Well, Canuck had a few days of sadness for him. Arrow was spayed on May 25th and he had to learn that he couldn't play with her for a little while. It was a hard test for him. It has now been about 2 1/2 weeks since her spay, and just the last few days she has finally wanted to play. Arrow's spay was a decision that was made just hours before she was actually spayed. I have had one scare with pyometra, which ended up with the dog living for only a couple hours after surgery (very sad story there). So, when Arrow had some weird discharge a few weeks ago and I wasn't sure of her last heat, we "rushed" to the vet and decided it was best to spay right then. It ended up not being pyo. The vet said that it looked like she was in heat, either coming in or going out - he couldn't tell which. But, after talking to the vet and going on past experience, we feel if we had not spayed her then, it probably eventually would have turned into pyometra. Praise God for giving us an excellent vet who squeezed us in and went ahead and spayed Arrow before something bad could have happened. Arrow has seemed to recover quite well from the spay, and is getting back to her normal self. It is such a relief to have her spayed, as there is no more chance of the possible pyo scenario. If anyone is in need of a great vet in Tulsa, just let me know and I'll refer you to ours.
And, incase anyone is wondering what pyometra (pyo) is - It is an infection of the uterus. Basically the uterus gets infected and fills up with pus. It can either be open or closed pyo. In the case of open pyo, some of the pus fluid will drain out, which makes it a little easier to treat as usually there are signs before it gets to a real bleak out look. With closed, the uterus just fills with blood and pus and it is all trapped inside of the dog. Some of the symptoms of pyo are - increase in water intake
- distended abdomen (especially in closed pyo)
- decreased apetite
- fever
- discharge (common color is like creamy tomato soup). In the case of open pyo in my dog that I had, the discharge had a very distinct smell - if you have ever smelled blood and pus together, you will never forget that.
Anyways, here's a few pictures after Arrow's spay.
I know, weird look on my face - I had a long day at the vets office, and I'm probably sort of concerned in this pic - Arrow was really out of it, as we had brought her home about 2 hours after she was out of surgery. She didn't even walk until 14 hours after surgery.
