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Desexing . Yes or no


Kazm
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I have a friend who owns a 2 year old male mini schnauzer and she is unsure whether to desex him or not. I have females and they have been done but I have never had a male done before. Some have told her that once over a certain age it's not a good idea. I've never heard that before. Just putting the question out there for her. Any advice would be good. 

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it is not essential to desex ... but it is more 'convenient' :) 

If I lived in suburbia , my dog would very definitely be castrated .

At 2 yrs- a dog is mature - has done its growing etc , so it's a more preferable age - the hormones aren't needed as much. 

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At 2, yes easily a good age. :) As rescue I'll always say yes to desexing, & as Perse says, I wouldn't have an undesexed dog in suburbia. Especially if there's undesexed females around  :laugh: And the bounce-back after surgery seems faster.

We've many desexed seniors, though by then quite a few have had a painless benign enlarged prostate which has settled after desexing.

So far none with prostate cancer and only one where testicular cancer had spread to his anus. 

Nobody can decide of her behalf but that's just my opinion based on experience of dogs who have been left entire into the senior years. I don't want to sound like a scare monger by mentioning the C word sorry, it's not relevant in a 2yr old. :( 

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2 years old is actually a good age in terms of growth and maturity. 

 

Personally I don't desex although I have an entire dog (10 year old Dalmatian) and bitches of different breeds (working ESS). Yes I breed on occasion but I also compete in several dog sports and the relationship between the absence of gonadal hormones and injury is not clear. It's extra work for me so I would say for a regular pet owner, go for it if that's going to make things easier for them. 

Edited by The Spotted Devil
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Thank you everyone. I shall let her know and see what she decides. She does live in suburbia and goes to a dog park every day. 

And mentioning the c word, is it relatively common in male dog parts?

 

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6 minutes ago, Zena's mum said:

Thank you everyone. I shall let her know and see what she decides. She does live in suburbia and goes to a dog park every day. 

And mentioning the c word, is it relatively common in male dog parts?

 

Cancer in dogs - Hmmm .. We have owned both male entire and  castrated , and in 50 years that I can remember , there has only been one - and his testicular cancer appeared when he was around 12 yrs old. 

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2 hours ago, Zena's mum said:

Thank you everyone. I shall let her know and see what she decides. She does live in suburbia and goes to a dog park every day. 

And mentioning the c word, is it relatively common in male dog parts?

 

My only experience with a dog was my parents older Peke who got prostate cancer and ended up dying after being desexed. The vet at the time told them if the dog wasn't being used at stud then most will suffer from prostate problems. No idea if that is true or not. And he wasn't a dog to enjoy himself with toys either.

 

Personally I desex my dogs if not being used for, or finished, breeding. One other thing to consider is the chance of being stolen because they are entire. I had concerns with the drug taking bogans next door being interested in my male greyhound while he was entire. They liked to go out hunting. Easy to say a bitch is desexed, bit harder to hide testicles on some breeds of dogs

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I wouldn't say common either going by the numbers we've had compared to entire females' issues. :) 

 

Yes to middle age / senior enlarged prostate and sometimes the related perineal hernia which is delicate to fix but do-able.

 

Undescended/retained testicles definitely need to be done. It's easy to tell if one hasn't dropped so seeing as how you haven't mentioned it I'm not sure why I did. lol. Just sharing what I've seen in dogs' bits. :laugh: 

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Thanks for all info. Good point Rebanne about being stolen. Purebred whole dogs would definitely be on some people's agenda. 

I have spoken to my friend this afternoon, I have actually been looking after her little fella for the past week. She was very grateful for all of the info and I have a sneaky feeling he will be weighing a little bit less very soon. Lol

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My male was castrated at 7, no issues.

Apart from the social pressure to have dogs de sexed it has to be up to the individual to make a rational decision. There are pros and cons in both and no one should feel pressured into de sexing at any age but particularly at a young age.

It does, however, take more commitment if you have entire animals.

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I'm surprised that the breeder didn't sell with a sales agreement to spay age ,there are very few Mini breeders that don't sell already spayed or with an age frame and refund a spay bond but 2 is a good age 

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my staffy was desexed at 11 yo after developing a tumour in his testicle. He recovered fine. I desexed my male westie at 9 months as I was worried he'd get stolen by puppy farmers. That was probably triggered by strange comments we got when out walking.

 

I never had any issues with the staffy being entire, even when we picked up a wandering onheat female boxer on a walk one day (she followed us home). For her own protection she stayed in the empty avery overnight (cement floor with small gauge mesh) but my boy wasn't interested. I'm sure that given enough time together he would have been but I managed to find her owner through the council. Bit tricky as she had no collar or microchip.

 

Staffy was very friendly and always played well with others, including at dog park.

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