Pyometra (canine) - Page 1

How common is pyometra in females under 2 years?

This is the first female shepherd I've had, and she is now 13 months. I have been reading that its better to wait until a dog is mature (2-3 years) before spaying. A trainer who I respect thinks i should wait until she is further along in her training and has adjusted to her new home (we've had her for 3 months) before I subject her to the trauma of surgery. On the other side my vet is warning me that i should spay her ASAP because of the risk pyometra and breast cancer.

She will be starting a heat in the next month or two.
Does anyone know if there's a way to lessen the risk of pyometra in an unspayed female in terms of vitamins, diet or other?
She lives in our house and we have a fenced yard. I only crate her when we go out or can't keep an eye on her (approx 1 hr per day). I have her on a good quality raw diet (mostly organic and variety of meats plus organ meat) and give her 3/4 cup of grain free kibble daily. I add kelp, flax or salmon oil plus some nutritonal yeast to her food.

thanks
Juno 11

I would wait. Just my opinion. I work at a vet, and every vet says that. It's not that your pup in particular is in risk of having a pyometra. It's caused by infection in the uterus. I don't personally know of anything to prevent a pyometra.

Pyo under 2 years old is rare but not unheard of. If you search for it on this messageboard you will find a huge long thread on it. If I were you I would wait also.
Primrose oil is known to be good for uterine health.
I too was a vet tech for many years and spaying/neutering + vaccinations are the vet's bread and butter. The chances of breast cancer under 2 is also almost unheard of. BUT because the hormones let the breasts develop there can be a very slight chance when they are old to get breast cancer.  Then again, they will die of SOMETHING when they are old... lol
Debby

maybe this discussion is helpful to you:
http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/forum.read?mnr=112839&pagen=1

I prefer to wait until my females are at least 2 years of age before spaying; the one I have now will be 3 in May, and I have no intentions of breeding her--but I wanted her to mature a bit more, mentally, and I do think that spaying can stop the clock to that end somewhat in some dogs.  She's had four cycles so far, and we've had no pyometra problem.  The key is knowing what to watch for----educate yourself as to the signs of both open and closed pyometra, invest a couple of bucks in a thermometer (you can use a cheap digital thermometer made for human use; you don't need to buy a dog thermometer), memorize the normal temperature range for a healthy dog (100 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit), and if she seems mopey, you see a discharge *after*she's finished her heat cycle (usually a week or more after she finishes her cycle), if she won't eat, if she starts drinking lots of water, if she's running a fever, if she's still doing a lot of 'cleaning' herself a week or more after she's done her heat cycle...these can all be clinical signs of pyometra, so in addition to knowing what the look for, you also need to not hesitate about having the vet examine her if you think for even a second that something's not right. 

Most likely, she'll have no problems, and you'll have learned lots about pyometra and not ever need to use any of it--which, of course, is what everyone wants. :)  Just be sure you can also ensure that she doesn't accidently get bred before she hits the age when you decide you want to spay her...'cause there's not a whole lot you can do about *that*.

I had a female, who had open pyometra when she was 2 yrs old. We were lucky to cure her with special antibiotics treatment. After that she could not have puppies but she also did not have pyometra again. My another dog,almost 6 yrs old dog female had open pyometra 3 weeks ago. She had heat cycle 40 days before. She never had puppies.No other signs of pyometra, just a slight, but very slight pus drain from her vulva. She was operated urgently and she is still alive! The vet told me, that her uterus was filled with pus. Pyometra is a sillent killer because as a said, she has no other signs, no lack of energy, no letargy, no drinking too much water...Ussualy pyometra affect older females, after 5 yrs who did not have puppies.But it can affect also females, who did have puppies, but seldom.
So my advice to you is, let your female to mature a little bit then spay her.
There is no pyometra prevention.It is hormonal, because of the changes during and after the heat. Pyometra happened 1-2 months after the heat. I would be very happy if I know how to prevent pyometra.

Keira my shepherd had open pyometra at 11 months.  She had never had a season but she did have a swollen vulva as if she was going to have a season a couple of times before this happened.  Kee also had a uterus full of pus so spayed there and then.  The vet had never had a cases in a dog so young and had never heard of a case in a dog so young.  I would not have had her spayed so young I think you need to let a bitch have at least one season.

I have also never heard that pyometra can attack such a young female without being in heat! Lucky Keira because pyometra has been diagnosed and her life saved!
I know antother pyometra case. A female has been artifically inseminated, they did not make ultrasound pregnancy check, because she soon became round around belly, they were happy, they thought she is pregnant....but it was pyometra and she died because they diagnosed it too late.
So, please people, observe your females and do not hesitate, if you see a vaginal discarge with or without all other sympotms. Maybe it is only vaginitis, but in most cases it is pyometra.

I used to think that it was an old wive's tale that you should let your bitch have at least one heat cycle before spaying. Then, I bought a female that I hoped to breed. The change in her personality following that first heat was unbelievable! Suddenly, she was acting more mature. Her metabolism slowed dramatically, and she needed much less food, whereas before her heat, she was getting 4 or 5 cups a day. (I'm sure her appetite would have gone the other way if she'd gotten pregnant on that cycle!)

The change wasn't nearly as dramatic with my next bitch, but I still strongly believe you should wait until the bitch or dog is at least a year old before spaying or neutering. They need those hormones to finish maturing. And to warn of the danger of pyo or cancer is, in my opinion, just a scare tactic!

Pyo does occur in bitches under a year old, but it is rare. And I find it impossible to believe that waiting for a year or so is going to significantly increase the risk of breast cancer!

I have raised and bought quite a few females during the last 20 plus years. Except for one, I never had a case of pyometra. She was bred by me and sent to Germany at 18 months of age, normal heat cycles until then. When she had finished her titles and breed survey, she was supposed to have come home bred to a suitable male, like we have always done. Instead, she had open pyometra, was successfully treated, bred again, failed to conceive and the cultures have been abnormal ever since. She stayed in Germany for two and a half years and we tried everything to clean her up (we have a great vet in Paderborn, Germany). I don't know how many cultures we did. The lab in Germany used to bill me for a couple at one time, not individually anymore, 8-D. To no avail, and we finally brought her home and placed her with a wonderful family where she can live as a companion guarding vegetables and apple trees and go to the farmers market once a week (they own a stand at the farmers market in Washington DC).
The saddest story I have to tell is that of a great female in Germany. She had great and loving owners and they had high hopes for a VA placement after finishing among the top ten in the Young Dog class at the Sieger Show. They tried to breed her, thought she was pregnant and lost her during emergency surgery due to pyometra. It is a silent killer and will effect lots of females but I still do not think that it is common. In Germany, spaying is not a general practice, even among pet owners and they do not have a higher death rate than over here in the U.S.