Retained testicle being reabsorbed by the body? - Page 1

Hi
I am wondering what you decided about neutering your GSD. My boy is 27 months and has one retained testicle. It was like this when I got him at 8 weeks so I doubt it was ever down and I did not know enough to check at the time.

I am worried about cancer and neutering. My last GSD died  was neutered at 6 months and died of hemangiosaroma a  few weeks before his 9th birthday.
I read that neutering reduces the risk of testicular cancer but increased the risks of hemangiosarcoma and other cancer.
The vet does not want to just remove the retained testicle and thinks that is stupid.
a breeder told me that sometimes a retained testicle in not even there and has been reabsorbed, and I should just leave him alone, ( I know he would like that)
Really want some advice before I spend $500 on something that may hurt rather than help Benny

I personally would not leave a retained testicle. I actually had a male with both retained. He was never really right sad to say so I had him neutered. He was MUCH better afterwards. I certainly wouldnt breed the dog because imo its genetic and he would pass it on to his puppies. Im sorry your other dog died at 8 but could the vets absolutely link the cancer to neutering? I work in the human field and there are so many things that contribute to cancer, diet being one of them. I wouldnt not neuter because your worried that happening again.

I too have had a dog with a retained testicle and also I have worked in the veterinary field for many years and I would not ever leave a retained testicle inside the dog. The retained testicle itself can become cancerous. I remember for example a little Corgi that had one testicle retained and the owner refused to neuter the dog until he was 7yrs or more and when we took the testicle out it was hard deformed and we sent it out for a biopsy and it came back malignant but once the testicle was removed the dog didn't have any problems after that! Sometimes the retained testicle can be extremely hard to find because they can be the size of a jellybean or a normal sized testicle. The surgery sometimes takes longer than a normal neuter procedure because the doctor has to go in the abdomen like a spay procedure would be. If the testicle is normal in size and close to where it is soposed to be the surgery will be quick, if its one of the smaller testicles and hidden in the abdomen it could take the doctor awhile to find it. I always recommend people to do pre-surgical blood work just to make sure all organs that need to process anesthesia are working correctly and definately get pain meds for the dog after the procedure and to take home with you for a week or so. I have never heard of neutering a dog to be the cause of cancer usually its the other way around. I was a surgical technician and we did many many retained testicle surgeries on dogs of all ages and sizes with great outcomes! I wish you the best of luck whatever you decide to do.

Thanks for the  response and for the info Trouble. I definitely want the retained testicle out and will have pre op testing. 
The problem is when I  went to schedule the appt and said that I only wanted the retained testicle removed and the normal one left intact, the vet tech acted like I was nuts and implied that they don't do that. I scheduled an appt with the vet to discuss this for next Friday and will bring some of my research about the higher incidence of  hemagiosarcom in neutered dogs. Maybe when the vet sees that I have a  reasonable reason for this he will agree.

http://webcanine.com/2007/research-on-neutering-and-spaying/

Your very welcome! Thanks for posting that link the information was very interesting! You will probably find that a lot of veterinary techs and docs that will not want to leave the other testicle, usually this is because of the things you see in the veterinary field! If you haven't ever worked in it you would really be surprised what people will ask you to do. And what some unethical breeders will expect you to do, unfortunately you see way more backyard breeders in it for the money than quality breeders trying to help their breed. It was very eye opening while I was a technician.  For example we once had a family that adopted an adult female Boxer and brought her in to get a procedure done and along with that brought a picture of some "lumps" that needed to be removed, these lumps turned out to be the dogs nipples, their son was not comfortable scratching her chest/belly so they wanted us to remove them!! We did not do that and they decided their son would have to deal with it!! It was a very strange request!!

Hopefully after talking with your vet he will see your side and between the two of you will come up with a plan that works for you and your dog! If you are not comfortable with what the vet says, you are always able to get a second opinion and talk with another doctor. I highly recommend clinics that are AHAA certified. It is the American Animal Hospital Association. The clinic has to be up to certain standards and are re-evaluated every 3 or so years. The last office I worked at the first time they were certified the number of standards was 700 and 1yr later we had to do 1800. Here is a link to understand what AHAA is www.aahanet.org there is a section that you can see if there is any AHAA office in your area as well as an area for pet owners! I have found their quality of care is usually above and beyond most other clinics!

I understand the cancer scare! I had a female the one in my avatar she developed bone cancer at 9.5yrs but luckily I am paranoid and with the location on her front leg we were able to amputate the leg and she lived cancer free til the age of 13yrs. The tumor was found after 2 days of limping we x-rayed, biopsied and had the amputation done within 1.5wks. She was spayed when she was 7yrs old after her last litter of puppies.

Best of luck to you and your boy!