Hi, We have a two-year-old entire male. Initially, we hadn’t considered having him castrated: he doesn’t display the behaviour that can arise in some entire males (e.g. roaming, excessive marking). The only issue we have is his reaction to some neutered male dogs (he avoids entire males). This only happens occasionally and mostly with dogs he knows (although he does have a ‘thing’ about chocolate Labradors!). He becomes very playful and excited; sniffing, licking and humping. He gets very obsessive and any attempts at distracting him fail. There are never any signs of aggression on his part and the other dogs never ‘tell him off’ either. He has never shown the same interest in any female dogs (even a few we have met that have been off lead and in heat). We have been told that castration could prevent this behaviour but, as there is no guarantee, I would prefer to try chemical castration before going ahead with the operation. Having contacted my vet, they have given me the option of Tardak or Suprelorin. However, as they very rarely use either, they haven’t been able to advise me on which would be the best option. I had initially thought about the Tardak injection, but wonder whether it would last long enough to see any possible behavioural changes. However, I am aware that Suprelorin does cause an initial increase in testosterone which worries me a little and I have read some accounts on another forum which have not been very positive. While I appreciate that their experiences are no doubt an exception, it has left a nagging doubt in my mind. I would welcome any advice about which type would be best to use.
@Beanwood's dog, Benson, has had a couple of courses of Suprelorin, so she may be able to give you some more information about that. She wrote a log about it here: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/suprelorin-and-benson-a-log.10782/
Oh, I didn't realise, Benson was also given Tardak originally. https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/tardak-temporary-chemical-castration-log.9798/
Yes, this was because the vet we used wasn't too familiar with either, so our mistake. What I have learnt (as an aside) is to always search for a specialist where possible, and generally by digging around you will find one, be it a dermatologist, ophthalmologist, orthopeadic specialist or in this particular case a vet who was very experienced in using suprelorin. He was based at our local veterinary hospital and had implanted dozens, including a lot of gundogs. In essence, we saw a huge difference, after the initial peak in testosterone wore off. In the meantime, we used the time to really, really work on engaging Benson. Suprelorin for us was perfect, it helped enormously at preventing learned behaviours and gave us a bit of a break in the meantime to get some really good behaviours under our belt.
