Getting ready for neutering but got a surprise

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi All,

A quick question for you all who have gone through neutering your puppy. Our puppy is approaching 6 months and we are getting ready for getting him neutered. I took him to our vet to schedule an appt. for surgery but when our vet checked our puppy, he found out that only one testicle has descended and the other one is no where to be found. He is recommending waiting for 1-2 months to wait and see if other testicle descends, otherwise he will have to make a bigger cut to find his other testicle.

In your experience have you seen in this situation that waiting couple of months has helped and the other testicle ended up descending or if it has not descended by now, it will not happen.

Should I even bring it up with our breeder, our breeders are awesome but I don't want to approach them with this issue if its normal for some puppies to have only testicle descended by 6 months.

Also any feedback on a ProCollar vs. Cone of shame?

Thanks

Raj

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm confused. According to veterinary literature on cryptorchidism, (undescended testicles), the condition is apparent by 12 weeks of age. Had your vet never checked him over before?

Also according to the veterinary literature, it's extremely rare for the testicle to descend if it hasn't already done so by six months of age. They normally descend by 8 weeks. 

The veterinary literature suggests that it is better to remove the undescended testicle sooner than later in order to avoid certain related health conditions down the road. 

You should definitely notify your breeder. Cryptorchidism is believed to be genetic.

Here's some good info:  

http://www.vcahospitals.com/main/pet-health-information/article/ani...

http://www.2ndchance.info/cryptorchid.htm

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi Karen,

Our vet had noticed one descended testicle a month back when we started having discussion on neutering but told us to come back a month later, this was when our puppy was slightly less than 5 months old. So I took our puppy again over the weekend and it seems that the testicle has not descended and out vet is asking us to wait till our puppy gets to be 7-8 months old.

I will contact our breeder also.

Thanks,

Raj

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Oh, and I'd definitely go with the ProCollar over the cone of shame. I hope never to have to put one of the latter on any dog again, ever. 

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Roo and Thor ( a previous dog) both had undescended testicles.  It's amazing or puzzling or something that the breeder did not know this.  Both my dogs had surgery at 61/2 months.  Undescended testicles need to be removed promptly before they cause more trouble.  For both my dogs it was an easy recovery, although not as easy as if they were descended of course.

[Raj and Teddy]

Thanks Maryann, I will be talking to our vet tomorrow and schedule the procedure as soon as possible.

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

My best friends new puppy is being neutered later this week for the same thing. The vet had noticed at the puppy's 12 weeks check up and they we hopefully that it might descend but it did not. Her dog is not a doodle but I assume that makes no difference. Her puppy is almost 7 months old now. Speedy recovery to your baby! 

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi Jessica, Thanks for letting me know about your friends puppy being in similar boat. hopefully we can schedule our puppies surgery soon. Based on my earlier conversation with our vet I thought I will schedule something around Thanksgiving break but now will have to plan for early surgery.

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

 hope everything goes well!

[Ginny Nightingale]

When I raise pups, we check at the vet before they go home for undescended testicles and the new owners are informed if there is an issue. I am very surprised that you did not know about this from the breeder AND I am very sure that another month would be a bad idea. 

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi Ginny, 

We were not informed anything in this regard, since we are first time puppy owners, it never crossed my mind as we were more looking at the puppies personality etc and never asked any other questions. We did check on parents records. 

I will be talking to our vet to schedule something soon.

[DJ & Chance]

My Chance had an undescended testicle and at 8 weeks my vet made the same recommendation as your vet--wait until he was 7-8 months old.  Although I had read the studies Karen refers to, I also had good reasons for trusting my vet, who is a very good friend.  She said that recent studies, and her own experience, suggested that in some pups it just takes a long time for the testicles to descend and she felt that the risk of the more invasive surgery warranted a "let's wait a bit and see" strategy. And so I waited, and every day looked to see if the testicle had descended.  One morning when he was about seven months old, I picked him up to take a look and there it was--my doodle boy with two hanging testicles.  I whooped with joy, and I'm sure my doodle thought I was a bit crazy.  

My breeder alerted me to the problem when I picked up Chance and said she would pay the extra cost for the surgery if the testicle failed to descend on its own.  She also allowed me to decline Chance for another puppy, but I was already in love.

[Raj and Teddy]

Thanks DJ, its good to know. I will discuss with our vet soon as he wants us to wait till 7-8 months and has seen cases where the other testicle does end up descending. Our breeder did not tell us about it when we picked up the puppy but I have emailed them and they said to wait as they have seen it descend. They also said it could be from the Poodle Bloodline.