Pyometra revisited

Warning: gross pictures at the bottom

Eris_gs_2 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?

Pyo_before_2 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.

Pyo_after2 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.

2 thoughts on “Pyometra revisited

  1. Carol says:

    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!

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