Vaginal bleeding in a spayed girl? *Post-surgery Update*

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SoA

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Jul 21, 2007
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Michigan
Okay, I'm a little confused.

A couple days ago I picked up my 3 year old girl, Hazel, and while glancing at her tummy I noticed she had some dried blood around her vaginal opening. It came off pretty easily, and revealed absolutely nothing. I thought maybe it was a fluke, and that maybe she just got a little scratch there.

The next morning (yesterday), I went ahead and checked her again - more dried blood. It's only a very small amount, and there are never any spots of blood around the cage.

Hazel was spayed in September 2006, over a year ago. What on earth could be causing this? I'm going to call the vet today, but I'm just kind of confused. It's not by her urethra, and she's been urinating normally, so I don't think it's a UTI. :?
 
Would she be showing any other symptoms, though? Her breathing is perfect and she's been acting completely fine. I'm always thinking to myself how, although she's my oldest by far, she's also the healthiest.
 
from ratguide.com

In genital infections, the organism may be a cause of pyometra or purulent endometritis (inflammation of the lining of the uterus), salpingitis (inflammation of fallopian tubes), and perioophoritis (inflammation of ovaries). The signs may range from clinically inapparent symptoms to abdominal distention or signs of blood-tinged uterine discharge. Hematuria (blood tinged urine) from a concurrent urinary tract infection may also be present.

From what I understand there's often a stump of uterus left behind so this can occur.
 
No blood today, but I went ahead and started her on Baytril. If it were a stump infection, I don't understand why it would crop up after over a year :?
 
This is really interesting.. although I have to admit that there's something about the notion of a "uterus stump" that kind of makes me giggle. It shouldn't, but it does.
 
moon said:
This is really interesting.. although I have to admit that there's something about the notion of a "uterus stump" that kind of makes me giggle. It shouldn't, but it does.
Click to expand...

I know... I had to make my vet repeated to me a couple of times.
 
Godmother, my vet told me that it's pretty rare but an infection of the stump could become likely especially if there's the start of a pituitary tumour which then wreaks havoc in her left over girlie bits.
 
The antibiotics really haven't done a whole lot for Hazel. Although I haven't seen dried blood since I originally posted, she does still have some discharge.

Dr. Nugent palpated her abdomen today to see if she could feel any abnormalities. Along with that, I had an x-ray done . Unfortunately, neither left us with any concrete answers. Though, while Dr. Nugent was feeling right where the uterine stump would be, Hazel got extremely upset and was in obvious pain and discomfort.

Since the antibiotics don't seem to be doing much of anything, I've decided on exploratory surgery. Despite Hazel being around 3 years old, she's in great health and hasn't had so much as an URI in the time I've had her (over a year), so my vet is confident that the surgery will go well and we'll hopefully be able to find (and fix!) the problem.
 
I just want to let you know it took a long time for the Baytril to work on Bijou and my vet said it may not ever fully clear up.

Good luck to your sweetie!!
 
just so everyone knows:
when a spay surgery is done the tendons holding the ovaries to the abdominal wall are clamped, tied and the tendons are cut. Once they are cut the ovaries and uterin horns come free. Then a clamp is placed just above the cervix. That is then tied and severed and the ovaries, horns and uterus are taken out. because the cervix has to stay in a very small part of the uterus is left behind which can unfortunatly become infected.

Sorry I've assisted in so many surgeries that they just fascinate me now and don't gross me out at all.

Imagine a little V thats what the ovaries and uterine horns look like. With the ovaries being at the top of each peak and the horns being the lines then the uterus being the bottom.
 
Cherubim, thanks so much for that, that really helps. I like to fully understand it like that, usually my vet takes the time to make me little drawings but this I wasn't sure exactly what she meant.
 

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