Interesting. Your last article noted castration showed increase of cancer in certain breeds -- I was told to do it for my Pom because not doing increased his chances of getting cancer.... He's going to be 11 - I haven't noticed any issues with him, even ones they're prone to like knee issues.
In my 35 years of practice I can't recall more than maybe one or two Pomeranians with cancer, and I worked with a lot of them. It's not uncommon for veterinarians to recommend castration to prevent prostate cancer. Research tells us that incidence of prostate cancer is higher in neutered dogs.
You neglected to mention that vasectomy will not prevent common conditions that develop later in life--benign prostatic disease, perineal hernia, and testicular neoplasia.
Thanks for your comment Aunna, and you are exactly right. The good new is that 90% of testicular tumors are benign and both they and benign prostatic disease can be successfully treated with castration. Same with perineal hernias—castration with hernia repair. Stay tuned because I will be addressing many of these things in a future February blog post.
Thank you, this clarifies a lot of questions I had. I knew vasectomies in dogs were possible, but didn’t know the details.
Interesting. Your last article noted castration showed increase of cancer in certain breeds -- I was told to do it for my Pom because not doing increased his chances of getting cancer.... He's going to be 11 - I haven't noticed any issues with him, even ones they're prone to like knee issues.
In my 35 years of practice I can't recall more than maybe one or two Pomeranians with cancer, and I worked with a lot of them. It's not uncommon for veterinarians to recommend castration to prevent prostate cancer. Research tells us that incidence of prostate cancer is higher in neutered dogs.
You neglected to mention that vasectomy will not prevent common conditions that develop later in life--benign prostatic disease, perineal hernia, and testicular neoplasia.
Thanks for your comment Aunna, and you are exactly right. The good new is that 90% of testicular tumors are benign and both they and benign prostatic disease can be successfully treated with castration. Same with perineal hernias—castration with hernia repair. Stay tuned because I will be addressing many of these things in a future February blog post.
A flying dog😄