Poor Wibby

Libby has had a rough week or so.

She had her first heat cycle in mid March and I noted it was an abnormal cycle.  Short, and not much swelling.  I wanted her to have one heat cycle before spaying her because she has an "innie" vuvla.  They are no big deal and will most likely will pop out after one cycle.

I noticed a week or two ago that Libby had some mammary development.  I chalked it off to a false pregnancy, but thought it odd to have such development after just one heat cycle.

Last week-end, at the field trial in Lincoln, I noticed one "boob" was quite big and when I felt it there seemed to be a hard boiled egg in there.  I phoned my wonderful vet in Fort Collins and he told me to "take her in right away".  Off to the emergency vet we went and she was put on lots of antibiotics and anti-inflamatories.  

She ran the derby the next day and got a 4th place.

Well, I took her in for a re-check a few days later and while the hard boiled egg had subsided, she still had redness around the one mammary gland.  We decided to spay her sooner rather then later.

I picked her up this afternoon and the vet (who's a reproductive specialist) said it was a very good thing we spayed her when we did.  Her uterus was "abnormally large" and he was getting worried about infection.  While he said it was not pyometra, she was probably suffering from an extreme split heat cycle.

He'd only seen one other case like hers in 15 years of doing reproductive work in dogs.  Especially weird because she's so young and it was her first heat.

So Libby is living up to her nickname of "Lucky".

She is at home resting as I type this.  You can see the one infected mammary that was shaved a week ago.  She is going to be a spoiled little girl for the next week or so.