handle.. I hope it will not be the case for Perry - or that he can live one testicle in place. I think is due to hormonal changes obviously so you wont notice unless they do the full castration.. in which case mom needs to be armed with bottles and bootles of conditioner! (but, as you said, i hope not, but if it turns there is no choice is much better than the cancer  worry for you..) ..best of luck and let us know !

[Jane Mugford]

Vet is right it is genetic but we seem to have a line of late developers within the breed. Some never become entire but others can take as long as 18months. My parents had a Sheltie years ago that wasn't entire, they didn't have him castrated & he lived to about 16years with no problems. Doubt it will hurt to wait a bit longer.