Comments on Chemical Castration in Your Future?

Please could you comment on managing enlarged prostate in senior dogs? Ive used homeopathic remedies for 6 years, but now it’s enlarged again and the vet ( Traditional & Homeopathic) want to neuter. I don’t want to neuter if there is any way to resolve the problem without neutering. I’d like to here your opinion on this.. I do hope you can respond to my question.

Okay, I'm going to inject a bit of levity here ..... I quit watching TV about 10 yrs ago. Got better things to do with my time. So when people first started talking about the Cardashians I thought it was the aliens from the old Star Trek series! Imagine my surprise a few yrs later while checking out at the grocery store to see a picture of a human Cardashian!

Hi Dr Falconer-
What is your opinion on vasectomy and ovary sparing spay?

I would be concerned that having an unaltered cat or dog that will never be allowed to breed may be stressful for the animal and possibly lead to health problems also. In the wild an animal wouldn't be celibate.

Question -
I don't own male dogs (never will for my own reasons). I have always had females and always had them spayed. Yes, I am responsible to NOT let them get pregnant, but I don't want to deal with heat cycles and the mess.
Does that make me IRRESPONSIBLE?

I am so glad that I did not neuter my male GSD. A few years back I had considered doing it, only after he had matured. But a while back you wrote a good blog about all the issues that could take place. So I changed my mind and I am very happy I kept him in tact, he is 6 years old now.
I don't have issues with marking. He does have an intensity about licking my female's urine, but I have been told that is normal behavior.
As always, I appreciate your wisdom Dr. Will. Thank you.

Hundreds of thousands of homeless dogs and cats are homeless today. Please, please don't encourage people in any way to not spay/neuter. That's why we are in this mess in the first place.

Question:
You know when a human woman has to have a full hysterectomy and she has to take hormones, because she can no longer produce them?
Would it not be possible to replace testosterone and hormones for our spayed and neutered dogs in a similar fashion?

Since 1998 I've run a dog home boarding business in Colorado. We require spay/neuter status for a well-socialized dog to come stay in one of our homes. Close to ten years ago a client came to my home on a meet-n-greet with a sweet mutt that we'd been told was neutered. Upon slow introductions, the first dog, my own beloved Pug/Norwegian Elkhound-x NM, Pugsley ran up into this dog's face and yapped at him. Pugsley was a quiet fellow. EVERY direction their dog turned, Pugsley ran in front of him and yapped, but nothing more. That sounding of his little alarm meant that their dog was intact. In our thirteen years together hiking, boarding and traveling he never ever once was wrong. He wasn't neutered until he was found at about four years old and he knew well the smell of testosterone. When I relayed this to my new clients standing by and confused, they told me over and over that their dog was neutered by the shelter. He had a very bushy double coat obscuring his hindquarters and I had not yet asked him to bend over and cough(!). Finally, their protestation changed and they said he was chemically neutered. Sparing you the rest of the story, dogs still react to the smell of testosterone and while the hormonally intact (to some degree) dog may be totally chill, it sets off some other dogs and raises the tension level in a group. In parks I've sometimes seen an intact male surrounded by neutered males, forcing a confrontation. But we must set our Camp dogs up for success, not confrontation. I've also found--in early years of the business--that dogs with testosterone are far more likely to mark in our sitters' lovely homes than neutered males. That urine is far more potent than the urine of neutered males, attracting others to mark over it. There goes the neighborhood!
The more I read, the more value I see in leaving dogs unaltered surgically. But it's the rare home boarding business owner who will welcome intact males for reasons already mentioned, but a growing number of people want this level of quiet, highly personal care. Chemical neutering doesn't seem like the answer, but I see the appeal to underfunded shelters moving hundreds or even thousands of pets through their doors every year. Until your article I had not seen posed the potential threat of zinc in the dog's body. It's clear that sooner or later I will have to be prepared to have this conversation with clients. But we won't be boarding zeutered dogs anytime soon. Thank you.

I have a question regarding intact male dogs. My dog is still intact and several dog trainers that I know have warned me that other dogs, especially male dogs, will sense that mine is still intact and will react more aggressively toward him. Do you find that to be true?

Glad to read all this research, although when I first heard of it in the beginning of the article, my gut told me "NO". It's amazing all the weird things we invent to interrupt natural life.
However, I really would like to read more about neutering and not neutering. Our pup, your patient, is not neutered yet as we agreed with you, that to wait would be better. I figured I wouldn't even worry about it until he was a year old, which will be in a few months. He is doing great and I don't want to ruin that. But, I am not too familiar with male puberty. In the past we had our males neutered very early.
One thing he is doing is any chance he gets, he licks the male genitals of other dogs. I looked this up on the internet and read things about "getting to know" another dog and dominance issues. I would love to hear your take on this and how to limit it, or whether it's proper to do that. However, it's upsetting to other people and not the kind of behavior we want to see either. Also, do you do neutering yourself?
Thanks for your excellent newsletters!

Great explanation of the zeutering process. ugh.
I am still up in the air when it comes to s/n. I understand what you are saying Dr Falconer of the health benefits of not doing the procedures, but that, I feel, pertains to "responsible" pet care takers. Sadly there are too many that are not responsible, not even close. Yeah, they shouldn't have a dog or cat, but they do. They take good care of them but maybe aren't with them all the time. Maybe they don't realize the problems that are in the overcrowded shelter. Maybe they felt that is better to let them be and breed with whoever comes by. That is the case here in California for the most part. Ignorant people, and I say that kindly as they really don't understand. The shelters are killing fields for the most part. Not all, but many. All sorts of reasons for the dogs and cats being there but the bottom line is that a human let it happen, or set it up to happen. Education is happening and s/n is a tool.