Castration (orchidectomy), which is the surgical removal of the testicles, can have various side effects on the dog’s behavior (Adobe Acrobat PDF)– for example, reducing the dog’s interest in activities such as roaming and urine marking. Neutersol, by contrast, may not reduce the testosterone levels in the dog and thus may avoid these side effects. Castration also requires general anesthesia and alters the appearance of the dog, both of which Neutersol avoids. The potential side effects of Neutersol are generally short-term.
The FDA granted approval for Neutersol in March but just announced it on Monday when the ruling became effective. Read the news coverage by Reuters or the AP (via MSNBC).
Neutersol is a product of Addison Biological Laboratory, a private Missouri-based company.
Great news for dog lovers, Bob. Two questions: When will similar injections be available for female dogs? Also, praise be to the individual who can work the same magic on CATS, male and female.
Alan, I’m looking to you for an explanation of the etymology of “orchidectomy,” which to the casual observer would imply the snipping of an orchid blossom from its plant, not the removal of some hapless dog’s testicles.
Good for the dogs, but bad for the Neuticle company.
I’m not Alan, but as a Nero Wolfe fan, I can answer the etymology question. :-)
“Orichidectomy” is from the Greek “orkhis” (testicle) combined with the suffix “-ectomy” (Latin “ectomia,” removal by surgery). The extra “d” comes from an incorrect attempt to extract the nonexistent Latin stem from “orkhis” (as in “iris”/”irides”). This superfluous “d” also was added to the plant name “orchid,” which was actually so named, in Greek, after the resemblance of the shape of the top of the plant’s root (the pseudobulbs) to testicles. Which of course brings us back, full-circle, to laetus’ mention of Neuticles, an entirely different type of “pseudobulb.” :-)
Gypsysoul is a newspaper columnist and high school English teacher (and actually does some behind the scenes copy editing on these stories after they’re posted) that loves words and those who know how to sling them. The two of you could obviously set up a Scoop site on language and have lots of interesting articles on proper use of passive voice, the relationship between orchids and testicles, and many other equally interesting topics. I kinda hope you stick with THIS site because your stories are Great with a capital G as far as I’m concerned, and I hope you write one fewer than the number that would burn you out from writing them at all. BTW, So Far We’ve Capitalized Our Titles. Is this the right way to do it? Dammit, Jim, I’m a wanna-be scientist, not an English teacher (a Star Trek character reference to those gentle souls who don’t already know…)
Alan is a lover of etymology, but I see you are also a word history buff, Bob. This word origin makes perfect sense.
I might add that I will never look at an orchid in quite the same way.
“when there’s nothing left to say, say nothing”? As linguistically interesting as the word is, I don’t think it will make it to my list of favourites (for obvious, macho-related reasons). Not unless they make your definition the official one.