When the other testicle doesn’t drop
Cryptorchid. How’s that for a word? It’s a little less exotic than you may think. It’s not a beautiful variety of orchid, but a word describing the condition where only one external testicle is found in a young mammal.
For the past week, we have been fixing up a few little development problems in our smaller and younger patients, including several that were cryptorchid.
Male and female mammals start off the same. I know, very hard to believe, but true. Early on in the growth of the foetus, a small piece of tissueforms behind each kidney.
These tissues are either going to be ovaries or testicles depending on the XX (female) or XY (male) chromosome thing. But after that, it all starts to change – the itsy bitsy ovaries decide to stay at home in behind the kidneys, and the urge-controlled testicles decide to go for an adventure.
The testicles follow a predetermined path which takes them down through the abdomen, past the bladder, and into a small tunnel in the groin formed by the triangle of abdominal muscles and the thigh muscles right up in the angle of the groin. Much like the plot of The Hobbit isn’t it?
They then push out through this tunnel and fall a short distance down into the scrotum. Quite a trip for them and it should all be completed by at least two months of age.
Why don’t they just stay put like the ovaries?
Unlike ovaries, testicles need to be kept at below body temperature for the spermatozoa to be viable. There are several interesting anatomical peculiarities of testicles that help to keep them at a certain temperature but we won’t go in to that. They need to be outside the body – hence the scrotum.
If they are kept at body temperature, they will not only be sterile, but if kept at body temperature for several years, they often turn in to tumours.
Problems arise when the testicles don’t make it through that tunnel in the groin before it closes, which usually happens well before eight weeks. Then they are trapped in the abdomen.
So, I hope that justifies my behaviour during a consult with a male pet when I question or feel to make sure they have two ‘‘back wheels’’.
This week, Sheryl carried in the standard plastic washing basket complete with five snuffling, snorting little 8-week-old puppies for me to check and vaccinate.
Among the cute puppies were two which needed our help.
One of the male puppies only had one external testicle. Another had a large inguinal hernia.
The two problems are sort of opposite in a way. The retained testicle hasn’t made it through the inguinal (groin) canal in time and the other is where the canal in the groin (inguinal) is too open.
Male and female mammals start off the same. I know, very hard to believe, but true.
In the case of the inguinal hernia, this is where the canal hasn’t closed and some of the intestines or fat from inside the abdomen comes out through the hole and lie under the skin.
This can be very serious if the hole is large enough and a loop of bowel comes out and twists over on itself.
Both our little puppies where sound asleep in the surgery the same day and with some very small instruments and a steady hand we managed to find the missing testicle in one and close the large canal in the other. Both tiny little patients went home the same day to a very happy Sheryl and mother of the pups.
So there’s a new word and the story of the missing back wheel.
It doesn’t explain though, the cough reflex that doctors do (as only us blokes know), which still concerns me.