Male with no sperm? - Page 3

Sounds like he may have testicular hypoplasia. It is a developmental disorder in which one or both testicles fail to reach normal size. The sperm count is low or non-existent. I don't think much, if anything, can be done about it.  On the other hand he is still very young and not fully mature, so maybe time will solve the problem. What did your vet say.  

Thanks for all the comments.  I appriciate them and I am not offended by anything.  I wouldn't normally breed a male this young ever anyway and would normal advise against it myself.

My vet said that he would be more concerned if his testicles were normal sized.  He said to give him till he is 18 months then retest and if he still has nothing get him neutered.  So I guess that I will wait and see.  I don't really want to wait to long to make a decision because even if he turns 2 and does spart producing how much do I want to breed a male that had reproduction issues?  I will have to think on it and decide but thanks so much for all of your help everyone.   

As I mentioned before he could just be slow in sexually maturing, so if it does take him until 2 years of age to produce a normal amount of sperm, that would not mean he has reproduction issues. It would just indicate he was slow at maturing.

Are his littler mates as large as he is? I am just wondering if there is a hormone issue going on with this dog.

Breeding a dog at 14 months is risky anyway because the dog really hasn't come into his own yet.

Please let us know the outcome.

Sorry so late.  I had a dog diagnosed with Aspermia (no sperm or dead sperm) at 2 years.  There was sperm or sperm like fluid present but not capable of reproducing.  The only remedy was to fix him and enjoy him as a wonderful pet.  If you purchased this dog with intentions of using him as a future stud and some sort of health guarantee was included, return him for refund or exchange. 

Wow, interesting thread. I'd have to say testicular hypoplasia would be my guess. I've never heard of a dog having that small of testicles at a year and then suddenly becoming normal. Lots of interesting info all....

Is his father still alive? Why not stud your bitch to him if you must, then you completely skip breeding a dog way too young and still have the lines you like. Just an idea.

I can't resist chiming in on this one. I've had quite a bit of experience in this area (canine andrology?) in the past.

Strange things can happen in endocrinology which could cause such a problem. My suspicion is that this dog might have been chemically sterilized without your knowledge, or given a newer class of drug that causes basically the immune system to attack the reproductive organs, causing sterility. This is just a hunch or guess.. I really know very little about these drugs, but I do know that they exist and have been used for some time, at least experimentally, on feral livestock and wild animals for population control.

Apparently the testes ARE producing sufficient testosterone to produce secondary sex characteristics (he looks like a male) and libido (he acts like a male). To have such small testes is definitely NOT normal.

Now, it IS possible that your dog might have had a hot spot on his scrotum or been sitting in a hot area.. it only takes a few degrees of temperature elevation. Sperm are very sensitive and this is why male gonads are "outies" and not "innies". If a dog gets orchitis.. an inflammatory process around the testes or scrotum.. it can produce immediate and complete sterility, and you can also get a shrinking of the testes, which usually reverses, at least to 80% normal former size (estimate). I have seen this happen, and it can be nothing more than just sitting in a puddle in the kennel.. a seemingly clean puddle can harbor a lot of bacteria and damp skin can have overgrowths of staph, which will cause an inflammatory process. The resulting elevation in temperature is all it takes to completely zap all of the sperm. They may still be viable for ICSI (not useful for dog breeding), but they will not be motile. When sperm appear to be "dead", they may only be immotile, and sperm motility is the most fragile aspect of sperm.  There is actually a famous Japanese reproductive scientist, by the way, who developed a method to FREEZE DRY mouse sperm!!! I kid you not.. It could be shipped in an ordinary first class envelope, I've heard.

OK.. Now when sperm are produced, they have to go through several very complicated processes, including gaining their motility. The process takes a full two months to complete, and even after the offending problem is resolved (which led to temporary infertility) you cannot rush the process.. It will still take two full months. Many a foolish stud owner has written off a dog that was temporarily infertile and quite recoverable, if only it needed a simple course of treatment for prostatitis or some other basically simple thing. Male dog fertility can be very cyclical and sensitive to environmental factors, so don't rush to judgement.

In this case, that you see no sperm at all, you could have caught the dog early after the insult / injury or early in the recuperative process. Don't give up too soon..