**2. Anatomy of the prostate gland**

The canine prostate gland consists of two parts, surrounding the caudal part of the urethra; it is round to oval and has a sulcus dorsal and ventral that can be reached by digital rectal palpation. It is surrounded by a thick fibro-muscular capsule releasing septs of smooth muscle tissue into the gland. The urethra is situated in the middle of the prostate gland and between the two parts. The situ of the gland is dependent on age; in young dogs, it is situated in the pelvis, in aging dogs more in the abdomen, and because of an increasing size of the diseased gland, in the old dog, it can be situated in the pelvis again. In this case, it can be examined by digital-rectal palpation again. The cranio-dorsal and cranio-ventral part of the gland is covered by peritoneum. The glandular ducts open into the urethra at the site of the pars disseminata and on the colliculus seminalis. The blood supply is provided via the arteria pudenda interna, innervation by the hypogastric nerve [19].
