Testicles

[rachelh05]

So I have a male mini and he just turned 1. He is still much smaller than his “brother” And I Just noticed that one of his testicles almost seems like it has a string wrapped around it internally. I will be calling the vet tomorrow but wanted to see if anyone has ever dealt with this and could this have caused his growth to be stunted?

[zeta1454]

Hi Rachel and welcome to the Forum

Has your mini had a previous vet check? Male pups usually have their testicles checked on a first visit to ensure all is OK at that point - usually that both are descended. I don't think testicle issues would affect overall growth which is usually due to heredity. Even in a litter where the parent dogs were both the expected size for the breed, one puppy may be born smaller due to a number of factors during pregnancy. A "runt" or really tiny puppy from a litter can often suffer health issues in life so should not really be sold. Both parents may have been smaller though or even just carry a gene for smaller size? However, if your pup was just about right when he came to you in terms of size but has just not grown much since, there may be a health issue that needs investigation.

Certainly any changes in the testicles should be looked at and I hope you can get a diagnosis and some reassurance re this.

[zeta1454]

Just another thought re your youngest mini schnauzer's size, have you had any other comparison apart from your older boy? We have had people comment that our mini schnauzers are small whereas they are actually just about exactly at the breed standard height* so they only seem small compared to "large" mini schnauzers who are above the standard. Of course, it really doesn't matter for a family pet dog what the height is, but it might reassure you about the size of your youngest if he is actually close to breed standard height and not really undersized at all

(*Measuring from the ground to shoulder height, the breed standard for a miniature schnauzer male dog is 36 cm or 14").

[rachelh05]

Thank you for your reply. He has been to the vet for his initial puppy check and the remainder of his shots but that was a bit ago. Our older boy is actually the perfect size. And I am not concerned with him not being the proper size compared to the standard mini, I just wanna make sure there isn’t an underlying issue. I asked the Breeder and she said he wasn’t any smaller than the rest of the pups in the litter and truly he wasn’t. She still had most of them when we picked our little guy up. Hopefully he is just smaller and perfectly healthy.
Thanks again!