Dog Pyometra Symptoms

1. Dog is drinking more water than usual and urinating more frequently.

2. Little or no appetite for food.

3. Diarrhea and vomiting.

4. Open cervix (when dog is in season/heat) pyometra may cause pus discharge from the vagina, although your dog may lick this away fairly often.

5. Happens in female dogs only and usually older or middle aged dogs.

What Causes Dog Pyometra?

Pyometra in your dog will happen or start only at the time of the dog's season (heat). This is because when a female dog reaches this time, eggs are released from the ovaries for fertilisation. If the dog then gets mated and the egg is fertilised by the sperm, an embryo will develop and the bitch becomes pregnant. These embryos then travel down into the womb where they will wait for up to seven days for a placenta (afterbirth) to develop and attach to the side of the womb so the embryos can have food and oxygen from the mother. In the time that the embryo is not attached to any food or oxygen source in the womb, a fluid is produced from the wall of the womb to accommodate for this and help the placenta grow.

Pyometra happens when the cells that line the womb and produce food and oxygen for the embryo are overactive and produce too much fluid. This then makes an ideal environment for stray bacteria from the body to breed, which in turn worsens and becomes an infection.

When the dogs body discovers this infection it sends thousands of white blood sells to combat the new infection. When this happens, all the dead white blood sells that have done their job will die and form what is know as puss. Puss in large quantities can be very toxic to a dog's body as well as making them feel very ill.

Your dog will try and flush this unwanted puss out by drinking more water (which causes more urinating), diarrhea and vomiting, or discharge through the vaginal area if they are still in season. This is called open cervix pyometra when the dog's vagina is still open and can leak the unwanted puss, closed cervix pyometra is when the bitch is out of season and all unwanted puss cannot leak from the vagina, thus causing more puss inside the dog and worsening the toxic effects.

These symptoms will gradually get worse and worse from mild and barely noticeable symptoms, to almost the point of collapse from the toxins within their body. The earlier on you get your pet to the vet, the easier and safer the curing process will be.

What Your Vet May Say or Do

In the case of open cervix pyometra your vet may ask questions about when your dog was last in season, and if it was within the last two months or so. If the answer to this is yes and the symptoms of a thirstier dog, diarrhea, vomiting, and vagina discharge are all in place then the condition will be confirmed.

In the case of a closed cervix pyometra the symptoms are harder to prove because of the lack of vaginal discharge. The vet may look for a slight sagging of the belly along with the other symptoms noted above, and then use ultrasound or x-ray to look for an enlarged womb before confirming the condition.

After pyometra has been confirmed your vet will then use antibiotics and intravenous fluids through a drip line to get your dog as well as possible before surgery. Surgery will involve removing the diseased womb and ovaries from the dog, much the same as a routine sterilisation. This is also at a higher risk than performing a routine sterilisation because of the illness of the dog, and because all toxins will need to be removed completely from the body after surgery to avoid damage or infection to the kidneys.

With surgery over your dog will be left on intravenous fluids and antibiotics to kill off any remaining toxins that may occur in the next few days. Once they are looking better and eating and drinking fluids consistently your vet may let them go home to recover with the family and familiar surroundings.

Note: in very rare breeds or high value breeding dogs, the vet may be able to try and save the womb and ovaries so breeding can continue, but this is a high risk procedure and can have many side effects that may worsen the dog's illnesses.



Other Possible Conditions

Dog Food Poisoning
Dog Gastric Bloat
Dog Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Dog Intussusception
Dog Pancreatitis
Dog with Obstruction in the Digestive System
Dog Parvovirus Infection