MAY – MATER
Here’s one of the reasons we advocate castration of male dogs early (prior to 6 months of age) or if not then, as soon as they are finished breeding (and hurry up to finish breeding).
Like all males, testicles produce testosterone which is the hormone for male characteristics both physical and behavioural. However, male dogs and cats do not need testes for anything apart from the production of semen. There are many scientific reasons to desex male and female pets and this case highlights this.
Mater is a 5year old male bull arab that presented a bit off one day. Then about 2 wks later started to drip blood from his penis. He was urinating well and defaecating well but not eating quite normally. Mater was admitted for tests.
It was discovered Mater had a prostatic mass and he needed surgery to explore this further. Poor Mater – it was quite painful to palpate it and he was not his usual self either.
Mater was scheduled for surgery and when we opened him up, we discovered he had a huge fluid filled cystic structure that incorporated his prostate and was around his bladder. It was about 20cm x 15cm and extended to both sides of his abdomen. We had to open and drain the fluid from this cyst and were thankful it was not an abscess. We then sutured omentum (cobweb like membrane in the abdomen) into the hole left behind to continually drain the cyst until it regressed. We also had to castrate Mater to stop the testosterone effect on the prostate.
With any male dogs having prostate or urinary problems, castration is the most important thing we can do to prevent incomplete healing of infections or further exacerbation of problems due to the testosterone influence on the prostate.
Mater made an amazing recovery and luckily went home the next day. He was feeling heaps better.
We sent a piece of the wall of the cystic structure to the lab and it was discovered to be a ‘Paraprostatic Cyst’ and it would not improve unless he was castrated so this was already done! These do not form in castrated male dogs so could have been avoided for him.
We are so glad Mater is back to his normal self without blood from his penis and his prostate is now closer to the normal size.