Hi again Dr Dressier
sorry, I meant, of course, to say I wish I had NOT given him frontline.
And, by the way, he was neutered at the age of nearly 12 and only because of the hernia.
Julia

The Frontline link is pretty tentative. I will be discussing this in some upcoming info products or posts. Remember, we all pass, and you have had a long, good life with your dog. Take the time to mourn that you need.
D

Hi Dr. D,

I just lost my two boys, Samoyeds in 2008. Both eleven, both neutered at age six. The first developed hypothyroidism after being neutered, basically a year after. Then at age 10.5 developed prostatic adenocarcinoma. I firmly believe that neutering played a role in this, what is your opinion? My other developed Diabetes Mellitus a year after being neutered. He passed from Ketoacidodis. No one wanted to help my guy with the cancer really. They just wanted to end his life. I am in a Master’s Biology program now and hopefully off to a Vet school after that.

Thank you
Marie

Dr.Dressler,

I recently lost my 9 year old Yorkshire terrier to cancer of the spleen/pancreas. I have a question about the use of Frontline especially for these smaller breeds. What is your recommendation?

My other concern centers around feeding her Dried kibble (Hills) as a staple during her life. I would deeply appreciate any comments that you might offer.

Thank you
Sara Wright

this is very informative and useful article for me. This post is very useful for me. This would help me to tell some important caution about cancer.

Hi, Dr. Dressler! My male German Shepherd,almost 7 y.o., is spotting blood, but usually only after gets up from a nap. The vet also said that his prostate is “huge”, the ultrasound showed some sort of a growth between the prostate and the bladder. The vet recommended to neuter him and see if the growth disappears, along with shrinking of the prostate. I am not sure about the neutering, so is there anything alse I can do to shrink the prostate? The lymph nodes within that region are “clear”, and the vet said that the growth is most likely benign. Thank you.

This is one where you should carefully consider the statistics available to you. Prostate cancer at this stage is fairly advanced and most often does not respond well to chemotherapy. It is time for life quality analysis. Take into account what the average life expectancy is for your breed and what the expected outcomes will be from treatment. Being unable to urinate and defecate are life quality issues. I will go into more detail in this month’s webinar because your question is a good one:
http://www.mydogvet.com
Dr D

Marie, please don’t feel guilty for neutering your Samoyeds. I lost my male Samoyed (that was never neutered) at age 8 to cancer. The doctor attempted to remove his spleen, and he ended up passing away the same day as the operation. The doctor said his body was full of tumors, and that even if he could have saved him, he wouldn’t have survived much longer anyway. I suspect that the cheap dog food with chemical preservatives that he ate for all of his life may have been to blame.

I have been much more cautious with my current dog, a Chinese Foo – (rare large breed dog). I thought I was safe with Nutro’s Natural Choice until I noticed during the first big dog food scare a few years ago, that even they had recalls on one of their products. I immediately started researching online and found a far superior brand of dog food made only with human grade ingredients.

My dog is noticeably more active since I switched. He is 12 years old now, but he plays and rolls around like a young pup. There’s a very good video exposing the dog food industry at PetFoodBasics.com. You’ll also learn what those pet food labels really mean, and you can order healthy pet foods, etc. from that link also.

Dr. Dressler,

Thank you for publishing this! I have labs and train & compete in hunt tests with both dogs. Recently I read an article regarding the appropriate age to spay/neuter your dog. It was based on a university study and showed that unless there were behavior problems, that neutering your male dog increases several types of cancer. One being hemangiosarcoma. I lost the article and study, and would like to forward the information to my other training friends. Is this the same study I had read??

Thank you, I will be purchasing your book, and forwarding your blog to my friends as well!

Dear Jennifer,
I should clarify 2.2 times the risk in spayed females versus intact females-
D

Thank you Dr. Dressler. I will check them out.

Has there been any proof of nutritional supplements, etc. that help prevent cancer in dogs? Thank God, neither of my boys have cancer.

The last 2 labs I had, one I lost at 10 to leukemia (starting limping off and on – the vet thought he was bleeding through the bone, went down hill in a matter of days, I had him put down the day we received the diagnosis, less than a week before he was going over agility jumps and retrieving birds no problems seen), the other diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma the week of him 13th birthday).

I used to work at City of Hope as a nurse, and have seen way too many people with Cancer. I can only say bless you for working with animals with cancer. It is hard work dealing with sad cases day in and day out.

Again, bless you.

Jennifer

My vet isn’t in until 10am central time, so I wanted to ask here. I recently got my 4 month old puppy neutered. The first 2 days he was just fine when it came to going out and going to the bathroom. This morning, he seems to be having an issue with bladder control. He went outside and urinated like always, came inside, urinated, urinated on the steps to the basement, and then also ran to jump up on the soda, and urinated on that. Now normally he has been great with going outside. So I am worried there is an issue. He’s been taking his antibiotics, and his stiches look fine, there’s no redness around the site to indicate infection.

I’ve been doing some reading recently about the effects of spay/neuter on dog’s long-term health. My 5 1/2 year old Italian Mastiff is dying from bone cancer. No warning, she was limping one day but didn’t seem to be in pain. When she was limping the next morning I called the vet for an appointment. She’s too far gone to save. I had her spayed at 6 months. It’s what we’ve always been told to do. Now I see that numerous studies show up to a threefold risk of developing bone cancer, something’s that already pretty common in large breeds to begin with. I’m sick! I feel like I may have contributed to her developing this disease.
I also see studies show that dogs who are neutered while still growing can develop skeletal deformities because hormones affect the growth plates. My next dog, male, will have to be neutered (breeder requirement for pets), but it won’t be until after he’s 14 months or older. Meanwhile, all I can do is keep my dog company and promise to do the right thing when her quality of life is no longer acceptable.

I have a German Shepherd who was fixed 10 days ago. We were on vacation so he did his recovering the whole time we were gone (8 days). We brought in home and he was fine for 2 days and now he has started peeing in the house (twice). He’s also peeing much more frequently, like he can’t hold it anymore. Is this common for newly neutered dogs? If so, how long will it last?

i have a 18 months male pomeranian with one testicle (the other did not drop). If it weren’t for this, i would not neuter him. But i heard that given one of his testicle did not drop, his chance of developing cancer is higher and so the vet said he should get neutered ASAP. any thoughts on this? does him having only one testicle dropping means that neutering him would provide health benefit?

Thanks a lot! E

My 14 year old dog has been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. The symptoms came on quite suddenly and the diagnosis was given by the radiologist. The next steps from the vet are to take a tissue sample through the aorta lymph?. This by itself can be dangerous for bleeding and sedation at his age. I aksed if they could treat the cancer, but said that they could not know how to. The xray showed a slight dark spot near his sacrum. The ultrasound evidently showed an enlarged prostate. They do not give him long. I am against the aspiration of the tissue. I have taken him into a acupuncturist who specializes in dogs, who has also given him an herbal antibiotic to treat what she thinks is an infection. This could be a secondary infection or just an infection alone. I am willing to do whatever is necessary holistically to help him but not prepared to do invasive surgery. Is there anything else that you could recommend that I could do? Thank you so much, Lisa McFadin

This is a bad and scary post – Desexing is valid and does decrease the risk of problems – shameful article that goes against all veternary advice – you can make peopel believe the earth is flat if you post an article.

be careful people

Dear Mandy
I will confess that in many cases I lean towards neutering myself for cases like these. You don’t have to though. When you are done with the antibiotics get an ultrasound guided fine needle aspirate to collect a sample for culture and senstivity. Also get a specimen for a pathologist to look at to check for cancer or benign prostatic hypertrophy. That way you can test to see if there are germs in the prostate or if there is something else going on. If negative, get a follow up ultrasound by the same person in about 4 months or so (of course, clear all this with your vet, or a second opinion vet). If the prostate is still growing but was negative on the culture, you may really want to reconsider the choice to not neuter. If it is not growing or shrinks, then perhaps you are home free.
Hope this helps,
Dr D

I am scheduled to have my 10 year old Yorkshire Terrier’s canine tooth removed tomorrow morning. He has also not been neutered yet, but did have an enlarged prostate problem recently for which he was given antibiotics. They seem to have worked. However, I have been advised to also have him neutered tomorrow to reduce the chances of him getting prostate cancer. He can also visit daycare and maybe I can adopt another dog is he is neutered. If I get him neutered this late in his life, will this actually increase his risk of contracting cancer?

Tks, Dr. Dressler

S. Ford

[...] Re: Neutering – does it affect the coat? http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongT…uterInDogs.pdf Bladder and Prostate Cancer: Neutering Male Dogs Increases Risk [...]