Meet Lace, a 3 year old farm dog.
Lace presented to the clinic with a distended abdomen, lethargy and she wasn’t eating. She was drinking excessively and she had a high temperature. She had also been on heat two weeks ago.
Lace was placed on IV fluids, blood samples were taken and an abdominal ultrasound undertaken. The results confirmed our suspicions of a Pyometra.
Pyometra basically means ‘pus in the uterus’.
When a bitch comes on heat, her cervix opens up allowing bacteria to enter her uterus. Under certain circumstances, the bacteria will grow and slowly begin to fill the uterus with pus.
There are two types of pyometras; either open or closed.
If it is an open pyometra the cervix remains open which allows pus to exit the uterus.
If it is a closed pyometra , the cervix is closed which traps the pus in the uterus. The uterus will continue to fill with pus and eventually rupture and empty its contents into the abdomen causing the dog to die of septic shock.
If the pyometra is open and caught early there is the potential to give antibiotics and hormone injections to clear up the infection but the infection with generally reoccur after the bitches next heat and the hormone injections have possible side effects.
The preferred treatment is to surgically remove the uterus and ovaries (spaying).
Once it was confirmed Lace had a pyometra she was taken through to surgery to be spayed.
After surgery, the uterus was weighed and was a whooping 2.5kg!!!!
She stayed at the clinic with us for 4 days on intravenous fluids, antibiotics and pain relief.
We are happy to report Lace is back on the farm rounding up the sheep and living the doggy dream 