Vet shares life-saving reason why dog owners should always get their pets spayed

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Pet owners and vets are urging anyone with a dog to get them spayed after one woman nearly lost her pooch to a "hidden killer".Andrea Clifton from Nottingham recently had to take her pet Jack Russell-chihuahua, Lola, to get life-saving surgery after a contracting serious infection of the uterus called pyometra.The condition causes many tragic deaths for pets each year if they haven't been spayed, and is more common in older female dogs, such as nine-year-old Lola, Wales Online reports.

The pooch underwent surgery at Lawrence Veterinary Centre, part of My Family Vets, and now Andrea is urging owners to know the importance of neutering your pet. “When I got Lola, she had a hernia, which I thought might cause complications, so I never got her spayed,” said Andrea. “The vets mentioned that she wasn’t spayed each time she was in for her vaccinations so I knew it could be a problem, but there weren’t any issues until recently.“Lola started going off her food and wasn’t keen on moving much.

You know when your dog isn’t right, and she really wasn’t herself.” Worried, Andrea took Lola to Lawrence Vets - and alarm bells starting ringing for the experts. "When Lola came in, she was very depressed, lethargic and had been drinking a lot,” said vet Angie Hardy. “The clinical signs pointed to a pyometra and when we did an ultrasound scan it showed her uterus was very enlarged and full of pus.

We also did a blood test, as there can be side effects on the kidneys, and she had a very high white blood cell count. It would have been fatal for Lola, so we had to act quickly to operate.