Pyometra

[Grange]

Anyone ever experience this with their female dog? I just had the unfortunate opportunity to deal with this disease with my setter. I bred my setter for the first time at the beginning of this month. She turned six during that time as well. The breeder had her for a week and she bred with the stud 4 times over the course of a week (every other day). About three weeks after the first tie about 1 month after her heat started my setter stopped eating and became lethargic. The next day she started to have a discharge. Sunday other than not eating and somewhat lethargic she didn't have much if any discharge. When Monday came she still wouldn't eat so I stopped into my vet to discuss what I was seeing and to see if her symptoms were signs of pregnancy or something else. The recommended I bring her in as a precaution and on Tuesday morning the did blood work and an ultrasound. Not only was my dog not pregnant but she was also diagnosed with Pyometra.

I went from thinking she was going to have puppies to having to decide when I could bring her in to get spayed. We talked about treatment options, which include spaying or hormone treatment. After discussing these treatments we decided that spaying was really the only viable option. She had her surgery this morning and the vet confirmed the diagnosis was accurate. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. I really wanted a puppy from this breeding. Now I have figure out where I am going to get my next pup from, but that will take a while. At least I enjoy looking for a setter pup.

[RoostersMom]

My good hunting buddy lost two female setters a couple of years back, one to Pyometra and the other to mammary cancer. In both cases, his dogs would have survived had they been spayed (at least that's the vet said). I've never experienced it, but all my females are spayed when they reach maturity.

It's a real shame this happened to you, but had you not been right on top of it, you would have lost her. Pyometra is all too often fatal. Hopefully you can find a dog from the same lines as your girl.

Did the vet think your female was at higher risk because of her age of first breeding or was this just a random infection?

[Grange]

My good hunting buddy lost two female setters a couple of years back, one to Pyometra and the other to mammary cancer. In both cases, his dogs would have survived had they been spayed (at least that's the vet said). I've never experienced it, but all my females are spayed when they reach maturity.

It's a real shame this happened to you, but had you not been right on top of it, you would have lost her. Pyometra is all too often fatal. Hopefully you can find a dog from the same lines as your girl.

Did the vet think your female was at higher risk because of her age of first breeding or was this just a random infection?

The vet didn't think that her breeding at that age was an issue, but did say that 6 years is when the chance of pyometra increases. Also the fact that she didn't have a standard heat cycle could have had something to dog with it. The vet did say it was a good thing I decided to bring her in because it doesn't take long for it get really bad.

[Fun dog]

One of my best sleddogs got pyrometers when she was about six. I had to drive her 3 hours to the vet, but we were able to save her. The next year she led my team to a couple more track records. I was always sad that I didn't get any pups out of Mitzie, but glad we were able to save her.

[SetterNut]

I lost one of my all time favorite dog to it. We were on Vacation and she was boarded at the Vet.
They had treated her for a UTI, and when the antibiotics ran out the Pyometra took off and she didn't last but a few days.