Castration? Yes or No?

[Robert Powell]

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As I have said on other threads we had to have Henry our springer put to sleep due to prostate enlargement and a bad prostatic infection.
I asked the vet if in hindsight we should have had him castrated when he was younger.....Henry was only nine and a half when he died.
She said that some vets are now thinking twice about castration. It can help with prostate reduction....but it doesn't help with tumours.
What do you think about castration?

 

[Finsky]

Sure there is acceptable reasons/uses for castration (or removal of any other body parts), but when doing so it may bring along on some other problems....but as a prevention measure, I would not be rushing to to get it done.
Here is an article written about this issue that I find quite agreeable to read about...
Neutering Dogs. In Depth

 

[Hemlock]

That is a very sensible article.
My current vet does not push neutering, and keeps dogs himself (many vets have never kept entire dogs or bitches).
I have kept entire bitches ever since I had one spayed in the 1980s and she became incontinent. I can tell you that seasons are nothing compared to 24/7/365 urinary incontinence. I ruined her life and have never forgiven myself. I was never warned about it, but a Professor I contacted sent me some research he'd done and how I wish I'd been able to read it first.

I have never had a bitch spayed since and it's a fallacy that they automatically get pyometra or mammary tumours. Mine have never had either. They do have false pregnancy, some more noticably than others, but despite the hoohah some vets make about that, it's normal, doesn't last long and is easy to manage.

I kept a stud dog for 16 years. He was so mannerly that he would look at me for permission before he mated a bitch. I did not train this. He ignored other dogs unless they took the fight to him, in which case he saw them off with minimum fuss.

Regarding male health, my vet says that intact males often get benign prostate tumours whereas neutered males get prostate cancer. Which would you choose? Human males don't queue up to get castrated in case they get old-age prostate problems.

My dogs do not stray, run off to find mates, or perform any other unwanted behaviour that allegedly happens if they are not neutered. It's called training and management.

I can understand why neutering is promoted. It's a great earner. I can also understand with Rescues that their dogs are neutered because some people are so damned dumb and unwanted pregnancies are the result (people too). BUT if dogs are neutered for social convenience, and I don't criticise this, it ought to be done once the animal is mature.

 

[excuseme]

All of our girls are entire, I would never neuter for convenience and my vet does not insist we have any spayed. Seasons and sex, are all part of responsible ownership, whether it is male or female.
However if any needed to be neutered for reasonable health reasons, it would be done.

 

[Rinkydinkydo]

All my dogs and bitches have been kept in tact. All bar one which was my disabled dog. We didn't get any conclusive answers what had gone wrong him from the vets. So we had his nuts chopped just in case of any accidents so he couldn't pass on any faulty genes.
I don't agree with having stuff done to dogs because it's convenient for people. Like @Hemlock says,train and manage the dogs,it's all part and parcel of having them.

 

[Robert Powell]

Interesting replies. With Henry his behaviour was never a problem. It is why whenever a vet pestered us to have him neutered we always said no. However 3 years ago he did have a prostate /UTI problem which was cleared up with antibiotics. Again the vet mentioned neutering in the near future but we thought he was fine. Until last month. ...when a sudden illness was diagnosed as prostate enlargement/mass and was so severe we were advised to have Henry to put to sleep. That is why we are tearing ourselves apart wondering whether he should have been castrated 3 years ago. It is like being between the devil and the deep blue sea. The for and against in that article just makes it more difficult.

 

[Hemlock]

We can't see round corners. What-ifs are so demoralising. As I said in my post above, neutered dogs tend to get prostate cancer while entire dogs tend to get prostate tumour. Many of course get neither.
Please don't tear yourselves apart for a decision you made 3 years ago. 3 years is a very long time in dog lifespan and we all have to die of something. You gave Henry a wonderful life and an easy death. None of us can do any more than that.

 

[Robert Powell]

Yes I understand what you are saying. However the symptoms of prostate problems were there 3 years ago. Obviously they got worse without our knowledge.
Neutering may have been useful or made no difference. We will never know.

 

[Whippylove]

I have 3 male whippets, 2 intact and one had to be castrated as he had an undescended testicle. For me the only way I'd castrate my boy's if it was medical. All my boy's get on together great.

 

[Rinkydinkydo]

I've had my fair share of dogs over the years,I read stuff on social media and think I've been bloody lucky with my dogs with their health and mental state. Then you start to think,it's nearly always negative stuff you read about. My dogs got this or my dogs doing that,it's sort of becomes the normal. The fact is,there are thousands of dogs out there who are happy and healthy. Sure they get sick,just like we do,when they get old,you expect them to change and may be have problems because they are old.
I'd just say don't get hung up about everything you read,it's not as bad as things seem.

 

[Ari_RR]

My 2 cents:
There ought to be a darn good reason for me to put my dog through surgery (along with the risks of something going wrong).
With my dogs, there were no medical reasons to neuter, and long term health benefits are inconclusive at best, as far as I can see.
I believe that normal behavior issues are to be addressed through training and/or management. (There are of course exceptional cases, this is not a blanket statement).

This leaves environmental and social reasons.

Environment - mine don't roam the neighborhood unattended, so I can be reasonably certain that unwanted matings will not happen. However, in mostly neutered world, intact males may be quite unwelcome... so, additional supervision is probably needed even when there are no females in heat around.

Social - no matter how strange this may appear to others, this will not be a good enough reason to me. Over the years of walking a huge short hair intact hound (his intactness prominently displayed to the world), I've been given all kinds of advice - often polite, some times not so much - why I should neuter him. This doesn't bother me. I am grateful for unsolicited opinions of all sorts, even the ones I think are total nonsense. People care, and that's a good thing.

But this is me. My healthy dogs, my take on the research I have read, my suburban environment where dogs don't roam on their own, my very thick skin protecting me against social discomfort, and my ability to supervise and manage encounters (simply put, in the worst case scenario - I am strong enough to get between 2 large dogs and keep them apart, if things really go sideways).
This is just to show what thoughts went into our decision not to neuter our dogs. In no way suggesting that it's right or wrong for anyone else.

My 1st boy died of cancer at 8 y.o. Not testicular. He died very quickly and unexpectedly, when the growth inside reached his heart (until that point he had no symptoms). I am grateful for his quick death, and I don't raise the question to myself of whether neutering many years ago would have had any impact. There is no answer anyway.

 

[Robert Powell]

Again informative.
Just to say we were also unlucky enough to have a rescue dog that died of a tumour in his body but not connected to the prostate. .....or testicles. In his case we never questioned ourselves about castration.
In Henry's case we were concerned because vets over the 9 years we had him suggested from year 1 that neutering would help prevent any prostate problems. We kept him intact.
And yes I also get the point about prostate cancer still being a problem even with neutering.
Henry was unlucky I guess. And perhaps we were slow to react to his previous condition. Or more likely thought it had simply gone away with antibiotics and a Tardek needle. Well it hadn't sadly.