Hello all
Has anyone had any experience in preventing enlargement of the prostate in older entire males? My old Stafford ended up being neutered which I believe caused him other issues and I'm keen to prevent this happening with a new dog without neutering. Has Saw Palmetto been used by any of you before enlargement happens?

I dont have any experience  but unfortunately  its tricky to know that helps conditions if they large studies havnt been done. Otherwise its anecdotal and of course with the absence of a problem it's hard to know if it was the herb or just how it would be anyway .https://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/saw-palmetto-and-the-prostate   it seems to be used if there are symptoms rather than as a preventative

Thanks for the link. From what I can see BPH seems to be very common in entire dogs. My Stafford had no symptoms but it was picked up on annual health check and neutering was recommended. I'm planning on getting another pup this year as he was PTS aged 15 in June and I don't believe in neutering male dogs, so wondered how those breeders on here who have entire males deal with this?

My 10 year old male dog was given Yposane, a course of 7 tablets which can shrink the prostate back to a more normal size. It worked on my dog who lived until over 16 years uncastrated. Ysposane is very expensive, so worth checking online pharmacy prices as the saving could be over half the price with a prescription from a Vet.

Statistically from research neutered males are more likely to develop prostate cancer & prostate related conditions than entire males.

Have always had entire males & never had any prostate related problems in over 40 years.

My entire boy was around 6 when, initially they told me he had prostate cancer.  After I demanded some further tests (as he seemed to be getting better, not worse), they then diagnosed BPH.
We had him castrated, as I wouldn't have wanted to see him in that pain again.
He was fine after and had a long life, until we lost him in May at age 13.

> Statistically from research neutered males are more likely to develop prostate cancer & prostate related conditions than entire males.<br />

That's an interesting stat, I think, because we had a couple of older entire males who developed enlarged prostates (not cancerous), and castration was the option of choice.   I tended to put that (enlarged prostates) being down to them living with entire bitches coming into season - although we'd have the bitches spayed when 'retired' to limit the angst to the boys and of course, they were well away from the boys at those times.

One treatmemt for enlarged prostate is the use of Suprelorin implant rather than castration

Thanks for all the information here. My vet did say that prostate cancer is very unlikely in entire males but no alternatives were offered, and my boy had no symptoms whatsoever. Will definitely look at alternatives to castration in the future!