Recently Thunder was diagnosed as suffering from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia. Some of his symptoms were quite subtle and not listed when I researched this condition.
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia – What Is It?
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia is an enlargement of the prostate gland. It is a common condition in intact older male dogs, (Thunder is 10 years old). It may also be caused by a hormone imbalance. Typically the condition is not painful.
Symptoms
Possible symptoms are:
- Bloody discharge from urethra
- Blood in urine
- Blood in ejaculate
- Difficulty in urination
- Difficulty with defecation
- Ribbon like stools
- Other symptoms may be present if a prostatic infection or carcinoma (malignant tumor) develops
Source PetMD
Subtle Symptoms Not On The List
Thunder exhibited the first two symptoms, but he had none of the others. He had other more subtle symptoms not on that list which we mistakenly chalked up to old age.
For most of his life, Thunder had been a happy carefree dog. All of a sudden he started to be just a bit surly. Sometimes he would give a low growl when we were handling him. This was not at all his norm. Our first thought was a medical issue but the vet could not find anything amiss, even his prostate seemed OK upon physical examination.
Thunder wasn’t just surly with us. He kept trying to pick a fight with Freighter. Normally they tolerate each other, but Thunder seemed try to go out of his way to let Freighter know he is the Top Dog. Again, we thought maybe he was just being crotchety.
It was not just Freighter, but Thunder was also pestering poor Storm all of the time. Storm has been spayed, but Thunder was acting like she was not and she definitely did not welcome that sort of attention. They have been best buddies forever, but a couple of times we caught her giving Thunder a warning growl and snap because the attention he was giving her was annoying, to say the least.
One other symptom was wanting to go outside constantly. Thunder would stand at the patio door for hours even when he just came inside. His blood work and urinalysis were normal so we thought maybe it was senility setting in.
Diagnosing Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
As I said, Thunder’s symptoms were subtle and could have been chalked up to old age, but eventually he started to have significant blood in his urine and significant bloody discharge from his urethra. Upon physical exam his prostate gland was still not overly enlarged so Thunder had an ultrasound to make sure it was not another issue and to confirm Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, (or an enlarged prostate).
The ultrasound did in fact confirm an enlarged prostate so we elected to have him neutered which is one way to treat the condition. Medication was an option, but is expensive and he would have to stay on it for the rest of his life.
Post Neuter Surgery–All Is Well
It has been about a month since Thunder’s neuter surgery. All of his symptoms resolved and resolved quickly. He is not bugging Storm, going out of his way to mess with Freighter, or spending hours begging to go outside. He is back to training so he will be in shape for hunting season this Fall. Best of all he is back to being a happy carefree dog.
Disclaimer: I am not a vet and am writing about our experience only. You should always consult your vet if you notice any physical or behavioral changes in your pet.
There are SO many things that give little subtle signs and a lot of people don’t know enough to have them checked out. I’m glad you stayed on top of it and continued to pursue to get the correct diagnosis. I think the most important thing is to know your dog. Since we observe our dogs way more than our vets do, it’s important to know your dog and to know what is or isn’t normal.
For instance, when our vet wanted to test Sampson for Cushing’s, I looked up the symptoms and told her flat out, he’s not a Cushing’s Dog. We ruled it out anyway (with a simple urine test) but in my heart I knew the results because I know and observe my dog.
Thanks for sharing this.
Glad you found the cause of his issues and he is doing well.
Thanks so much for sharing this! All of my dogs are spayed/neutered, but I feel like I did it WAY too soon. Why was Thunder still intact? No judgement, just trying to gather information. In the future, I’d like to wait a year or two. How did you keep him from making accidental puppies? Do you have a post about this? Is this something you’d be interested in helping me with – I’m writing a post about spaying/neutering soon.
Message me if you can help and I’ll send you my questions.
Thunder was intact because he was a breeding dog. In fact he had a breeding coming up that did not happen due to the neuter. Luckily there is frozen semen. We never had an issue with him making accidental puppies because we never let him out to run alone, no dog parks or doggie daycare. Whenever Storm came into season we kept them completely separate. I don’t have a post but should probably think about it as Freighter is still intact. 🙂 I would be happy to answer questions.
So glad that the neutering fixed up Thunder and glad that you noticed that he was changing some of his attitude and had him checked out. Glad he is a happy boy again.
Glad that you persisted in finding the root cause of Thunder’s unusual behavior and that he’s a happy guy again!!
Thank you for sharing thunders signs with us. I’m glad he is doing great after surgery and no more fussing with he other dogs.
I’m glad Thunder’s surgery went well and he is back to a happy Thunder :o) t
So, so glad that the treatment was effective!
It’s so tough when they get older, because so many things can be just due to aging. It’s hard to find the balance between running to the vet for every little thing, or sometimes waiting too long. We had so many issues with our beagle Kobi as he got older that turned out to be nothing!
But you even had issues that you had checked out, but even the vet couldn’t find anything, so that was even more complicated. I’m just glad for you that things finally got figured out for Thunder and he is back to his old self now!
So glad to hear that Thunder recovered well and is back to himself! I’m sure your whole crew is happy about it, too!
Thanks for the article, I really enjoyed it and am glad to hear Thunder’s doing well!
Oh wow, I’m glad to hear that Thunder is back to being a carefree senior pup! Thank you for sharing the symptoms of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia with us – I had never heard of this condition before. While my boy Buzz is neutered, several client dogs are not and getting up there in age, so this knowledge might come in handy at some point.