RTR
Tourist
I thought I'd share one of my boys journey with a common prostate issue as we attempt to treat him in the hope that someone else may find our experience interesting and or useful as I see the odd post here about canine prostate issues.
So, some background:
* He's 5 years old.
* Not a sexual partner, but he does ask for and enjoy the occasional handjob (maybe once a month? Sometimes more, often less). He has never been used at stud.
* About 88 pounds / 40kg.
* Fit, lean, energetic and (otherwise) healthy with no signs of straining to defecate or issues urinating. No other serious health concerns now or in the past.
* Lives with multiple large breed intact males but no females.
The problem:
A few months back I noticed some blood in his ejaculate after he'd had a wet dream (rare for him) while sleeping next to me. A collection confirmed that his ejaculate was a red (bloody) and a rectal exam revealed his prostate to be around double the size it was at his last check (I check it every year around his birthday). It was symmetrically enlarged, smooth with two apparent nodes and not painful. Blood in the ejaculate is a common symptom of an enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hypertrophy/hyperplasia or BPH).
It took a while to get an appointment with our vet but off we went fully expecting to come home with a booking for castration surgery but hoping for an alternative as he is a conformation show dog in addition to being my buddy and couch/bed hog. I was also concerned about any change in our pack dynamic that a neuter might cause as at the moment everything is quite stable and everyone gets along well enough...but I am still willing to go down that path if required as his general well being is more important than competitions.
We were given three options:
1: Surgical castration - almost certain (99.999%) to resolve this issue at the obvious expense of him being sterilized and no longer able to compete along with a possibility of upsetting the pack. The vet was actually hesitant to do this due to his age, living conditions, show career and as his prostate is not massively enlarged...yet.
2: Temporary chemical castration with a 6 month implant (Suprelorin) - this has a similar effect to surgical castration as it turns off the part of the brain that signals the testicles to make testosterone. His testicles would shrink to about half to one third of their normal size, he would be rendered infertile within a month or so after implantation and almost certainly experience anejaculation as his prostate would shrink to about 25% of its normal size. His show career would have to be on hold for the duration of this treatment due to the atrophy of his testicles (they are checked by every judge and must be apparently normal, baby balls are not going to fly!). Recommended to monitor him as the implant wore off and re-implant or surgically castrate if/when symptoms returned. Same concerns as option 1 regarding the pack dynamic but at least if everything went to shit it would wear off eventually, if all went well we could go to surgery.
3: Treatment with Finasteride - this should shrink his prostate by around 50% and have few or no other side effects except for a reduction in the volume of ejaculate, his balls stay normal and he remains fertile. It works by blocking the breakdown of testosterone that causes the prostatic enlargement. He may need to be on this for either a few months or possibly for life. Major concern with this was cost but as it turns out there are generic Finasteride tablets available for modest cost.
All three options came with a fistful of eyewateringly expensive antibiotics to treat any possible infection and a suggestion to wait at least a couple of weeks before starting any other treatment so as to allow the antibiotics time to do their thing while the prostate is still large and has lots of blood flow.
Which brings me to where we are now, he has been on antibiotics for a few weeks and a collection has revealed no change...if anything there was more blood. A quick rectal exam showed his prostate to be the same as it was prior to starting the antibiotics. So today we start option 3, the Finasteride. I'll post again in a couple of weeks with a progress report.
So, some background:
* He's 5 years old.
* Not a sexual partner, but he does ask for and enjoy the occasional handjob (maybe once a month? Sometimes more, often less). He has never been used at stud.
* About 88 pounds / 40kg.
* Fit, lean, energetic and (otherwise) healthy with no signs of straining to defecate or issues urinating. No other serious health concerns now or in the past.
* Lives with multiple large breed intact males but no females.
The problem:
A few months back I noticed some blood in his ejaculate after he'd had a wet dream (rare for him) while sleeping next to me. A collection confirmed that his ejaculate was a red (bloody) and a rectal exam revealed his prostate to be around double the size it was at his last check (I check it every year around his birthday). It was symmetrically enlarged, smooth with two apparent nodes and not painful. Blood in the ejaculate is a common symptom of an enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hypertrophy/hyperplasia or BPH).
It took a while to get an appointment with our vet but off we went fully expecting to come home with a booking for castration surgery but hoping for an alternative as he is a conformation show dog in addition to being my buddy and couch/bed hog. I was also concerned about any change in our pack dynamic that a neuter might cause as at the moment everything is quite stable and everyone gets along well enough...but I am still willing to go down that path if required as his general well being is more important than competitions.
We were given three options:
1: Surgical castration - almost certain (99.999%) to resolve this issue at the obvious expense of him being sterilized and no longer able to compete along with a possibility of upsetting the pack. The vet was actually hesitant to do this due to his age, living conditions, show career and as his prostate is not massively enlarged...yet.
2: Temporary chemical castration with a 6 month implant (Suprelorin) - this has a similar effect to surgical castration as it turns off the part of the brain that signals the testicles to make testosterone. His testicles would shrink to about half to one third of their normal size, he would be rendered infertile within a month or so after implantation and almost certainly experience anejaculation as his prostate would shrink to about 25% of its normal size. His show career would have to be on hold for the duration of this treatment due to the atrophy of his testicles (they are checked by every judge and must be apparently normal, baby balls are not going to fly!). Recommended to monitor him as the implant wore off and re-implant or surgically castrate if/when symptoms returned. Same concerns as option 1 regarding the pack dynamic but at least if everything went to shit it would wear off eventually, if all went well we could go to surgery.
3: Treatment with Finasteride - this should shrink his prostate by around 50% and have few or no other side effects except for a reduction in the volume of ejaculate, his balls stay normal and he remains fertile. It works by blocking the breakdown of testosterone that causes the prostatic enlargement. He may need to be on this for either a few months or possibly for life. Major concern with this was cost but as it turns out there are generic Finasteride tablets available for modest cost.
All three options came with a fistful of eyewateringly expensive antibiotics to treat any possible infection and a suggestion to wait at least a couple of weeks before starting any other treatment so as to allow the antibiotics time to do their thing while the prostate is still large and has lots of blood flow.
Which brings me to where we are now, he has been on antibiotics for a few weeks and a collection has revealed no change...if anything there was more blood. A quick rectal exam showed his prostate to be the same as it was prior to starting the antibiotics. So today we start option 3, the Finasteride. I'll post again in a couple of weeks with a progress report.
).
