dog castration question.

[gaited horse]

Please no fighting

 

[journey11]

The little guy looks so trusting and unawares in his photo. Bet he'd have been in the next county if he had caught wind of what you were a-plottin'!

 

[journey11]

On a more serious note though... We had an old farmer geld a horse for me once...said he'd done it a hundred times. Nearly lost the horse to a severe infection. Cost more to treat him than it would have cost to take him to the vet in the first place. You might want to give him an antibiotic just as a preventative measure and watch the area closely for a few days.

 

[Akane]

Banding is a hot topic even with livestock. Generally it's agreed upon acceptable more because there is no better way since few are willing to cover the cost of having each animal put under anethestic and have full surgery. Can it be done? yes. Can it be done without increased risk of problems? Probably not. There is also the question of band size and materials since dogs are not commonly banded and have large size differences you'd be guessing. Is it actually humane and painless? No one is entirely sure and that's where you will get a lot of arguments. For about $50 a shelter or low cost spay/neuter program will get the dog neutered in what has been proven to be the least painful and safest way. For $50 I would gladly take the safer route. Spay/neuter of my dogs is one of those things I find the cost of going to the better and considerably more expensive vet worth it. I would have lost my akita to her spay surgery if I hadn't. Maybe if it were like my barn cats who aren't entirely wanted but would be pts if I didn't keep them then I would be a little more willing to risk things but I wouldn't even band a feral tom cat. Their health and safety is still worth the cost the spay/neuter programs charge to have them neutered under proper anethesia in what has been proven as the safest and least painful way so far.

 

[journey11]

Akane, (this is a side note, btw) have you heard that they have birth control for feral cats now? It's some kind of additive you put in their feed that's supposed to be fine to feed to all of them (males, kittens, etc) that acts just like human birth control. I saw this online somewhere awhile back. Cool, huh?

 

[danielle82]

yeah, that is cool! If the barn cats fail to do their job (keep the micies away) and the mice eat some of the cat food, would they become sterile as well?

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Personally I think was a BAD idea. Your DH needs a

Furthermore, if you're going to use this method it's probably not a great idea to be posting about it on a public forum when you could very well be charged with animal cruelty if someone found out.

I'm going to stop there because I was taught that if you can't say something nice then

 

[Cara]

It is not simply a matter of beliefs, it is a matter of legality. If you try to castrate your own dog for the sake of saving $50 and it goes wrong, you can be prosecuted for cruelty to animals.

Just a few examples of what can happen:

If any hair is caught up in the band, the dog will lick and bite at itself causing sores and infection. The dog can contract Tetanus.

If any part of the abdominal wall is trapped in the band, you will create a hole into the dog's body cavity.

If the band is not the correct size, the dog can develop gangrene and sepsis.

If the band is around part of a testicle, the dog may not even be sterilized. The dog will then need professional castration.

That $50 pales in comparison.

 

[Duck Keeper]

I'm not going either way in this debate, but in some places, neutering can be as high as $800 dollars, especially if the vet has to go up inside the dog to get an undescended er... thing.

 

[Akane]

Banding would not work on an undescended testicle anyway. In that case you have no choice but a rather expensive surgery and that should be the only way you approach anything near $800. In majority of the US neutering surgery on a male dog(spay is often considerably more) should not go over a couple $100. I've worked with a few rescues and they never set aside more than that per dog because if you call around you can find a vet that will do it at least that cheap. The more expensive vet here that keeps them overnight, does blood tests prior to surgery, and takes all precautions possible still doesn't clear $300. In quite a few areas there are plenty of spay/neuter programs for strays/rescues/ferals, programs for those with low income, or shelters willing to neuter for under $100. $50 is about the average for those situations here. If you are only finding vets charging a small fortune you need to call around and look at your options better. Sometimes I don't always agree with the push of spay/neuter especially when it's done really early but one good thing is that we have tried hard to make it possible for everyone to get their pets neutered safely.

That is a good point about animal cruelty charges. It is entirely possible that some areas would consider it cruelty. Banding is that highly debated.