I recently found out my dog is a hermaphrodite. The vet told me she (or as we fondly refer to her as "Pat") will end up with problems down the road. Infections. I talked to a vet tech friend and was told that as long as "Pat" gets fixed, she shouldn't have any problems. And heresay from someone else was that these dogs end up with brittle bones and will be proned to broken bones and behavioral issues. Any one have any answers for me? I found nothing. We found out she is a hermaphrodite as a result of a broken leg she got while she was simply playing around with another dog. She's only 6 months old. I am beginning to wonder. Anyone have any info as to problems these dogs may or may not be prone to? What about behavioral issues as a result of the her sexuality????

Unfortunately i have found the same problem with my young girl today. Alas she has a penis inside her womans bits.
Im also trying to find as much information & differing opinions,before making a decision on what to do.
Like all walks of life,all vets will not be of the same opinion & i don't want to rush into something i will regret later.
Other than that,she is as healthy as could be,but so so full on...........

this article says NOTHING about bone problems -
Hermaphrodite and Pseudohermaphrodite in Dogs

i also saw nothing here about any health problems, just sugg desex -
hermaphrodite dogs - Google Search

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

Hi,
I was just wondering how you got on with your hermaphrodite dogs. I have a three month old who, although appears to be a girl, has a small hidden willy and 2 balls!
The vet said the willy will stay but may grow and the balls will have to be removed when she is older. But she did say she had never seen a case like it!
So I just wondered how you had got on and if you had any advice.
Thank you!

hermaphrodites are born that way. it is not the result of an injury

I could be way off the mark, but I didn't read anything that suggested it was caused by an injury - it just so happened to be discovered when the bitch broke her leg, as it is likely, she would have been subject to greater veterinary scutiny/

I am not even going to claim to know the remotest thing on the subject - although neutering does seem to be suggested.

Hopefully, you can get your girl sortef with no ill effects.

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What you need to know before buying a Labrador puppy

considering that this is an exceedingly rare event, i think most of these posts are send-ups.

I am disappointed that anyone would think this thread is in anyway ficititious. I have a little staffie that is hermaphrodite. We have had her 2 1/2 years and got her from a rescue centre at 6 months old. She had a small penis protruding from her vulva. When we went to have her spayed there was no womb but she had 2 testicles inside where her womb should of been. The penis could not be removed as the urethra was part of both sets of genitalia. Confused!?! We were, as were a lot of other dogs to begin with. It took approx 6 months for her 'male' hormones to settle down and she is no longer getting attacked by ever dog in sight. We have had no complications until now, which is how I found this thread. She is going to the vets this afternoon as she appears to have a very nasty infection and has yellow discharge coming from the vulva. I will keep you posted to how we get on and will try and add some pics of her. It is I believe very rare but dont' be put off having one as its not their fault that they are transgender. I would say she has become more aggressive, she is actually more feisty than our male staffie. I've always had rescue staff's they get a lot of bad press and actually they don't ALL deserve it. Good luck with your little dogs to all you he/she owners :-) x

why?
Lord knows, PF-uk gets plenty of fake posts, pretend drama ['my dog attacked a child!...' -
and it's a photo of a kid lying on the ground, with a squirming pup licking her/his face as the kid
giggles madly], & so on. Why should this topic be somehow sacred?

i'm not sure of the ratio of hermaphrodite pups, but i do know it's exceedingly rare;
APOs who join dog-forums are also not the most-common pet-owners; What are the odds that BOTH:
4 hermaphrodite pups AND 4 forum-joining APOs - are present on PF-uk, in just 27-months' time?

pretty doggone unlikely, IMO. ::shrug::
do i gather correctly that the testicles were LEFT there?!

did the vet fail to inform U that all intra-abdominal testes are extremely prone to cancer
at an early age? --- That's another very-rare thing, as most vets immediately informed the owners
that i've known who had 'normal' males with un-descended testis / testes that they needed to remove
it or them, ASAP.

if the testes are still in situ, get them out - as soon as U can. Ur dog's lifespan can otherwise
be significantly shortened, for an easily-avoidable cause.


Biology & mammalian development:
for those who aren't familiar with secondary sex-characters & hormonal triggers,
a penis is only a clitoris with delusions of grandeur - the tissue that becomes a penis in mammals
is based upon the clitoris that it would have been, had the male mammal not been androgenized
in utero, triggering further elaboration into a penis. The sensory structures & nerves are the same -
the structure is just tweaked, so intromission to deliver sperm is possible, & in some species,
eversion to allow urine to flow out & away from the body is possible. [Ex: equines]

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

I have only heard of the problem once. A friend of a friend had a siberian Husky they thought initially was a little girl and turned out to be Hermaphrodite. I dont know the exact details, but I do know that he was spayed/neutered (obviously not the usual straightforward spay or neuter).
Once this was carried out she lead a completely normal life as far as I can remember and lived to quite an old age.

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