Undescended testicles in dogs

Meet Alfie, who came to the emergency hospital because he was just unable to stop vomiting. Alfie did have a habit of eating random things such as clothing, so he could potentially have something stuck. During his consult with the vets, it was also evident that Alfie only had one descended testicle.

His family made the tough decision to agree to exploratory laparotomy surgery as his vomitting was unabated despite some injections.  This was to see if he had a gastrointestinal obstruction due to his random eating habits.

During surgery it was found that nothing had got stuck in his intestines. In fact, it was found that his retained testicle had become twisted multiple times.

This condition is known as testicular torsion. Testicular torsion occurs when the spermatic cord, which carries blood vessels and nerves to the testicle, twists on itself. This twisting restricts blood flow to the testicle, causing ischemia (lack of blood supply) and potentially tissue hypoxia (lack of oxygen). 

It happens to dogs like Alfie to due to the increased movement of the testicle in their abdomen. In the longer term, dogs like this are at increased risk of testicular cancer later in life. For these reasons, it’s very important to remove any undescended testicles.

The take home message is ‘his vomiting was in fact caused by not by his random eating habits but how unwell he had become due to his twisted testicle.’