My dog Arnie got desexed yesterday because he had an undescended testicle. The vet had to go looking for the second one so he has three incisions. One in the normal spot, and one in the abdomen and another small one a bit lower down. He came home late yesterday afternoon and he was pretty groggy. This morning he's back to his old self but he can't leave his cuts alone. He's wearing a cone but keeps trying to lick at it. I just don't know what to do about it. Are the painkillers wearing off? Should I give him some pain meds? The vet gave me some but said to only start giving it this afternoon. The cut near his scrotum is a little red, the other look fine. That seems to be the one he keeps trying to get at. I just don't like to see my little man struggle like this
Sorry I can't give any expert advice with this, but if I was worried about anything I would put in a call to my vet just to be on the safe side. Hope Arnie heals quickly x
Oh dear poor Arnie. Can he reach "the spot" even with the cone on? If so, I would advise a bigger one. After Lilly's attempts at removing the stitches from a tiny leg wound and the many weeks of slow healing I an really paranoid about dogs licking and biting stitched areas. A little redness might be normal, but if it is worsening I would get the vet on the case for sure. And I would probably give him the pain killers. Think human vasectomy - will the tight undies actually be enough? I would say not, and I am not even a man!!
Yeah I think if it's still red looking by the end of the day I might take him back. You expect some redness and swelling with a procedure like this. It's 10am now and I just gave him some pain killers
What's the consensus here in regards to desexing? If not for a legitimate medical reason I would have left Arnie intact.
Poor lad's been in the wars the last few weeks. First his leg booboo and now he lost his manhood. Gotta love the resilience of Labradors tho. He just keeps on keeping on. Little champion
I don't think there's much doubt that undescended testicles need removing. My labs second testicle didn't come down til 9 months old but the vet could feel it higher up so we waited. Neutering is a very individual decision based on your circumstances and your dog. There's no 'right' answer in my view. There's lots of information around now on pros and cons as well as different options such as vasectomies which are becoming more widely available. I hope Arnie feels better soon
I would say it is always personal choice. Nothing to do with anyone else. Coco was a rescue, and was castrated as per the rescue's protocol, so it took the decision from me (us!).
Yeah @bbrown I read about your dog. That's a pretty exceptional case. I thought that maybe we could wait but after two different vets gave me no hope I just thought we need it done. I believe it interferes with their natural hormonal development, which is why unwound have preferred not to have it done. I mean, dogs are mammals like us. You castrate a 12 year old boy and he's gonna develop differently to a normal boy. So I think dogs would be similar. But I was left with few options. I feel like I did what I thought was best for my dog
Well you did your research, you asked two professionals I reckon you worked pretty hard to come to the right decision I'm sure Arnie will recover soon, you'll have lots of adventures and all of this will just be a distant memory.
I am a little peeved atm. He managed to get some of the stitches out. I took him back to the vet coz it didn't look all that nice to me. The wound looked like it was coming open. Vet said it should be ok, just to keep it clean and take some antibiotics. Also got a bigger cone That was this morning. Now, he's sleeping and the wound looks weepy. It's not red anymore, which is good, but I'm still not happy. I don't really know what to do. I'm gonna go to another vet I think, which will be the third one. How hard is it to find a decent vet?
its very hard to find a good vet I have 2 one in my old home town who I've known for years and who has a practice with lots of diagnositc equipement who is brilliant and one where I live at the moment who is good and does very well operatively. Between them both they managed Dougs complicted medically issues brilliantly. None of my dogs when treated by either have had any post op problems. My local one was also wonderful when I had Doug PTS, he'd known Doug all his life and was so kind and gentle when we needed it. There ae some really bad one round here I wouldn't go to them.
I wouldn't worry too much, the wound will heal. However, there is no harm in getting another opinion to put your mind at rest.
In humans it is important not to ignore undefended testicle as they have a much higher risk of transformation to cancer than if in the proper place in the scrotum. You clearly would not castrate a human 12 year old. A dog being castrated is a different kettle of fish completely. I hope Annie just leaves those darned stitches alone!!!
Yeah he's doing better. Been living with the cone on pretty much 24/7 and I can see the wound has healed. The anti biopics helped as well. It's hard with a bouncy dog to keep them still and things. But it's gotten better. We went out this morning and he was a champ. Walked nicely and I started doing some dummy retrieves. He runs, gets the dummy, brings it back and then drops it in front of me.
Glad Arnie is getting so much better. Just an aside, if you are doing dummy retrieves it would be better if you could get Arnie to give the dummy to your hand/s rather than putting it on the floor. However, you may not agree, but it is useful
Yeah I do agree, but it's only early days. Just working on his drive still. Shortly I'll start working the return to hand
