Shana home and on pain medications after emergency spay. My first female dog puppy is my current 7 year adult dog, Shana. My two other female dogs before Shana, were both spayed and well into adulthood when I got them. The decision, therefore, was up to me whether to spay her and when to spay her. Originally, I was planning on the two or three year mark so her hormones would be intact during her development years. Then I could not find a compelling reason why to have such a surgery on her. She was not going to be out and about around males that could impregnate her or out of my sight, and the mammary tumor concerns did not seem to warrant it or guarantee this would not be a problem later. I had not heard out Pyrometra until our vacation this last week. This is something you really want to avoid, is dangerous, and pretty common occurrence, as I was about to find out.
August the 2nd on the start of our vacation, Shana unusually subdued, but I just figured it was hot and four very busy weeks just ended. I am very thankful we did not rent a lake house during our vacation. It was going to be very important that we were close to a trusted veterinarian, York Animal Hospital. My plan was to do a lot of Frisbee and dog walking with Shana, and play with our older dogs in the cooler mornings, evenings and in our air conditioned dog room. Shana did play, but it was like I had to work with her to play, and then she did not play very long. She is 7, but she has always been a force of nature. She usually wakes me up, and when frustrated that I am not up doing something with her brings me my shoes or her toy. If her toy is out of reach, she will sometimes bark at it (I usually don't get it when she is demand barking, but I am on notice that she is up to do something...always but especially then! None of this was happening.
Shana was peeing and drinking a lot too. She was having accidents in the house as well, so we got on the phone with the vet. She was diagnosed with a probable urinary tract infection, and that was to be treated and look for improvement. She really did not improve from her lethargy and looked very uncomfortable. In the meantime, I had asked an unrelated question on her breeder's page about mammary tumors, and someone mentioned the danger of pyrometra. This is an extremely dangerous infection of the uterus of different types of animals, including dogs. It is likely to happen to 25% of intact female dogs right after a heat. At this point, I was obsessed with this, and called our vet to update on the progress, lack there of, and what was currently happening.
At the next vet exam, it was explained that she had pyrometra and emergency spay was the solution. They could not get her in that night, but her cervix was open so it could be safely done first thing in the morning. That morning was yesterday morning, and Shana came out without any complications and is now resting comfortably. In doing searches for pros and cons of spaying your female, I came across some that mentioned this now, but not many articles do mention this. On my breeders page, others in the conversation also confirmed that not many people know of this danger. I suspect because I was busy with the dogs I was training, I did not see the signs of lethargy sooner until I had stopped for our vacation. We were extremely lucky to have known our dog and to have caught this. At the beginning though, I thought I may have been overreacting due to the fact that it has been very hot in Maine, Shana is not a super hero although she has always been a force of nature, and I may have just (in my mind) been expecting her to want to be much more active then she wanted to be.
Our current veterinarian very recently (before COVID 19) just recently became our vet, so I never had that conversation with him, regarding spaying or not. Most (not all) veterinarians will assume you can't keep your female dog safe from wandering and getting pregnant in heat, so I probably assumed when Shana was a puppy that is what the answer would be. This is one of those things, you just hope you never have to get familiar with, especially in an emergency situation. Be safe and always ask questions when it comes to your dog's health.
Shana was peeing and drinking a lot too. She was having accidents in the house as well, so we got on the phone with the vet. She was diagnosed with a probable urinary tract infection, and that was to be treated and look for improvement. She really did not improve from her lethargy and looked very uncomfortable. In the meantime, I had asked an unrelated question on her breeder's page about mammary tumors, and someone mentioned the danger of pyrometra. This is an extremely dangerous infection of the uterus of different types of animals, including dogs. It is likely to happen to 25% of intact female dogs right after a heat. At this point, I was obsessed with this, and called our vet to update on the progress, lack there of, and what was currently happening.
At the next vet exam, it was explained that she had pyrometra and emergency spay was the solution. They could not get her in that night, but her cervix was open so it could be safely done first thing in the morning. That morning was yesterday morning, and Shana came out without any complications and is now resting comfortably. In doing searches for pros and cons of spaying your female, I came across some that mentioned this now, but not many articles do mention this. On my breeders page, others in the conversation also confirmed that not many people know of this danger. I suspect because I was busy with the dogs I was training, I did not see the signs of lethargy sooner until I had stopped for our vacation. We were extremely lucky to have known our dog and to have caught this. At the beginning though, I thought I may have been overreacting due to the fact that it has been very hot in Maine, Shana is not a super hero although she has always been a force of nature, and I may have just (in my mind) been expecting her to want to be much more active then she wanted to be.
Our current veterinarian very recently (before COVID 19) just recently became our vet, so I never had that conversation with him, regarding spaying or not. Most (not all) veterinarians will assume you can't keep your female dog safe from wandering and getting pregnant in heat, so I probably assumed when Shana was a puppy that is what the answer would be. This is one of those things, you just hope you never have to get familiar with, especially in an emergency situation. Be safe and always ask questions when it comes to your dog's health.
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