My bitch was mated seven days ago.  About three days ago she started drinking rather a lot.  Today she seemed very quiet and not quite right though she was eating as normal.     I took her to the Emergency Vets  tonight as I was rather worried who diagnosed pyometra.    Her blood tests did not show anything but an ultrasound showed a small amount of  fluid in her uterus.   The vet wants to spay her tomorrow morning and has kept her in overnight.    Is it possible for her to have a pyometra so soon after mating?   I wasn’t allowed in vets, the vet was extremely busy, nothing was explained to me properly and I wasn’t given any other options.   I would greatly value some  advice.

Is your vet experienced with breeding!

I had a friend who when her bitch had the perfectly normal (white) discharge at about 2 1/2 weeks after mating, wanted to spay!!

On the other hand yes, a pyometra is a possibility.

Does she have a temperature.

It is possible to treat Pyometra if breeding from her is important to carry on your lines.

Could the fluid be early pregnancy, and a course of antibiotics be all that is needed as a precaution.

I would want a full explanation, to be sure of the diagnosis.

I had pyometra in one of my bitches 2 weeks after mating. I opted to have her spayed to play safe (and I was given the choice of trying to treat it or spay), I felt I'd rather be sure that she was well than had pups.

Yes a pyo can typically develop soon after mating.   Is the stud dog you used a popular stud because obviously, unless he's cleaned up properly after each mating, infection can be transmitted from bitch to bitch.   Years ago, owners used to put their bitches on a course of antibiotics when being mated although when I asked my then vet, she said why - what is being treated?   She had a point and after that I didn't do that and stud dog owners appeared to stop asking for this to be done.

Personally I'd want a proper confirmation there is a pyo going on before I had a spay done but on the other hand, the safety - wellbeing of my bitch would always come first, disappointing as it may be to have to have her spayed and no puppies.

Yes, it is possible. However, unless your vet is experienced it is also possible that they are wrong (but after the surgery they will claim it was just as well they operated when they did as it was definitely pyo etc etc...)

To diagnose pyo, you'd need bloods and ultrasound. The ultrasound will show the size of her uterus. Am I crazy to think that there's a heck of a lot of semen that comes out during mating and she might normally have some 'fluid' in her uterus as a result!? Going by the textbook: If she has pyo, she will have a marked elevation of white blood cells and there is also a protein produced by the immune system called globulins - which might also be elevated.

On the other hand, my mentor has had a handful of pyos over the years and not every one ran a fever and it took a while for bloods to show any aberrations. Those pyos they caught early didn't really have many symptoms.

But you can take her home and monitor her and see if things get worse or develop and then return to the vet as needed, as spaying is a pretty big decision.

Thank you for all your replies.   She is home now having been at the vets for 20 hours.  She seemed quite perky but not do much now.   She is incredibly tired.   The vet admitted she was only 70% sure it’s a pyometra and said nothing showed up on blood testing.  I’m going to keep a close eye on her and find a vet more experienced in reproductive matters.   I have an itemised bill from the emergency vets and no ultrasound is listed yet the vet claims she did one.  Everything else is charged for which is strange.

She is probably tired from being at the vet's all day - it's pretty stressful being in one of those cages so long :(

One of my behavioural clients took their young boxer dog to the vet for a routine booster. She wasn't yet spayed - I'd been seeing her for separation anxiety and had spent a long time talking to them about why it would benefit the dog to wait longer and after adolescence etc etc. The vet 'felt her abdomen' and said she thought it was puffy and she was going to pyo and they'd better book her in to be spayed... which of course they did. On the basis of just FEELING her abdomen and the dog being perfectly perky and well, no other symptoms.

Honestly, I'm so fed up with vets. Good vets are rare as hens teeth....

I honestly think they don't understand anything about reproduction, but they know how to spay - because they do it all the time. And they're taught how to c-section. So that's it. Anything more subtle or nuanced and good luck to you, you need to educate yourself to steer your own vet through it...

Good grief that is ridiculous!  Did the vet have magic scan-hands??

Magic scan hands lol .

> Honestly, I'm so fed up with vets. Good vets are rare as hens teeth....<br />

So true - especially those who are able to diagnose accurately without all the 'try this, try that'.

Over all the years we've been 'with dogs', I can honestly say we only had one, in Canada, who I had total confidence in (and I'd have loved to have bought him back to the UK with us).   He was the kind of vet who was prepared to work with owners who knew their chosen breed pretty much inside out, and learn.   The other was a vet we eventually found when back in the UK.  She again was rarely stumped in terms of what was going on.  Only once did I go against her advice (pts when I knew my boy deserved more time - and I was right).

My current vet, provided I get him when I go in, seems to be about as good as it gets locally.   And I've tried most in the N.Devon/N.Cornwall area so I'm kind of stuck with him, unless we move.    But then he was very much into my Basset (he always stopped to ask after him when I was in with just my Whippet) but perhaps not nearly so much with my Whippet.

Never mind vets, some of the receptionists have magic scan brains!

> some of the receptionists have magic scan brains

Oh so very true.  I consider myself dog savvy and phoned to say that I was bringing in a bitch who was extremely ill.  When the receptionist saw her, she said "Oh there doesn't seem much wrong with her."

It was Congestive Heart Failure.