Tonight has been a very stressful night and sleepless one too! My female Golden Retriever, "Annie" just had emergency surgery at about 3 am removing her female organs before they ruptured. Thank goodness that mom was persistent in taking her to the vet tonight because our Vet said she probably would have ruptured by Monday and depending on the circumstances at the time of rupture we could have lost her!
We noticed the past couple days that she wasn't eating well.... and she growled at the new puppy Christmas eve.... we thought she was depressed because of Odin, and Cmas and smelling his scent on his Cmas stocking and stuff plus maybe being a little jealous of the new puppy, even though we made sure we gave her just as much attention as the other animals in our house. Christmas morning she was not acting herself, totally uninterested in her Cmas presents and meaty bones. We gave her one of the bones and she took it and then dropped it on the floor and just laid down beside it. That is definitely not normal for Annie! She wouldn't eat and by mid afternoon we noticed her bleeding. We knew she was just in heat about 2 months ago so this was unexpected, and it wasn't just a few spots it was more. Annie finally did eat for us around 6 pm.... but she kept wanting to go outside a lot today more than normal. Mom and I left for a couple hours to visit some friends for Cmas and when we got back home at 8, Annie was acting worse, even though Dad was home with her and then she continued to progressively get worse over the next 2-3 hours. She was bleeding more, and pacing a lot with her loofa in her mouth whimpering, actually more like a cry. She would try to lay down but after about a minute she would get up and move around again whimpering. So mom and I laid her down on her side and checked her private area which looked very swollen and the bleeding was more of a cloudy red discharge. She looked like she didn't feel well at all and her abdomen looked bloated to us, which I mentioned that to mom a couple of weeks ago too! She had been seen by the vet a few weeks ago and we were watching for a UTI then....but she seemed to have gotten better up until the last few days.
Mom called the vet and Dr. Tonya called back and mom told her what was going on and how Annie was acting. They talked about should we take her now or wait until am..... Mom was going to wait about another half hour to hour and see if she settled down and sleeps and then take Annie in the morning to see the vet, but if she didn't settle then she would call the vet back. After another half hour of watching Annie with her symptoms and discomfort getting worse mom called the vet back and said she was going to bring her out now. Our Vet is about an hours drive from our house.... so I helped mom load Annie in the truck and mom left. I stayed home so I could pack for the UT Bowl game Sunday. She said that Annie whimpered the whole way there and she laid her head on mom's arm.
They were able to get a urine sample when mom got there and that tested positive for infection, 2-3+ blood and leukocytes and 2+ protein. She felt warmer by this time and her temp was >104. For a dog normal is around 101. She looked like she wasn't feeling good, her eyes were blood shot, and she felt warmer and her pacing. An X-ray was done and Dr. Tonya said the bladder could not even be seen and called Dr. Pat because she felt needed to have him come see her and even do some blood work. She told mom it was her uterus and Dr. Pat was coming to remove it now before she ruptures. When Dr. Pat got there he immediately prepped her for surgery they gave her an injection which made her go to sleep, they put the tube down her throat and urgently opened her up to remove her female organs. The uterus which is the size of your pinky finger was huge... he said about 4-5 lbs. and infected with pus. Mom saw it all and said it was the size of our Shih Tzu puppy in comparison. He was able to remove the uterus without it rupturing and irrigated her abdomen to make sure it was clean of possible infection. He said she probably would have ruptured by Monday and depending on the circumstances at the time of rupture it could have killed her. This is something that had been going on for awhile and even though Annie didn't have any actual symptoms is not uncommon. He also said that this is a result of her uterus and female reproductive system not cycling regularly as it should. A lot of times they don't present any symptoms until after they rupture because of infection, then it becomes life-threatening. Annie was lucky because she hadn't ruptured yet and our Vet expects she will recover in a few days. There is a chance she could get an infection etc, but he thinks she will be okay. He irrigated her abdomen with antibiotic solution and will give her antibiotics for awhile to make sure.
We always wanted to breed her at least once. But didn't pursue it while our male Golden was alive bc of his behavior and questionable aggression issues. But since Odin had passed in August, mom had been researching and looking for a breeder to possibly breed her. It was a good thing that nothing developed the last time she was in heat bc her uterus was probably like this then and could have complicated a pregnancy for her and possibly we could have lost her and the puppies. I guess God has a way of answering things even if the answer is not right in front of you. That's why we never connected with any of the contacts made for breeding, it wasn't meant to be! Of course, my mom is beating herself up right now because she feel she should have had Annie spade right from the beginning when she was a puppy which was at the same time when Odin got sick and we had him neutered. So there is something to be said about spading and neutering your animals when they are puppies, unless you are a serious breeder and do that for a living. Even with the best intentions nearly cost us the life of one of our beloved pets! SO please please please learn from our mistake.... have your beloved furry friend spade and neutered when they are of the right age as puppies!
This could have been a devastating weekend and still could be yet! But Dr. Pat thinks Annie will be okay. She's at the Vets recovering and hopefully will be able to come home later this afternoon early evening!! Dr. Pat made sure mom knew how serious this was and how close we came to losing Annie without making her feel to guilty. But mom was already in tears and afraid of losing Annie that she feels guilty enough.
Just wanted to share this with you..... "Being a responsible Pet owner" is also doing what is right for the Pet, which may be different than what the owner wants. This was purely an innocent incident and probably a fluke but could have been Tragic for our family!
