Stressed by male attention
Q
My seven-year-old male, neutered, saluki cross is very stressed by other male dogs attempting to mount him. Are there any veterinary solutions to this problem?
A
Male feminisation syndrome makes male dogs attractive to other dogs due to elevated female sex hormones, such as oestrogen. These produce pheromones that result in the response you describe.
The most common cause of this is a Sertoli cell testicular tumour.
Although your dog is neutered there are a few possibilities where this could still be the problem.
I have seen cases with one testicle in the abdomen that couldn’t be found at the time of neutering.
It was thought that this was a rare abnormality, only for the tumour to develop years later.
A testicle that has remained in the abdomen is at least 10 times more likely to develop a Sertoli cell tumour.
Symptoms of such tumours, apart from the attractiveness to other dogs, are hair loss, darkened skin, swollen nipples and – in some dogs – squatting to urinate like females.
There was a report in a Canadian veterinary journal in 2006 of 12 dogs that developed Sertoli cell tumours after normal neutering. In these dogs small amounts of testicular tissue were thought to have been inadvertently left behind, and tumours developed when the dogs were between four and 13 years old. These are very rare cases, however.
There are also rare cases reported of adrenal cortex tumours producing elevated female sex hormones.
I suggest you take your dog for a veterinary check-up to help find an answer to this stressful situation.
Q
I have a 14-year-old rescue Jack Russell. He is very well behaved and quiet, but in the last few months he’s stopped eating. I have tried various tempting foods but he will only eat if I hand feed him. Why has he suddenly become like this?
A
This is a frequently observed problem in hospitalised dogs that are feeling under the weather or in discomfort. Veterinary nurses are very good at getting these dogs to start eating with hand feeding, which after a while becomes unnecessary as they recover.
As your dog has only been insisting on hand feeding in the last few months there must be a reason for the problem. To investigate possible causes I recommend a consultation with your vet now. A full physical examination will suggest any underlying diseases.
Perhaps obvious ones would be dental disease, or discomfort in the neck area caused by arthritis, making the dog reluctant to eat from the bowl.
Otherwise there are many diseases that surface in old dogs – liver and kidney problems for example, and to check for these blood tests will be necessary. If no obvious underlying disease is detected, behavioural problems could be considered, and changing the bowl and its location might help. At 14 years of age (or perhaps, being a rescue, even older), cognitive decline, a form of canine dementia, could be a factor.
Affected dogs may be anxious, disorientated, lose sleep cycles and sometimes seemingly forget to eat unless prompted. Treatment can improve matters in the short term.