cryptorchidism - Page 1

Anyone looking for more information on this "condition" can find some excellent articles on the net. Since we are not permitted to list URL's here, do a google search and click on the first few results. Briefly, and this is what I was taught in canine anatomy class and most likely what anyone else learned who took such classes - the testicle are descended by the 10th day, most before birth, and shortly thereafter the inguinal ring closes and they are then where they are going to be forever. The very latest the ring closes is 6 months and most are closed well before that. If an older dog "loses" a testicle, then there must be something else going on, a hormonal issue where the ring has not closed at the expected time in which case he may not be a good breeding prospect anyway. You can't find testicles on a young puppy by having him stand on all 4's, you have to hold him upright on your lap with while gently palpating his scrotum. If they are there, you can always feel them at 3, 4 weeks and once that ring closes they will not go back into the abdomen. BTW, the inguinal ring is not big as I read in another post and I don't understand how the abodminal contents could pass throught that ring, but anything is possible I guess. Everyone has a story about a male who could retract one or both testicles from the scrotum when under stress, at a show maybe. However, that testicle does not leaves the scrotum if the ring has closed. At any rate, google the topic, it's good reading.