Question about Monorchid or Single testicle dog - Page 2

Don Corleone, I thought it was funny..... :) My mom makes gelded cookies, no nuts!

Howdy, Hi Bob, very well said. vonderheiss, one part i believe is right, Monochid, there is only 1 testicle - no hidden one or not decendet one. That this fault is only passed on by the female, i do not believe. My knowledge is that this has to be set in both genetic input, of Sire & Dam. Sunsilver, i had a cryptochid ( undecended testicel) and did a bit of research on it. The believe is that if the undecendet testical stays in the abdomen, there MAY be an increased chance of cancer to it(do to the fact thatit is warmer in the abdomen). I have searched for a study on this and could not find any numbers that would back up this increased chance of cancer. There were in fact 2 Vets that stated, that even if a cancer would devellop it would be more likely in later life, basicly saying at the end of a lifespan of a GSD. But back to Sumos question, it is as was stated before: The dog does not fit the set standart requirements - therefore he is not eligible for show, or for breeding. For breeding not, because by rules of the SV, he would not get a breedsurvey nor would he be able to obtain a show rating. Beside that, this dog can compete in any field and may be a very good servicedog or whatever the owner sees & trains him to. Ulli Dresbach

Ulli-good to hear from you and I hope that all is well with you and yours. I will add something that complicates this issue. Sometimes an undescended testicle can be manipulated into its correct place, but more often it cannot. Add to this the issue of hormone injections that cause the testicles to become heavier in an attempt to force the retained testicle to become heavier and drop into the scrotum. Add the availability of prosthetic testicles and you see where I am going with this. Yes, these practices have been done by unscrupulous breeders and owners and are still done by those types. Life is not always fair, and if it was not meant to be, then it was not meant to be. I know this does not make it any easier to deal with a cryptorchid or monorchid puppy. The best thing to do is remove the retained testicle if it is present, and allow the dog to mature and be everything that he can be-he just should never be bred. There is a world or opportunity for this dog in other venues if he has the other critical qualities. Bob's been there too, Bob-O

Sorry Don, my mind has been a blurr lately, guess I just missed it in all the haze. :-)

By what age latest does the both testicles descend in the scortum? Is it advisable to operate or by other means bring down the testicle to the scortum? Because otherwise dog will have health problems in the future. Does this fault will be carried forward in the male offsprings of the dog?

It is a common misconception that cryporchidism is only passed on by the female. This would be so if it were a sex linked trait, as in haemophilia. It may give the impression of sex-linkage as it is limited to one sex but this is because it is physically impossible to express in a female, not because of its inheritance. It is in fact a sex-limited trait located on the autosomes and some sources believe it to be a simple recessive while others say polygenic. Either way, it will be passed on by males and females, though possibly a bitch sibling of an affected may be more likely to carry more of the defect genes than an entire male sibling, because the bitch would hide the expression of the defect genes that would express in a male as affected. The risk of cancer in Cryporchids is a significant 13.6% higher than normal dogs according to one study - http://tinyurl.com/3awu63

Thanks pod for your answers. What about my first question"By what age latest does the both testicles descend in the scortum?"

Sumo, in many puppies both testicles are in the scrotum by the time the dog is a few days old. At that point they are very tiny and may be hard to feel. Other puppies don't have both desecnded into the scrotum until the pup is older and some swear they owned or know of a dog that didn't get both down until the dog was 6,7,8 months or older. Personally I've not seen that. When the inguinal ring closes, the testicles can no longer pass into the scrotum if they are not already there. When I worked as a tech we would occasionally find one testicle trapped in this ring when the dog was castrated. This ring closes as early as a few days of age or it may take as long 6,7,8 months or longer. I have never owned or bred a cryptorchid puppy and could always feel both when the pup was around 4 weeks of age. You can't stand the pup on all fours to try to find testicles when they are very young, you need a different technique such as holding the puppy upright on your lap in a sitting position with your hand supporting his chest. Then you can gently place you fingers at the base of the scrotum and try to find both testicles that way. Dogs with rings that close late may not be the best breeding risks. These are the older puppies that "have both testicles" one day but not the next. Ideally both testicles should be in the scrotum when the pup is 3, 4 weeks old and the ring closed by that time. A dog with no descended testicles is called a bilateral cryptorchid, cryporchid meaning "hidden testicle", bilateral meaning "on both sides"; a dog with one descended is called a unilateral cryptorcid. As someone already said, is is a very rare condition to have a dog born with only one or no testicles. Normally both are there somewhere. Personally I would never buy a puppy for breeding unless I could feel both testicles in the scrotum when I bought him. There are always stories about dogs that didn't get both until they were almost a year old, etc, but I myself would not consider those dogs to be the best breeding risks. That's just me.

Thank Blitzen for that detailed answer.

I'd wait six months of age before rendering your dog cryptorchid, the reason being inguinal rings close by 6 months from the abdomen to the inguinal canal. If the testes are not present by then theres a problem and surgery is needed. Hopefully it's not attatched far up the canal at the kidney. This is heritable and is a sex-limited autosomal recessive trait. In other words be prepared for tumors and or Sertoli when the dog ages. If it's a bilateral the dog is sterile at normal body temp. If the dog is fighting an infection and the body temp is high the dog can produce. Hence the reason to alter the dog once known. If I'm not mistaken AKC states treatment by orchiopexy is considered fraudulent in Shows. Hope this helps.