rescue dog policy (neutering)

[borderdawn]

Vets! thats the pain, inject it, chip it, chop its nuts off!! its all they go on about and they make people feel very guilty if they question it. Take me for instance, I took Orey to be vacced at our "cheap" vacc and neutering branch of our practice, (£33 as opposed to £49) I got a newbie Vet! Shall I microchip him now? NO! Ill do him myself! Would you like to book him in for castration now? NO! and before the spiel came flooding out, I left! Its WRONG!

Prostate problems are nowhere near as common as they tell you, they make out its every other dog. Breeding bitches and unspayed bitches are the ones most at risk from illness, and illnesses that kill them, like Pyo and Mammary tumours, testicular tumour numbers in males are incredibly small in comparison.

I have just had a second year London Vet school student with me for a week, its drummed into them, spay and neuter, spay and neuter, spay and neuter, when asked about the health benefits, she could quote PYO etc.. which I agree with but the tumour thing, well its not as common is it!!!!

[vicki]

Well I'm afraid I'll have to disgree with you about hardly seeing the problems in male dogs! I would say on average we diagnose an elderly entire dog with prostate tumour/problems upto 10 times a week, we are always scanning entire dogs as they have the problems related to it and we are finding it, we castrate a large number of dogs with prostate tumours, testicular tumours and anal adenomas so maybe you are lucky with your entire dogs but it certainly happens on a very frequent basis and the health benefits for neutering dogs are just as high as those for bitches. A dog with a prostate tumour that owners wont castrate is a very poorly dog

[smudgley]

I work with dogs that are neutered "later in life"... we do see females with problems, but only rarely do we see males with any testicular tumours / prostate problems.

So I would guess females are probably more prone to health problems than males relating to being entire...

The reason I started this thread was about rehoming rescues uneutered, which is what I feel strongly about. I don't have any views either way about peoples choice to neuter their own pets. {except maybe outdoor cats}

[borderdawn]

Originally Posted by vicki

Well I'm afraid I'll have to disgree with you about hardly seeing the problems in male dogs! I would say on average we diagnose an elderly entire dog with prostate tumour/problems upto 10 times a week, we are always scanning entire dogs as they have the problems related to it and we are finding it, we castrate a large number of dogs with prostate tumours, testicular tumours and anal adenomas so maybe you are lucky with your entire dogs but it certainly happens on a very frequent basis and the health benefits for neutering dogs are just as high as those for bitches. A dog with a prostate tumour that owners wont castrate is a very poorly dog

Yeah, my old dog was diagnosd with an enlarged prostate, turned out he ate a potato!!!!! Cant believe them all you know, many Vets are chop 'em off specialists!

[Rosie]

It's a sad world out there & whilst we can not help rescue all the cats & dogs in it, we can certainly ensure the ones that are rescued are dealt with & rehomed responsibly. To not H/C or neuter is in my opinion irresponsible.

Well I think the other 9,999 would disagree! I know many people who have rehomed from there and are very responsible. Am I to assume you would rather the others were pst?

[smudgley]

Originally Posted by Rosie

Well I think the other 9,999 would disagree! I know many people who have rehomed from there and are very responsible. Am I to assume you would rather the others were pst?

No you shouldn't assume I would rather they were PTS... never assume.

They shouldn't take them in if they can't cope with the demand.
Any rescue that's taking them in should be responsible & not just get them in & out as fast as poss just to meet the demand!

[Elaine]

Originally Posted by borderdawn

Yeah, my old dog was diagnosd with an enlarged prostate, turned out he ate a potato!!!!! Cant believe them all you know, many Vets are chop 'em off specialists!

That must of hurt, poor thing
I know you cannt beleive all vets, just look at all the animals PTS because of false negatives on inhouse testing. But thats digressing from this debate, sorry.

[Elaine]

Originally Posted by Rosie

Well I think the other 9,999 would disagree! I know many people who have rehomed from there and are very responsible. Am I to assume you would rather the others were pst?

I am sure many people who rehome are very responsible but there are equally those who arent and animals are once again back on the street. Its very sad to say and I know that the RSPCA etc have a reputation for having healthy yet homeless animals PTS, (which breaks my heart) but sometimes we have to be realistic, there simply are'nt enough homes to go round and as long as these animals are left un-neutered and un-speyed we will never find a resolution.

[Jac]

There are also people out there doing rescue who ARE only in it for the money! I speak from experiance.
Some dont home check, Vet check or do follow ups. Entire males are just left entire as are females.. Iknow of at least two people that have bred (sorry my heads away tonight and cant think how to spell) from rescue dogs and made alot of money from it. I'm talking about big breed dogs too. Totally out of order.
You get a dominant male, the people are afraid of him and he rules the roost, a resipe for disaster!
Iv'e seen that too!! People pinned to buckets because they have food in the car, or giving a dog a treat because its groweling at them . Some people dont always tell the truth when they go to rescues. Instead of paying £600 for a pup they get a young dog or bitch for £200 even £250

[borderdawn]

Originally Posted by Elaine

That must of hurt, poor thing
I know you cannt beleive all vets, just look at all the animals PTS because of false negatives on inhouse testing. But thats digressing from this debate, sorry.

It was similar symptoms Elaine, lower abdominal pain, hunched up, reluctance to poo, and with his age it was just "assumed" it was his prostate, diagnosis, castration!!!! It was only when the following day he sicked up a Jersey mid and he became cured, all was revealed!! Some Vets do not give enough consideration to other possibilities and reasons for not neutering, often making out owners are irressponsible.
Dawn.