Tori's Bad Day

When Tori's owner came home the other day, she came home to an awful mess.  Tori was in her kennel.  There was foul smelling blood all over the inside of the kennel and all over Tori.

Tori had been feeling a little off for a few days—not eating as much, lethargic and drinking and urinating more than normal.

Tori’s owner brought her to the clinic right away where Dr. Julie performed a physical examination noting some pus coming from Tori's vulva.  Dr. Julie confirmed the diagnosis of uterus infection (also called pyometra) with an ultrasound which also allowed her to confirm that the uterus had not ruptured (which could have made the prognosis much worse).  Blood tests were also completed in order to ensure safe anesthesia since Tori now needed surgery.  Treatment of pyometra is an emergency surgery to remove the uterus and ovaries.  The surgery poses some special risks including rupture of the uterus during surgery and bleeding into the abdomen from the greatly enlarged blood vessels of the uterus and ovaries. 

However, without surgery, pyometra is life-threating.  The uterus may rupture and release its infected contents into the abdomen or bleed into the abdomen.   Luckily, Tori’s uterus had not yet ruptured and both her ovaries and her pus-filled uterus were safely removed. Within just 24 hours, Tori was no longer lethargic, eating some food, and feeling much better. Tori is expected to make a full recovery.