Question ASAP??

[jamesong55]

My German Shepherd was just aken by the breeder to the vet for the pre checkup..  Now questions he is in great shape ....except  his testicles have not dropped  he is7 weeks 2 days old?????  I dont know what this means long term we have waited for him for over a year for the right mating and colors he is very expensive.  I do not plan on breeding him but cutting him wasn't in the plans necessarily either.  Help me figure this out????????  Any long term complications ,,,  can they still drop???????

Thanks

Tina

[Mirzam]

This might help:

Crytorchidism and Undesended Testicles

Most texts define cryptorchidism as the condition whereby one or both testicles are not present within the scrotal sac of the animal (dog or cat) by 8 weeks of age. Using this definition, animals whose testicles have not descended into the scrotum by this time should ideally not be bred from and should be considered cryptorchid. Certainly, many of the textbooks state that if a male animal's teste/s have not descended by 2 months of age, then they are very unlikely to. Other texts are a little more generous, allowing the animal up to 16 weeks before deeming the animal's gonads unlikely to descend. This 16 week timing is supported by the findings of those veterinarians who have trialled medical therapies to induce pet testicles to descend. Those vets who have had some success in inducing retained testicles to descend, using drugs and medicines, have found that success is sometimes achieved if the treatments are administered prior to 16 weeks of age (although it is not 100% certain if the testicles would have dropped anyway regardless of treatment given), but that medications given after 16 weeks of age usually resulted in no effect on testicular descension. For more on the medical induction of testicular descent, see section 9e. 

Implications of crytorchidism

Cryptorchid testicles are prone to a number of significant and potentially life-threatening medical conditions that are not as commonly encountered in the correctly-descended testicle. These include: testicular torsion, testicular cancer and various testicular-cancer-related conditions such as male feminizing syndrome, oestrogen toxicity (this causes severe pancytopenia: a complete deficiency in the numbers of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets in the animal's blood) and the hypersecretion of androgens such as testosterone. 

[Arduinna]

I'm not a breeder and I'm not sure if there are any breeders still posting here and I've never had a dog with cryptorchidism (if that ends up as the diagnosis). This page has more info than you probably would want to know of the maturation of testicles.http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/cryptorchidism.html#testis-drop  AFAIK, 7 weeks is still too young for a definitive DX of cryptorchidism but if you choose to bring him into your family you should be fine waiting until he is 2 and fully mature before having the retained testicle removed, if you choose to and the vet will strongly suggest you do. If only one ends up retained, good luck in finding a vet willing to only take the retained one, if you want to leave the other testicle intact. Vets are very pro spay and neuter and it may be impossible to find one locally willing to work with you on keeping any healthy one. I'd think long and hard if this dog is going to meet your expectation for what you want to do with him. The GSD breeders I know all recommend waiting until full maturity around 2 before spaying or neutering if you are going to. You could also ask the breeder to keep the puppy for another couple weeks and see if they descend. Although the waiting and not knowing would drive me insane, especially because you have already been waiting so long in anticipation. You are the only one that can make the decision. Personally for me as a person that keeps intact animals I would choose another dog.

[Arduinna]

LOL too funny we both posted the same link

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by Arduinna 

LOL too funny we both posted the same link

Great minds etc......!!!!!!!