When I get home from work this morning my wife is taking him to the vet to get his balls cut off. I feel really bad for him, we’ve only had him a few weeks and it’s already obvious he loves us to death. I’m kinda pissed that we are being forced into this by the pound we rescued him from, we’ll be fined if we don’t give proof that we neutered him - there’s not much risk that he’d be responsible for any unwanted puppies, he’s either in a fenced in yard or on a leash at all times, and though he’s quite the jumper there’s no way he could get out of our back yard - he’s only about 18 inches tall, our fences over 6 feet. I wonder what will be going through his head…
Hey, accidents happen. Your fence is tall, but how deep is it?
Too bad you don’t have your e-mail accessable. (Not that I’m saying you should. Really. That’s a personal decision.) Then we could all send Mikey or Spike or Graphenberg or Whatever a Get Well card. (Or a Sorry About Your Nuts card.)
And dogs don’t care. Spoil him rotten for a few days. It’s all Jake.
-Rue.
We had our dog ‘done’ last year and he was really miserable for a few days. He’s fine now though. He liked to jump up on the sofa which unfortunately he didnt realise he couldnt do with stitches in until its too late.
(would somebody like to rewrite that last sentence for me please. It reads really badly)
I remember when my parents got our dog fixed. For the next few days, whenever he looked at me, I could see the silent accusation in his eyes.
Give him lots of doggie treats. He’ll need 'em.
Ok. Dog trainer checking in.
All our police and working dogs are neutered. I yet have to have one look miserable after surgery. Mostly, they don’t realize anything’s different. They come home the same day, and are a bit zonked from the anasthetic. The following day, I fight to keep them quiet so they don’t pull out their stitches - they just want to romp around and train, as per usual. Normally, by Day 7 post-op, when I should go back to the vet to get the stitches out, I find out the little darlings have pulled them out themselves.
I wouldn’t worry if I were you. Their psyche doesn’t quite register these things. Honest. I’ve had hundreds of dogs go through training at the Training Hall, and trust me, I yet have to meet one who seemed psychologically affected about losing the family jewels.
Neutering is not just a matter of population control. It’s also a good way around a number of health problems.
Hang in there, don’t make a fuss of it, and the dog won’t either. Coddle him, and he’ll wonder why you’re worried, and worry himself.
Chill out. Drink a beer.
E.
Don’t worry, I’m sure the little fella will find plenty of other things to lick.
I’m trying to decide about neutering my nice, breedable labrador retriever puppy. I plan to see how being UN-neutered affects his behavior first. It’s nice to be able to make the choice myself. But if I have to go through with the surgery, I don’t think I’ll feel TOO bad about it. Lots of happy pets have it done and go on to lead tail-wagging, slobber-producing lives.
-L
Elenfair, a rebuttal, but not an argument. (You are right in what you said…)
Police and working dogs? Yeah, they’ll just shrug that off. They have big throats.
“What does that have to do with anything?” you ask.
It’s not the snipping, it’s the trach tube from the anesthesia that causes the problems. (cough, cough My throat hurts…) (That goes away in about a day. No biggie.)
Don’t fuss over the pup, (like Elly said, it only freaks 'em out.) but give him cheese. Cheese is good.
99% of neuters are no more traumatic than a nail trim. Usually not so bad as a nail trim. It’s the owners that get wigged. But science marches on…
Here’s a better [url=“http://www.angelfire.com/emo/ballen/engels/neuticle.html”]link[/url. With pictures!
Eh, screwed the coding. Again.
But here’s the Official site. Even better!
I don’t know why people insist on saying they had their pet fixed. They should say they had him broken - after all, he doesn’t work any more…
Rue, you are right, they sometimes do get that irritated throat thing going.
Yeah, my guys are tough little bastards. But even the retrievers, who are often VERY soft tempered, are usually unaffected.
As for getting our pets “broken”… well yeah… but it would be far more “broken” if it were done the Lorena Bobbit (sp?) style.
OK, Elenfair, you realize you are now responsible for millions of cases of “involuntary male shrinkage” all across the world today? :eek:
And you wimmen say us guys aren’t sensitive enough. We’re sensitive to that!! 
Perhaps you can get him a little pin for his collar so he can let all his dog buddies know that he had the dog version of a vasectomy and is damn proud of it.
On fences… my dog Sam is ten years old and stands 18 inches at the shoulder. Our 5.5 foot fence is nothing to him if he wants to get out. He’s part cat I guess.
Heh. Reminded me of one of my favorite Far Side’s:
A dog is sitting the back of a car with his head out the window, talking to the neighbor dog.
“Ha, ha, Rex, we’re going to the park, then to the hardware store, and then I’m going to the vet’s to get tutored!”
[Completly off topic]
bryanmaguire
The only problem he experienced as result of the operation was that he never learnt, that jumping on to the sofa (one of his all time favourite past times), was not quite as enjoyable with stitches attached to the undercarriage.
[/Back to your regularly scheduled thread]
Well, he looked very sad afterwards. No jumping up and down like usual, and he walked kinda funny. He did wag his tail a little bit when he saw me. He also does this thing where he stretches out with his head low to the ground and his rear end up in the air - he did that before, but now he holds the position for minutes at a time.
The vet said we need to keep an eye on his scrotum, said that Hector had unusually large testicles and if it looks like he got them back to bring him in, because the scrotums of dogs that had big balls sometimes get full of fluid after the procedure.