hi my 3 yr old dobie has just been diagnosed with an enlarged prostate following a really bad infection, he has been chemically castrated for 6 weeks. luckily he is back on the road to recovery. has anybody else come across this condition their dog, if so did you opt for castration. this will be our next decision, do we or don't we. any advice welcome
thanks

Hi yes I had this problem with my last toy poodle Brandy he was about 11 years old when it was diagnosed and the vet tried the injections which worked for a short period. The vet said castration was the only answer but unfortunately was not keen to do this on Brandy as he was showing signs of liver and kidney failure so the vet was not happy about a general anesthetic. In the end we had to go every 6 weeks to the vet for a steroid injection to support his liver and kidneys and were not able to have further treatment for his enlarged prostrate. Brandy had to be put to sleep eventually aged 13 years and 9 months due to kidney failure. I have since got 2 more male toy poodles who have both been castrated as the vet said this will prevent them having prostrate trouble. Hope this helps.

The prostate is a gland at the base of the penis, if it gets infected it swells and blocks the flow of urine, which causes great pain and the urine has to be tubed off, it also stops the urine when the semen is released. That is the prostates job. In humans if the prostate is operated on and any part removed you have urine leakage and no erection.
I would imagine this is the case in all male species.
I would be intrested to know why castration? Antibiotics should sort the problem out.
Unless the prostate gland is so badly damaged, Then he would be incontinent and could not be mated anyway.

When my last poodle had an enlarged prostate it was discovered by the vet due to the fact he was licking all his undercarriage for want of a better word from his chest right down to his backend. The lady vet I consulted immediately said I will check his prostate to see if it is enlarged which is was of course. The vet then asked if he had problems doing faeces which he had for quite some time so she explained that an enlarged prostate also causes this and that the only permanent solution was castration. This was not possible as I explained in my last post.

ttaylor45,

As the Male species gets older it is a very common complaint, I was just wondering why! in dogs they recommended castration.
If or what benifit would it be?
They do not do it in the human male. They would operate on the prostate, that was causing the problem.

Denese

>  I was just wondering why! in dogs they recommended castration.
> If or what benifit would it be?

Hi the idea behind the castration is that it removes the hormones that play a part in prostate problems.

satincollie,

Doesn't the hormones decrease in dogs as they do in humans as we all get older?
The commonness sign of postate problems is not being able to pass urine,
Is it the same in dogs?

Denese

> The commonness sign of postate problems is not being able to pass urine

and not being able to/struggling to have a poo :(

"The colon, located just above the prostate, is sometimes compressed by an enlarged prostate.  This makes defecation difficult.  In summary, a dog with prostatic enlargement often has a history of straining to urinate and/or defecate."

My old dog was struggling to wee & poo, and what urine he was passing was mostly blood - the first things the vet checked was his prostate, but that didn't feel enlarged so the vet diagnosed cystitis (which responded to AB's in a matter of 12 hours :) ).

qoute from :
http://www.gsdhelpline.com/canineprostate.htm

Hi. Last summer I went through this with my 10 year old Chihuahua Benny. He started off with blood coming from his willy and I was very worried. He had antibiotics and it stopped. We had a urine test and all clear no more blood. A week or so later it was back and I was worried sick. Took him in and he had a few tests done. X ray and things, they put air or something in him like that and they said yes it's the prostate which is enlarged so we had him castrated. They said it could be just hormones or it could be something worse like cancer. I did a lot of research and chemical castration is not a long term fix. When Bennys problems kept coming back I was so worried and now after being castrated he's back to his old self so I am glad I did it. And he doesn't notice they're gone lol.

I would definately recommend castration. Benny had blood coming out from him willy all the time and he had trouble going to the toilet. It did go away for a bit with treatment but soon came back. Only castration fixed his problem.

A friend of mines old boy had an enlarged prostate, and as he was too old to consider surgery, he was given the Tardak injection (chemical castration) every few months, which reduced the swelling.  It is a hormone injection (female hormones) so that the action of testosterone (which cause the enlargement) is reduced.

> , I was just wondering why! in dogs they recommended castration.
> If or what benifit would it be?
> They do not do it in the human male.

It woudl work just as well on the human male I expect, but I don't see many men volunteering to be castrated, tee hee 8-D

That is what I was thinking Barbara, Just Needed to know!! L O L