32 Days After Start of Heat - What Could This Be? - Page 1

Eska came in season on January 15th. Her heat seemed quite normal, with my geriatric male trying to mount her about 10 to 12 days after the first show of blood. The blood got lighter in colour as the heat progressed, and I haven't seen any blood in at least a week. Now, yesterday evening, Eska didn't finish her supper, and this morning when I checked her vulva, I found dark red blood and some small clots. Today was a statutory holiday, and as her energy level seemed normal, I decided not to take her to the [very expensive] veterinary E.R., in case it was just an upset stomach. Tonight she's still not cleaning up her food as she usually does, and if anything there is more blood and clots. She's had no diarrhea or vomiting. I will take her to the vet for sure tomorrow, but am scratching my head over what could be wrong. The only thing I can think of is pyometra, but from what I've heard, that usually shows up as pus, not blood, and much later in the bitch's cycle. If there is blood, it's usually brown rather than dark red. (A friend's bitch had pyo, and that's what she saw.) Suggestions, anyone? 

Dear god, I hope it's NOT pyo!

Could Geriatric male not be so geriatric and this is a miscarry.  Blood with clots  other than this no experience.

Western Rider, I'd agree with you, except this geriatric male is not just old, he's seedless. If the pup's running a fever, she needs to be seen ASAP. If not, it can wait til morning, but she still needs to be seen. This could be an early closed pyo.

No fever, and she's tormenting the cat, as usual. Will wait until the morning. :(

Yes, Ranger's been neutered since age 3. Doesn't stop him from trying, though!

Poor guy not only getting old but hid the bullets.  Well glad to hear that he has memories

Went to the vet this morning, and he was baffled as to what was causing this. She was running a temp of 40 C/104 F, but everything else checked out as normal. The vaginal smear was normal for the early stages of estrus, so he figured she was having a split heat. Of course, that wouldn't explain the temp and loss of appetite. He did a blood draw for CBC, and that showed a very slightly elevated white count, but mostly with the neutrophils, not the cells that fight infection.

He sent us home and told me to monitor her temp and bring her back in the morning. I was not happy.

After we got home, I had a lightbulb moment. Why hadn't either of us thought of the possibility of a UTI??

I noticed where she peed when I let her out after getting home, then put my boots on and waded out into the snow to have a close look. The snow was discoloured not only on the top, but all the way down, which to me spelled UTI, rather than just bleeding from the uterus.

I phone the clinic, told them my findings, and asked if I could get some antibiotics. The vet on duty said okay (not the one who had seen her earlier) and now I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

I hope I'm right. If I'm not, and it is pyometra, this will be the third female I've hoped to breed that hasn't worked out. And that will really, really SUCK!

General rule of thumb on pyro is the most danger is about two months out BUT did he do a sonogram of the uterus by any chance just to see if anything looked odd?

IMHO if you are going to have her on antibiotics anyway - make sure they are dual purpose - right kind and dosage JUST in case it might be an undiagnosed pyro because if you underdose and it is, it will only get worse and be much harder to treat.

Does sound like a uti and they are not uncommon after a heat. How old is she and how many heats has she had?

BTW you didn't have any left over beets or beet juice that you added to her food did you? We had an old collie/ golden retriever spayed that was subject to periodic uti's. I take her out and see blood in her urine so collect a sample and take to the vet. Old time vet - decades ago- who did all his own lab work. He calls me at 10pm to tell me he's baffled cause it's obvious she has blood in the urine but he can NOT get it to test for it. Light bulb came on and I started to laugh - unfortunately he didn't find it quite as humerous. I'm not sure he ever forgave me that one.

keeping fingers crossed it's just a simple uti.

The vet said given the amount of discharge, it was obvious the cervix was open, so a sonogram wouldn't be much use. Ditto for an x-ray. They only show closed pyos, where the uterus is really distended and even pushing other organs out of position.

I am fairly sure this is a split heat. The discharge is dark red blood - not brown, not watery, not greenish/soupy the way it would be if it were purulent. It has no noticeable odour, either

He's put her on clavaseptin. However, my understanding is that antibiotic treatment really is pretty useless against pyometra, unless it's used along with prostaglandin to cause the uterus to contract and expel the infection.

She's young, only 18 months, and this is her third heat. She had her first at only 8 months, and the next one only 4 months later. Hope she stays with a 6 month cycle from now on. It will be easier to track!

I've been hoping it turns out to be 'just' a UTI ever since
I first saw your post - I assumed that would be the first
thing your vet would investigate. Do hope you get to the
bottom of this, and she is better soon; keep us updated
Sun, I know very little about "split" heats, never having
had to deal with one.

I've had such an ugly experience, only for the bitch to deliver some healthy pups. For sure, one thing I'd observed is that some female discharge what fits in to this description but not really pyometra. I've seen my former bitches discharge blood about a month after mating, that as a rule, I no longer fear. Normally, I should first think of miscarriage, but, from my three or so observations, it had proved different entirely. I suggest, you still watch her, if it persists for, let's say, more than four days, then, it's something else. Goodluck.