Boy, oh boy--it'd be nice if every vet clinic--low cost or regular neighborhood vet or high profile specialty clinic--any of them that do surgeries had a hand out to go along with any estimate of cost for a surgical procedure, especially spays and neuters. That link should be a must read--excellent information. Thanks MeadowCat for including it.
Wow>> thanks everybody for your input! I did read that article, Meadow cat, and will get my husband to read it and this thread too. Ecin especially, I hear you<>! All the cost are calculated by his weight which is 90 lbs. I think I will call and to ask specifically what is provided by each option. I was thinking that the blood work testing done at the vet could become a sort of a "baseline" of information on Loki.
Are all untested male 1.5 year old Dobies considered high risk then??? Loki is untested, his parents are unknown and his testes are well descended.
We are neutering him , well just to be reasonable , to insure he doesn't ever pass on his likely (bad) byb genes , and hopefully to protect our other dog Bella from his pandering sexist instincts , such as humping and other semi aggressive un-knightly behaviors , and to cut back on the piss- marking. Not that she would put up with any of that bs. but she is 20 lbs smaller!
Princess Bella--I do want to add something here when it comes to reasons for neutering males. Some of the things you mention as reasons for neutering aren't really solved by doing that. Yes, it will keep your Loki from breeding a bitch and producing another litter of puppies with at least 1/2 unknown problems since he was a 'found' dog. But humping, sniffing and definitely marking are at least as much training issues as not.
I start out with every puppy as a potential show prospect and they are left intact (in fact the only reason I neuter my males is because of a medical issue that would indicate it was an appropriate choice. So many of my males have remained intact all of their lives--and, none of them mark in the house (I don't really care if they do so outside, they don't hump other dogs except on the rare occasion that they are being bred to an in season bitch --on purpose--and sniffing is dog behavior--if they stop when I tell them to stop that's good enough for me.
I would do a vWD test through a company like VetGen, since it's a good idea to know their status anyway.
YES! And I do test for vWD and I do it early if I don't know what the status is because of parentage. Vet Gen is the first of the genetic test offerers and are still the most expensive. Less expensive are the gene testing companies like Gen Sol (which is likely the most inexpensive right now) There is also EMBARK--which for about $200 does a test which covers not only vWD but all other gene driven Doberman issues (and those of other breeds as well--but if you are wanting ALL available gene tests for Dobermans--the EMBARK test is a bargain.
What is NOT a bargain is the blood test offered by the average vet clinic--it is an Elisa assay--and is measuring ONLY vWD factor in the blood--and only for the moment that the blood was drawn and is affected by so many outside factors and the fact it usually takes a couple of days to come back because the test is read by an outside lab--it may not reflect much of what is really going on at the time of surgery.
Make sure you do the genetic test for vWD, like Melbrod said - that's a swab you send in, NOT a blood test at your vet. That's a minimum requirement you need to know for surgeries on Dobermans, IMO.
I always run the recommended bloodwork on all my animals (cats and dogs) prior to surgery. There are things that can come up that can really affect the safety of surgery.
I usually do a full blood panel on presurgery dogs but that does not include the very expensive Elisa assay which measures only vWD factor.
Just for some idea for you , I was at our vets yesterday and they asked about the vWD test on little girl - she had it already , but they said that test cost 225 dollars and like the others has said -- A must have
ECIN--I think your little girl had the EMBARK test (the whole litter was tested as I recall? The test your vet quoted you was not (I'd bet) a genetic test but the Elisa assay--for vWD factor.
There are very few times that I would ever have my regular vet do an Elisa assay--if I thought there was some reason that the dog might have low vWD factor--I'd actually do that AND I'd have the mucosel bleeding test (they nick the mucous membrane and time the length of time it takes to stop bleeding--and that would be done immediately before the surgery.
But I have not had any vWD positive dogs nor have I had any dogs who have been scheduled for long complicated surgeries (usually things like various orthopedic surgeries) where even a carrier or clear dog can (but rarely do) run out of sufficient vWD fact to allow proper clotting.)
And that's entirely enough about what tests I'd have done and since I work for a vet clinic and have for many years now that's where I have any and all surgeries done.
dobebug