To Desex Or Not To Desex

[stormie]

Am I the only one who thinks its completely bizarre and unheard of for a vet to do all the things mentioned and have the dog ready to go home in 50mins?

Sure, removing the testicles takes about 10mins, but that doesn't include all the pre surgical stuff?? How long did the vet spend giving the dog a check over prior to its vaccine? Pre meds are usually given 15mins prior to induction, then there's clipping the area, prepping it etc? Was the gas turned off and the dog carried into the owners car or something?!

[Teebs]

Am I the only one who thinks its completely bizarre and unheard of for a vet to do all the things mentioned and have the dog ready to go home in 50mins?

Sure, removing the testicles takes about 10mins, but that doesn't include all the pre surgical stuff?? How long did the vet spend giving the dog a check over prior to its vaccine? Pre meds are usually given 15mins prior to induction, then there's clipping the area, prepping it etc? Was the gas turned off and the dog carried into the owners car or something?!

I was thinking the same... I would be pissed if they only kept my dog for 50 mins, i dont know what signs there are if there is any trouble after the operation..

At had a grass seed once in his paw, i went in and they had nothing else to do, so knocked him out on the spot and pulled it out, then gave him that stuff to wake him up, it took a few mins... i was going home to do nothing all day, vet still made me leave him there for a few hours, just in case there were any problems...

On the desexing side,Atlas got done at about 3 years, due to health reasons, and our old Bulldog was done at 6, both coped fine, and Atlas did stop cocking his leg!!

[OSoSwift]

No your not.

I am amazed that a dog would be awake enough and ready to go after that shorter period of time.

Ours always woke up really well and as a general rule quite quickly, but never that quick.

We had some that were desexed at 9am and by 12 to 1were that noisy and obviously awake we would ring the owners to come and collect them.

We wouldn't have sent a dog home that soon as they were observed to make sure there were no untoward happenings.

[felix]

You're kidding me, right ??

Unfortunatelly not.

Effects of neutering

You did what you believed was best for your dog. That's what matters.

[OSoSwift]

As the risk of Prostate cancer is exceeding low in desexed or entire dogs, I believe they would be more likely to suffer from prostate enlargement and associated pain etc from being un-desexed than prostate cancer caused by desexing

Geez sounds like my desexed dogs should have died from bone cancer, prostate cancer, splenic hemangiosarcoma, cardiac hemangiosarcoma, urinary infections among many other things.

Amazingly My entire bitch developed pyometra and needed to be spay, our entire male was casterated due to changes in his testicles and apart from some urinary incontinence in my bitch all have had none of the other problems and died from a genetic disease in one and old age with the other.

The desexed Stafford is amazingly still alive!

There are many arguments for and against. No need for scare mongering

And taken from the link you have suggested

Based on their results, the researchers suggest a cause-and-effect relationship: “this suggests that

castration does not initiate the development of prostatic carcinoma in the dog, but does favor tumor

progression”5 and also “Our study found that most canine prostate cancers are of ductal/urothelial

origin….The relatively low incidence of prostate cancer in intact dogs may suggest that testicular hormones

are in fact protective against ductal/urothelial prostatic carcinoma, or may have indirect effects on cancer

development by changing the environment in the prostate.”6

This needs to be put in perspective. Unlike the situation in humans, prostate cancer is uncommon in dogs.

Given an incidence of prostate cancer in dogs of less than 0.6% from necropsy studies7, it is difficult to see

that the risk of prostate cancer should factor heavily into most neutering decisions.

Edited January 3, 2010 by Rommi n Lewis

[RL1]

Am I the only one who thinks its completely bizarre and unheard of for a vet to do all the things mentioned and have the dog ready to go home in 50mins?

Sure, removing the testicles takes about 10mins, but that doesn't include all the pre surgical stuff?? How long did the vet spend giving the dog a check over prior to its vaccine? Pre meds are usually given 15mins prior to induction, then there's clipping the area, prepping it etc? Was the gas turned off and the dog carried into the owners car or something?!

If you'd read from the start you might see that i didn't just drop him off and pick him up within 50 mins.

I arrived at the surgery just after 9am with my dog and the breeder. He was muzzled and we took him in. Myself and the breeder explained to the vet ( who knows the breeder very well ) what was wrong and the dog was sedated. ( knocked out i should say )

* He had a full check over, top to bottom

* His ears were checked. He had yeast and blood in one. They were both cleaned and treated and a swob taken

and it was to be sent away that morning

* His nails were clipped

* His prostrate was checked

* He had a Thyroid test done

* He had a preanaesthetic profile done

* He had a C5

At this stage it was about 10am. I had been thinking about having him desexed and was discussing it with the

breeder on the way down and i asked the vet his opinions.

After this he told me i had about 10mins before he would reverse the drug and if i wanted to desex him, i should

decide. Otherwise he'll wake him up and i can think it over more and have it done at a later date.

In the end i asked the breeder again, i don't think she really wanted to, but i said yes go ahead.

The vet told us it would be about 2 hours, so i drove the breeder home and was about to head off to a shopping

ctr when i got a call at 10-50am saying he was ready. I arrived about 11-20am, had a chat to the vet nurse, paid the bill, received the medications and some info to take away about the desexing. I then went out back, muzzled him and walked him out to the car.

Off i went.

Very happy with this vet. He has no problems handling large, dominant dogs. Very good at what he does and as an

added bonus, very well priced. I think i must've received a discount because the breeder and him know each other.

It really was far cheaper than i expected. The C5 price was a huge shock.

Edited January 3, 2010 by RottyLover01

[OSoSwift]

Okay, sound like a good vet to have

[Gayle.]

Unfortunatelly not.

Effects of neutering

I read right through that document, then I searched it....and nowhere did I find a mention of neutering preventing unwanted puppies. Isn't that the main reason we have our pets neutered?

[stormie]

Am I the only one who thinks its completely bizarre and unheard of for a vet to do all the things mentioned and have the dog ready to go home in 50mins?

Sure, removing the testicles takes about 10mins, but that doesn't include all the pre surgical stuff?? How long did the vet spend giving the dog a check over prior to its vaccine? Pre meds are usually given 15mins prior to induction, then there's clipping the area, prepping it etc? Was the gas turned off and the dog carried into the owners car or something?!

If you'd read from the start you might see that i didn't just drop him off and pick him up within 50 mins.

You said you left at 10am and he was desexed and ready to go by 10:50am. I'm sure your vet is great but I still find it odd that any vet would send an animal home after such a short period after desexing. Thats JMO.

[RL1]

Am I the only one who thinks its completely bizarre and unheard of for a vet to do all the things mentioned and have the dog ready to go home in 50mins?

Sure, removing the testicles takes about 10mins, but that doesn't include all the pre surgical stuff?? How long did the vet spend giving the dog a check over prior to its vaccine? Pre meds are usually given 15mins prior to induction, then there's clipping the area, prepping it etc? Was the gas turned off and the dog carried into the owners car or something?!

I'm well aware about "pre surgical stuff" as you put it. The dog had been at the vet since 9am. By around 10-10am everything else had been done, minus the desexing.

You said you left at 10am and he was desexed and ready to go by 10:50am. I'm sure your vet is great but I still find it odd that any vet would send an animal home after such a short period after desexing. Thats JMO.

Exactly right. I left around 10-10am and got the call before 11 am. Both the breeder and myself were very surprised at

how quick it was, but i have no problem with it.

If an experienced vet calls me and tells me my dog is ready, i'm not going to question him. I have nothing but praise for

this vet when i compare him to the previous idiots who have tried and failed to treat my dog. An added bonus is how cheap

he is.

[casowner]

RL01 how is your boy recovering/healing?

[RL1]

RL01 how is your boy recovering/healing?

Really well.

The vet nurse gave me a call today with the results of the swob of the ear muck and to see how he was going. No bacteria

grew, it was just yeast. So that's good news. She'll ring me again in a week to see if the ear has cleared up.

Otherwise, everything has gone well. My boy is back to cocking his leg everywhere.

[Golden Rules]

Otherwise, everything has gone well. My boy is back to cocking his leg everywhere.

Oh, what a relief for you

For what it's worth, I think you have done the right thing by your dog. Sounds like a great vet too!

[Jed]

you did the right thing. Imagine, for 7 years he really, really wanted to have sex but couldn't. He doesn't have that frustration any more.

Naw, if he is like 99% of entire dogs, he would never have even thought about it - unless he could smell eau de in season bitch, or see one!

And leg lifting is an established behaviour, so he will keep doing it. To stop them leg lifting, they need to be desexed before they think about lifting their legs, and a lot of them still do it. the only time leg lifting is inappropriate is if is done on inappropriate things - and that's simply a matter of "house" training.

RL01, think you should tell us who your vet is - he deserves a free plug - and maybe we will all rock around and make him rich!!

Stormie - I stayed when one of my girls was being desexed. About 6 minutes for the anaesthetic prep, injection, setting up on the table, spey over in about 25 minutes, injected to neutralize anaesthetic, took her home, still groggy, but fine. Well under 3/4 hour.

When I was a bit of a gel, my local vet (now a Big Time Specialist) could organise cat neuters for a 6 pack by 5th year vet students. He'd supervise if they needed it, but it was good practise for them. It really helped me, as my propoerty seemed to have an invisible sign that read "Unwanted Cats Here" - whether it was a sign that only cats could read, or whether people dumped them, I never knew, but boy, we had some cats!! The ops took very little time for the boys, and a bit longer for the girls. One took over an hour, but a very nervous student 'fessed up that he was a virgin speyer!! He said he probably should have drunk the beer first!! Puss was fine!

[RL1]

RL01, think you should tell us who your vet is - he deserves a free plug - and maybe we will all rock around and make him rich!!

I stayed when one of my girls was being desexed. About 6 minutes for the anaesthetic prep, injection, setting up on the table, spey over in about 25 minutes, injected to neutralize anaesthetic, took her home, still groggy, but fine. Well under 3/4 hour.

If you're in Brissy and want to give him a go, you can PM me for the details.

Someone has backed up my story of the 50min drop off and pick up

Edited January 6, 2010 by RottyLover01

[stormie]

I guess we're different then. All ours get pre meds which we give about 10-15mins prior to induction. Induction, intubation, clipping etc is another 5mins then getting them set up in theatre, monitors/pressure cuffs on, area prepping etc is another 5 or so and then surgery begins. We like ours to be conscious when taken from theatre to recovery, but much prefer a slow calm wake-up form the pre med - all of which was taught to all of us by the specialists.

And all our castrations are done under gas, NEVER just with heavy sedation....

If people trust their vets and have enough faith in themselves to know straight away if something wasn't right (which I'm sure many people on here would), then fine, but it's not the norm and most vets would prefer to keep them in for atleast a few hours after surgery, where drugs, fluids etc are nearby in the unlikely event something went wrong.

[Kirty]

After reading all the 'cons' against desexing, its amazing we have any dogs left at all. My parents dog was desexed at 6 months and lived to be almost 18 years old. My dogs are all desexed and going strong. All my fosters have been desexed and no issues there either. But my grandparents Dobe was not desexed and had to have big surgery later in life when he developed a painful prostate problem. After the op, he lived another few years. I think he was 14 when he died.

[RL1]

I guess we're different then. All ours get pre meds which we give about 10-15mins prior to induction. Induction, intubation, clipping etc is another 5mins then getting them set up in theatre, monitors/pressure cuffs on, area prepping etc is another 5 or so and then surgery begins. We like ours to be conscious when taken from theatre to recovery, but much prefer a slow calm wake-up form the pre med - all of which was taught to all of us by the specialists.

And all our castrations are done under gas, NEVER just with heavy sedation....

If people trust their vets and have enough faith in themselves to know straight away if something wasn't right (which I'm sure many people on here would), then fine, but it's not the norm and most vets would prefer to keep them in for atleast a few hours after surgery, where drugs, fluids etc are nearby in the unlikely event something went wrong.

My dog was sedated for the initial treatment of his ears, full health check, blood tests ect prior to the castration.

He wasn't desexed under just a sedation.