A little long but am looking for information and confirmation.

Well... My weekend is is going to be wasted. I need to babysit my
"grand-dog" since daughter and son-in-law need to be out of town for a
bio-chem conference (for her). I was going to take 'Big Dog' north
for the weekend then stay at their place next week to baby sit ....
e.g. spend evenings and nights there and commute from their house to
work each day ...

However ... a problem.

Big Dog, a Great Dane ... 18 months and 180 pounds was recently
neutered ... three weeks ago and is experiencing a number of problems
subsequent to surgery; swollen scrotum, open wound, swelling,
bleeding and drainage.

My daughter is a mess of guilt since she was the one pushing for the
procedure ... to calm him down and keep some semblence of order in the
home. Son-in-law was insisting that procedure could not be done until
"he (the dog, that is) had achieved his maximum growth".

This violates all that I have ever learned about animals and pets. I
believe that:

a) you neuter young ... 4-6 months (and it is absolute bull that
animal has to achieve physical maturity first)
b) by waiting until 18 months old, they have created this problem,
that would probably not have existed had it been done at the
appropriate age.

As an aside ... it was never their intent to breed or show the dog.

Can anyone give me any insight into my thinking on this ...pro or con.

Plus, their vet has explained their myriad of problems by "this
happens once in a thousand times" ... I translate this into possibly
that ... "I screw up a surgery once in a thousand times ... OOOOps"

Any help or explanation would be appreciated.

fisherman ... and dog sitter ....