OK I don't have a male dog but this is just something that has been bugging me for a couple days and I figured you guys would be able to help me out. My friend recently got her male dog fixed, he's over two years old, and kind of aggressive. He does well with spayed females, but not so well with nay other dog. Now my question is, when you guys got your males fixed, they took BOTH balls right? I'm not crazy right? Because they only took one of her dogs testicles. She said that they left the other so that he could continue to keep producing testosterone. Except, isn't the whole point of getting a dog neutered is that you remove both? Isn't that why people are worried about doing it at a young age in case it messes with growth (which I don't think it does)? I know my other friend got her male fixed and they took both of his because they had to find the one that wasn't descended yet. I know its really weird to be asking, but my friend says its really common and I've honestly never heard of it before.

Um....that is really weird.

Erm.. yeah.. mine had both theirs taken out. I've never heard of them only taking one, that does sound really weird.

Yeah, never heard of that EVER. If you leave one, you may as well leave both. Dizzy has one undescended and for his neuter, they have to do abdominal surgery to find the other one and remove it in addition to the one in the scrotum. If you don't remove both you won't see any change in behavior. The testicles aren't the only way testosterone is produced, even women need it to a certain extent, so they will still produce it, just not the the level they would before the neuter. I have never heard of a vet doing that and it sounds like a scam of some kind, or the vet has NO idea what they are doing. He is also still fertile with one.

Edit - he is still fertile unless they did some other procedure (vasectomy?), but I can't imagine why a vet would do that. Does this vet have a license? Did he/she go to vet school and graduate?

Ugh, totally off topic, but sorry! I just accidentally gave Megan a negative treat. Work computer just spazzed on me.

Saber had both his removed. I've never heard of only removing one, what would be the point lol? That's really strange.

I just gave a positive treat to even it out.

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Edit - he is still fertile unless they did some other procedure (vasectomy?), but I can't imagine why a vet would do that. Does this vet have a license? Did he/she go to vet school and graduate?

See that's the part that I don't know. My friend CLAIMS the guy is a licensed vet, but he goes to her church and I'm pretty sure he did the procedure at his house. I just got a really bad feeling about it and his aggression issues definitely have not changed at all. And I'm not sure how I would broach the subject with her without telling her that this guy was flat out wrong. UGH.

That sounds absolutely terrible. :/

Oh wow! Her poor dog! That sounds really suspect to me. Maybe just tell her you don't feel comfortable having Karli around this dog until he's less aggressive. You could raise the issue then and maybe point her toward some resources about neutering and just gently tell her that the majority of the veterinary community takes both and its not common. Common practice is to remove both. I've looked up a lot about cryptorchidism in dogs since Dizzy is cryptor, and all of that info says that you have to remove the one that is undescended because although it won't fully function like a normal testicle, it still can have an effect on behavior and he can still be fertile. You could show her some of that evidence.

I've never heard of that either. It's completely pointless to remove one. I had Lucian neutered around 5 1/2 months old, and it didn't do anything to stop his growth, he's over 50lbs. That has to be about one of the strangest things I've heard. I would just tell her you asked a few people and no one has ever heard of only having one testicle removed.

simplify wrote:

Ugh, totally off topic, but sorry! I just accidentally gave Megan a negative treat. Work computer just spazzed on me.

wpskier222 wrote:

I just gave a positive treat to even it out.

Lol, thanks guys.

But I would totally ask her to see another vet for a 2nd opinion and get the 2nd one removed as soon as possible, I really can't see why they saw it even necessary to only take one? As others have said he's still fertile, and he's still going to have the same behaviors, so I really don't understand it at all.

I think the issue with growth is that testosterone actually regulates and slows growth, so neutered dogs end up bigger than they otherwise would have. That's the side of the argument for waiting until they are older, that and mental development.

I'm going to...grrr. I would say that he can't hang out with Karli, but he is really good with Karli. The people who had him before her never socialized him which is where his issues come from, but him and Karli play really well (my dog is like the therapy dog for dogs lol). I am gonna tell her though that this is unheard of and she'll still need to be really careful with him around unaltered females. I thought that once he got fixed he'd calm down but when I noticed that he was still aggressive I asked her if she had gotten him fixed and that's when she told me about only having one removed. I feel bad for this dog because he may have to go through all that all over again.

I've certainly never heard of this before. Both of our male dogs had both testicles removed. I would defintely question the vet on that one and maybe have her do some research on it. I would think the dog could still produce sperm with one testicle. Unless they tied it, but that would seem like more work.

That does not sound normal to me. I've never heard of them only taking one... in theory- if he only took one, did he schedule a time to take the other? Or did he suggest just leaving the other one there?

But with what you're saying about the guy doing it in his home.... RED FLAG. I hope for the dog's sake she takes the dog to a REAL vet and gets a second opinion. Good luck.

Hey Roxy, just wondering how all this is turned out? Did you speak to your friend and did her dog got a proper neuter? Hope all is good