Prostate issues in older male BCs

[Piper's mum]

Hi folks, I'm new to these boards. They certainly seem to be a tremendous source of great information. I'm wondering whether anyone knows what the incidence of bacterial prostatitis and/or benign hyperplasia is in intact male border collies. We have an 8 year old male who was not neutered as a puppy. When we discussed it with the vet initially, he mentioned potential prostate issues (along with the aggression/roaming/unwanted puppy issues) but he didn't think the prostate thing was a big concern. We asked the breeder about it, and she indicated that she had never had that kind of problem in her males in 25 years of breeding, so we didn't think it was a big concern. Our old vet has retired, and the new vet is really pushing us to have Piper neutered. She told me that the breeder is either very lucky, or that she was being less than honest about her males and prostate disease. From what I've read, neutering doesn't reduce the risk of prostate cancer, and I've only found things that say "early neutering" can prevent prostate disease - nothing about whether or not late neutering does the same thing. I know that border collies tend generally to be a healthy breed. And Piper responds very badly to anesthetic so I'm hesitant to put him through surgery unless there's a really compelling reason to do so. Anybody got any info on BCs and prostates? Thanks!

[juliepoudrier]

From my experience, which is anecdotal evidence based on one dog. Boy seemed "off" when working--nothing specific, just not himself. I took him to the vet and we discovered blood in his urine. Treated for a UTI. Multiple times. Finally took him to a specialist and had him ultrasounded (we were looking for bladder or kidney stones at this point). The specialist found an enlarged prostate and diagnosed prostatitis. Interstingly my young female was in heat at the time, and the bloody urine was quite noticeable. Before that time at the specialist's office, I had never actually seen blood in Boy's urine (although it showed as multiple pluses on a test strip), nor did he urinate with increased frequency. So it's possible that your breeder could have had dogs with prostatitis and not known it (remember, Boy's only not-so-obvious symptom was that he was a bit off when working). Anyway, I had him neutered (he was 6 or 7 at the time) and the problems resolved.

 

I can't speak to the prostate cancer issue, but I feel confident that even late neutering helped alieve Boy's prostate problems.

 

J.

[Piper's mum]

Hi Julie,

 

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with Boy, and sorry for taking so long to tell you so. We just had a bit of a scrare with Piper and to tell you honestly, if I hadn't read your post before hand, I would have been even more panicked than I was. He needed to go out suddenly this past Sunday morning. He snuck off into the woods, which is usually what he does if he's got to throw up or has diarrhea so I went after him and saw he was peeing. When I checked, I saw that there was blood in his urine. Quite a bit actually - enough to have me really quite worried. And afterwards he was just sort of dripping blood - not a lot, but but it just continued, and any is too much. And he seemed really uncomfy - trying to pee and not much happening. We had him to the emergency vet on Sunday, who said his prostate is enlarged. He gave him antibiotics. Monday we had him to our regular vet for urinalysis, complete blood work, and xrays (to check for bladder stones). He's on antibiotics now and is looking happier and not peeing blood any more, although he's still not himself. We have him scheduled for ultrasound this coming Wednesday since the vet couldn't see much of his prostate from the xray. And we'll have him neutered then. I've been worried about him all week, but without your posting I would have been much more so. So thanks a ton!

[juliepoudrier]

The *only* time I ever saw Boy pass really bloody urine was when my young bitch was in heat. Apparently whatever that (her presence and in heat) did to him physiologically as an intact male resulted in lots of blood in his urine. The happy news is that it all went away once he was neutered!

 

J.