Dog’s neutering leaves concerns for owner

Q Just over a week ago, we had our 16-month-old male Rhodesian Ridgeback dog neutered. He now appears to have a flap of loose skin where he previously had testicles. We called our veterinarian’s office to ask why it looks the way it does and why that skin was not removed. We were told that the dog was neutered in routine fashion. Is this typical or did they do something wrong? The dog is otherwise doing well and was back to his normal self within a day of the surgery. Should the skin be removed now or later? We are glad that he is doing well, but we want to be sure that the surgery was done correctly.

A The loose skin you are seeing is nothing more than the residual scrotal skin that previously contained the testicles. I believe that the answer you were given was accurate. Typically, most dog neuters are done through an incision immediately anterior to the scrotal area. I believe it is fair to say that most veterinary schools teach the pre-scrotal approach to dog neuters. That is how I was taught when I was a student 33 years ago, and it is how I have always done so.

The reason given to me then was that a scrotal removal would be bloodier due to increased vascularity, and, anecdotally, I agree. The only time I did it differently was when I had a dog to neuter that had a large testicular tumor. In such a case, one chooses to remove any proximity of cancerous tissue. Some are now doing routine neuters through scrotal incisions and without full skin removal, but I have witnessed complications in such procedures.

I did research your question, and it seems that some low-cost clinics are now using the approach with full removal of the skin. This technique is called scrotal ablation. That said, I ran a program for many years, neutering thousands of dogs, and never did a scrotal ablation. Historically, ablation was reserved for giant breed older dogs that had an excessively large amount of skin or dogs with testicular tumors.

In all likelihood, the skin on your dog should tighten up some over time. Should it not, it can be removed, but it does not need to be. Nothing that they did was wrong, and more importantly, your dog is doing well. Your dog’s surgery was done properly.