Some of you are vets besides Lane.

One of my online buddies in England was told
his old dog's dribbling pink piss in the house
was caused by prostate problems. Ok, I can buy
that.

Yet his vet recommended nutting the dog. SO it was
done. Always a docile dog, never aggressive.
A month after it was done. He's attacking other
dogs at the park. Like Ken says: "if someone
cut his nuts off he'd be aggressive too".

Can't get a firm reply on whether it stopped
the dribbling piss or not.

What do you vets or other in the know folks
have to say?

I can't see any relation between nuts and
prostate problems. Please explain.

Thanks, George

Not a vet, but removal of the testicles is an option in people for prostate cancer issues.

The prostate is under the influence of testosterone, and removal would act as a reduction in stimulus to enlarge. One of the human treatments for prostate enlargement is finasteride (Proscar) which uses this for its effect in swollen prostate reduction.

I suppose the drug would be an option for dogs as well, but its way too expensive for most to try. The surgery is a relatively inexpensive way to treat it in an animal.

I would expect the aggressiveness to end after a few months once the dog goes through "male menopause" from the abrupt discontinuation of testosterone.

Just what I was looking for.

Never heard of it before.
Thank you sir. Shall pass it on
to Ken.

George

My Labrador started finasteride when he was about 8 after an enlarged and painful prostate was diagnosed during semen collection. He was a field champion, so I didn't want to neuter him till he retired from competition. The finasteride worked well until he was neutered.

I can't imagine the aggression was caused by neutering, though.

I'm not a vet, btw. a doctorate in another discipline and a household full of dogs.

Update on Clyde six months later
he's still aggressive with all other dogs.

George

That’s too bad!

Behavioral changes can also be neurological in nature.

If it was a human, I’d be running a head MRI and EEG on him. That’s not always an option with dogs. It could also be new learned behavior on the pup’s part... I’m not a vet- it probably also depends on how much the owner is willing to spend for a diagnosis that may not be amenable to treatment...

I know this is an older post but, there are several multi year studies showing that increased aggression is a side effect of neutering. What type of dog do you have?