Warning: gross pictures at the bottom
I’ve posted on pyometra before, and also on why you should spay your dog while she’s young and healthy. Today we had a really spectacular case, though. This beautiful German Shepherd is only 2 years old, and had what appeared to be a normal heat cycle three weeks ago. Yesterday she started having a bloody discharge.
Her clotting time was normal and she had plenty of platelets, so it didn’t look like a "bleeding problem", despite the blood on the floor. White blood cell count was really high (30,000/mm3, vs 7,000 to 16,000 normal range), and red blood cells were a little low. An ultrasound of her uterus showed it to be huge. How huge was it?
The normal uterus, even in a big dog like this, is about the size and weight of a couple of pencils. This baby weighed over 4&1/2 pounds.
When we opened it, yes, it was full of pus. More than two liters of pus. Man, do I ever wish this dog had been spayed a long time ago. Did I mention I had to do the surgery on my afternoon off? Yeah. The upside is, she’s doing great now. Prognosis is good.
I swear I could smell that when I clicked on the picture – ew!
Eww, closed pyo. Poor girlie. I’ve had one bitch with an open pyo, and that was bad enough.
I can’t understand why anyone who isn’t specifically a dog breeder wouldn’t spay their bitch. Bleeding, pyos, all the other fun stuff – a spay is so much simpler and better for her!