Canine Pyometra. The Dog Edition. What You Need To Know To Get Your Dog Out Alive. Cost, Options, Advice. (warning surgery photos included)

Shyyann,, this is her pyo story

This is Shyyann. She came to see me on a Sunday afternoon. She had left the ER about an hour before where it was determined by an ultrasound that she had an infection in her uterus. She is 10 plus years old, the light of her dads life, and about the sweetest, kindest, gentlest girl you have ever met.

As with every single appointment, I get a brief synopsis from the technician who takes the vitals, documents the history and provides me a brief description of all of this along with the presenting concern. This day, it was Laura reporting Shyyann's story to me.

"They saw your video. She has a pyo. Everyone in the room is crying. She's a pittie. A really nice pittie. They are afraid you are going to tell them to put her to sleep. I don't know if they are here for a second opinion or to euthanize?"

She knows me as well as I know her. Laura dropped every hint she knew was important. She was smitten by this dog, and had great hope for Shyyann. She is my calm to the storms I too often find myself lost in. She is a big part of the reason I still hope and always try. I walk in the room.. as I always do.. ready to fight a war and looking for troops to enlist.

Thick hemorrhagic purulent (blood and puss) discharge.

Shyyann's estimate for her pyometra surgery was $2500. (Based on this estimate I know where she came from. Lately I am seeing pyo referral estimates ranging from $2,000 to $5,500). Through tears from her mom, (who just had a baby a few weeks ago), she said "we just don't have that kind of money. We don't have half of that."

What they did have, that one special thing that they all have, is a story. A story of a family who loved their dog. If you have that, if you can start there, you can make miracles happen. It is not about how much money, it is about how deep the love lies. It is where Laura and I, and the rest of the staff at JVC, reside.

Shyyann was sick. There was no doubt. She was depressed, weak, and tired. She hadn't eaten in two days, had been sick for weeks, and had been given a diagnosis devoid of one stitch of any kind of treatment to help her. I find that one simple act of omission an all too common theme. Don't use resources on anything before a mutually acceptable AND affordable treatment plan is in place! Especially when the diagnosis is acutely obvious. In the new age of "standard of care" we are forgetting to be resourceful. We are forgetting that our patients are OURS to be collectively responsible for. I hope we get ourselves back to the foundations of care. I also hope people can get drive-thru fluid therapy clinics if the primary care vets don't give them at least that. That one little act of $80 bucks (subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics) at my clinic can buy precious time and countless lives.

We cannot forget to treat while we collect scant resources and diagnose.

Shyyann, her family, and I had a long hard talk. Here's how I see it; she needs help immediately. The soonest I can get her this help is tomorrow morning. It will cost about $1,000. She is not the best surgical candidate. But that is the best I can do. I can give her fluids and antibiotics to try to help get her through the night. We talked payment plans, options, and faith.

Everyone left with a plan, and Shyyann's family left with hope. You can never steal that from someone. It will break them. It will ripple forward in ways you cannot imagine.

Here is Shyyann's surgery.

Distended angry uterus.

Think it didn't look big in the photo above?

50 pound Shyyann minus her 4.5 pound uterus

The surgery is done.

Waking up

Resting after recovery

The video of a prior pyometra surgery.. the message is always the same. Spay now, avoid the pyo later. 

So why don't people spay?

• They cannot afford it. Please ask your vet, shelter, rescues for assistance in finding low cost options. Or, start saving. At Jarrettsville Vet we have Pre-Payment Plans to help.
• They are afraid of anesthesia. Pre-existing conditions like heart murmurs, small pets, prior anesthetic adverse events, the list of reasons to be afraid shouldn't put your pets health in jeopardy.
• You didn't realize that a pyometra could happen. (I hear this every single day!)
• 
  

Here is what Shyyann's bill looked like at JVC

Pawbly.com is about saving lives, and providing options with data. Let the data set the standard of care and integrity via transparency be the guide.

If you care about pets, believe in making happy endings happen, and want to help others please join me on our Jarrettsville Vet Facebook page, our Pawbly Facebook page,and also on Twitter and YouTube.

Pyometra Emergency. Saving your pets life when optimal options aren't possible.

Chloe is prepped for her big restoration and transformation.

There are many cases who find me. The power of social media and pet parent desperation often come to a head at my doorstep. It wasn't necessarily my intention to be the landing page for those who had no luck at other equally capable veterinarians hospitals, but I am finding myself to be the vet who offers options to those who are not receiving affordable treatment plans elsewhere. There is a great divide happening in medicine and consequently a huge number of pets falling into the growing chasm of divide simply because pet parents are being priced out of the care they need.

Chloe is a speck of a Yorkie. Demure, quiet, reserved and always trying to hide in the shadows of her moms arms who persistently protect her from having to face the world with a nose to the heavens.

Mom loves Chloe, but like so many others, life had gotten bumpy and difficult and Chloe's health care needs were being overlooked due to more immediate pressing matters until last weekend when Chloe wouldn't eat and was acting very sick and reluctant to move or play.

Chloe headed to the emergency clinic. Within a few hours her illness had a name; pyometra. Unfortunately that $750 work up cost her family all of the money they had. The price tag Chloe's mom was given for the treatment she needed was estimated at $2900. They walked out of the ER with antibiotics and a dog who still needed life threatening surgery.

I have this gripe that I cannot seem to convince the rest of the veterinary world to pay attention to.. the point of veterinary patient care, the reason people drive their pets into our door, is NOT JUST TO TELL THEM WHAT IS WRONG!!! OUR JOB IS TO DO THAT, AND (MOST VITALLY IMPORTANTLY), TO FIX THEM!! 

In fact, I am very certain that our clients are more interested in real help than real answers!

An invested vet will talk about the resources required to do both, diagnose and fix. Exhausting available resources and not getting to the finish line is not assisting our patients. It is short sighted, veterinary focused mismanagement of client and patient care. A good vet will talk about the most likely diagnosis, the available treatment options, the prognosis for each, and the costs associated with every step of this process. Spending all of Chloe's treatment resources before they get the help that will save their lives is simply cruel tragically failed patient care. 

Chloe has had a retained baby tooth, now mobile simply by touching it, for her whole life.
More information on this here.

Chloe had a laundry list of needs. By the grace of good luck her antibiotics were kicking her uterine infection to the curb and she was feeling better within two days. There was still much to address in her tiny 8 pounds.

People ask me all the time how they can affordably care for their pets? The answer is universal; Keep up with the day to day, month to month, and yearly stuff. Budget and plan for it. It is as important to your pets health as it is to yours.

Here is my short list of needed routine care to avoid the costly veterinary bumps in the road.

• Brush teeth daily.
• Eat a good nutritious wholesome food on a scheduled regimen.
• Get lots of sleep. Dogs have this concept mastered. We have some important lessons to learn from them. 
• Lots of interesting exercise. What do I mean by this? Let your dog be a dog. Sniff, tug, play, hide, walks that are adventurous. Let them explore the world.
• Play hard and sleep hard.
• Ideal body weight and muscle mass. Avoid lots of the diseases and disease processes that obesity predisposes your pet to. 
• Indoor cats need exercise and I warn about poor quality free feeding dry kibble. 
• Basic parasite prevention. For my part of the world this includes fleas, ticks, heartworm, and intestinal parasite preventatives.
• Spay and neuter by 1 year old.
• Obedience and socialization. What would happen to you if you were not able to care for your pet AND your pet refuses to allow anyone else near it?
• Microchips save lives every single day. Make a small investment for the best chance of a happily ever after that you hope you never need to rely on.
• Start a savings plan for the unforeseeable accidents ahead.
• Have a great vet who knows how much you love your pet and be there for each other. Here are my tips on how to get something for nothing from your vet.

Here is what Chloe needed;

• Dental cleaning with numerous extractions. Her mouth was so rotten that almost every tooth was mobile. Every client I show teeth like this to is always shocked that their pet gave them no clues there was such a significant problem. If you didn't brush your teeth daily yours would fall out too. Dogs get used to bad teeth and eat around them. Removing them resolves persistent oral infection and they will eat better afterward. The number of teeth to be removed is often also shocking to clients. In many cases dogs, like Chloe, will have a dozen, or more teeth extracted. If they are bad they are removed. No discussion here. Don't wake a dog up with bad teeth still on board UNLESS you have a dental professional who wants to stage the procedure. Ideal for the patient, more expensive for the client.
• Spay. Her uterine infection will return. Spay her as soon  as possible.
• Get an idea of her overall health before jumping into surgery.
• Caught up on vaccines and preventatives.
• Lay out a plan her mom understands and can afford so that she remains on healthy in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

The original source of Chloe's illness, her pyometra. 
Treatment; simple; uterus and ovaries are removed.

My clinic, my perception, and my obligation to my clients is deeply seeded in my ability to get them what their pet needs in an efficient and affordable fashion. 

Chloe's mom was deeply upset that her dog was in need of so much medical attention. She felt very guilty for both not knowing that her mouth was so diseased, but also that she had waited so long to provide the basic spay, vaccines and annual care she knew she needed. The luxury of going back in time when hindsight is present tense and everything is 20:20 is not something I waste much time on. We are here now, we cannot go back and undo, we can only learn, move forward and do the best we can in the present. 

Chloe's mom wanted to use her tax return to get her well. We had a budget. Budgets are a reality few vet businesses want to hear about. The reality is that most all of us live in the real world of budgets.

The conversation between Chloe's mom and I went something like this;

"Ideally we should put Chloe on antibiotics for two weeks and then give her a dental cleaning and remove all of her diseased teeth. The cost of this is about $800. She probably needs her spay soon too. The longer we wait the more likely it is that the uterine infection can resurface. This surgery is also about $800." Chloe's mom could barely scrape together the $800 for one, she couldn't do it twice. And, as every good family vet will point out, we still needed to get Chloe back on track AFTER the emergent disasters were addressed. Chloe needed about $200 of flea &  tick and heartworm preventatives. I feel very strongly that our mission is to help through the bumps and provide a path forward to help avoid bumps in the future. Every pet leaves Jarrettsville Vet with a short AND long term plan along with associated costs. 

"But how can I do both surgeries? I am so worried that she won't live through all of this if I don't do them? How do I choose between what is safe for her and what is possible for me to be able to afford?"

"We have to make a choice. We have to do what we can, accept what we cannot and tell ourselves that we did the best we could with the resources at hand." This is a concept that I think the veterinary profession is losing sight of. In some effort to promote our bottom lines, save our skin from the chance of liability we don't help people on the level they need us to. 

Chloe had her spay and dental surgeries a few days later. I asked our dental expert veterinarian to help. I wanted Chloe to get all that she needed and I wanted her little 8 pound body to be under general anesthesia for the shortest time possible. I was most worried about her getting too cold being under for the two hours it would take to do all she needed.

Chloe's bill...

Chloe's final bill for her spay and dental (which included almost a dozen teeth be removed) was about $760. It was by no means ideal. She had minimal additional blood work done. She had everything done at the emergency clinic the week before. It was all normal. We did not repeat it. We took a leap of faith, and a calculated risk. We also had the benefit of her being on antibiotics from the emergency visit. We scheduled her surgery on the last day of her emergency antibiotics and then resumed them the day after surgery. She was closely monitored and treated by experienced vets who wanted more than anything to get her back home with all of the needed care she came to us for. That's what your home town vet does.

Two weeks post-op and Chloe is doing great! She has a daily plan her mom understands. She is also on her needed monthly preventatives and will return every 6 months for examinations to make sure nothing else comes up to derail her health.

Chloe is an excellent lesson on finding a way to make a difference in a pets life while working within the real-life constraints of a family on a tight budget.

Update;
This is Chloe at her 2 week post-op visit. Her mouth and abdominal incision are all healing excellently! She received the last of her booster vaccines getting her all up to date on her medical needs. She is happy, active and on a path to maintain these. We are elated to see her back. Her mom knows we are here to help, and with a team in place to care for her, provide guidance, and be willing to face any bumps in the road together her chances of  trouble free future are the best they could possibly be.
Lots of love to Chloe and her family!

Life can be full of happy endings if you can bend, compromise and find help when it is needed. Keep looking if you can't it is out there, we promise!

If you would like to ask me a pet related question you can find me on Pawbly.com. Pawbly is free to use and open to anyone who needs a little  help in finding information or direction with their pets care. We also invite all of the pet lovers out there to join us and share your pet knowledge. 

Me and  the resident clinic governess, Loon.

If you would like me to meet your pet and assist in their care I am happy to try to help. Call me at the clinic, Jarrettsville Veterinary Center in Jarrettsville Maryland. We publish our Price List every year. You can find it here.

I am also occasionally visiting on Twitter @FreePetAdvice,