HISTOPATHOLOGICAL ALTERATIONS IN CANINE TESTICLES: DO OLD DOGS PRESENT NEW TRICKS?

Abstract

Histopathological evaluation of excised testicules from dogs submitted to orchiectomy is adamant in veterinary medicine. Many diagnoses are described providing evidence for canine reproductive management improvement. The objective of this study was to evaluate histopathological findings from testicular samples submitted to a Federal University Veterinary Pathological Anatomy Laboratory, from dogs who underwent orchiectomy for different reasons, relating these patients’ profile to revised pathologies. 145 dogs were included, yielding 278 testicules and 335 histopathological diagnoses. The majority of dogs was >10 years old and no breed predilection was observed, despite dogs of no specific breed were more frequent. Tumor was the main alteration found, among seminoma, Leydig cell tumor and Sertoli cell tumor types. Testicular degeneration was the second one, occurring simultaneously to other pathologies. Orchitis was defined by chronic inflammation with mononuclear cells infiltration. Only ten testes were reported to be cryptorchid. Not all patients had both gonads submitted to histopathological analysis. The high frequency of testicular tumors in elder dogs revealed that male dogs were castrated later in life, resulting in such pathologies, compromising reproductive health and alerting for the need of conducting neutering procedures in young adult dogs.