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by Sunsilver on 03 April 2009 - 16:04
That's very interesting, Ziegenfarm! Don't worry, my friend is well aware of the risk of re-infection, and will probably spay the bitch if she gets one or two nice litters from her. Sooner, of course, if she continues to have problems. She cares for the dog very much. She's gotten a lot of very good advice from experienced breeders about this, and I'm sure she'll do the right thing.
Now, the interesting thing is my first GSD, a rescue, succumbed to spondylitis of the spine. The vet said there was an infection in the spine as well as arthritis. She also had a form of colitis, and would often produce huge gobs of mucus with her stools. I had a lot of very expensive tests done on her, but I was poor and single at the time, and since the dog seemed healthy, energetic, and was eating well, I finally called a halt to it without ever finding the root of her problem. We had a few good years until the spondylitis began to destroy her ability to move at age 8. I had to euthanize her at age 9, as she could no longer walk. She was a courageous girl, and never at any time showed signs of being in pain. Until the day she was euthaized, she never lost the sparkle in her eye, and the front end definitely wanted to keep on going.
I wonder if it could have been pyometra that caused these problems. I knew very little of her history before I adopted her. I DO know that she was chronically malnourished, because I saw her as a puppy, and she was skin and bone even then. Her owner was in his dotage, and eventually had to go into a nursing home. By that point, the dog was 5 years old, 26 inches tall, and weighed only 35 lbs. (She had been spayed, BTW, and had never been bred.)
The malnutrition might have set up the conditions for the bacteria to continue to thrive in her body. I'll never know for sure, but it's interesting to know pyo could have been the root cause, even though she was spayed. E. coli is the main cause of pyo, and the mucus in her stools could have been a sign of a chronic E. coli infection in her bowels.
Her owner is long dead now, so I'll never know if she had pyometra before being spayed.
Now, the interesting thing is my first GSD, a rescue, succumbed to spondylitis of the spine. The vet said there was an infection in the spine as well as arthritis. She also had a form of colitis, and would often produce huge gobs of mucus with her stools. I had a lot of very expensive tests done on her, but I was poor and single at the time, and since the dog seemed healthy, energetic, and was eating well, I finally called a halt to it without ever finding the root of her problem. We had a few good years until the spondylitis began to destroy her ability to move at age 8. I had to euthanize her at age 9, as she could no longer walk. She was a courageous girl, and never at any time showed signs of being in pain. Until the day she was euthaized, she never lost the sparkle in her eye, and the front end definitely wanted to keep on going.
I wonder if it could have been pyometra that caused these problems. I knew very little of her history before I adopted her. I DO know that she was chronically malnourished, because I saw her as a puppy, and she was skin and bone even then. Her owner was in his dotage, and eventually had to go into a nursing home. By that point, the dog was 5 years old, 26 inches tall, and weighed only 35 lbs. (She had been spayed, BTW, and had never been bred.)
The malnutrition might have set up the conditions for the bacteria to continue to thrive in her body. I'll never know for sure, but it's interesting to know pyo could have been the root cause, even though she was spayed. E. coli is the main cause of pyo, and the mucus in her stools could have been a sign of a chronic E. coli infection in her bowels.
Her owner is long dead now, so I'll never know if she had pyometra before being spayed.
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