"Why spay," you say -- ?? -- Megan & Angel show us WHY -- !!!

Megan writes --

"Hi Eric, I live in Concord, NH. We own 3 dogs -- Shadow (black, at right) and Angel (white and brown) are pits and the 3rd is a pit/lab mix named Bella.

I would not want this to happen to somebody else, we were lucky that Angel didn't have any complications.

As I said in my message, because of this experience we have decided to get Shadow spayed when we have the money, because right now I am the only one employed in my house right now.

Thank You -- Megan

PS. The black and white picture of her lying down on our bed was the day before her surgery before we knew anything was wrong. The other 2 black and white photos were taken the morning after her surgery when her incision was still swollen."

And now, the rest of the story...

"Friday April 8, 2011

Our 6-year-old Red nose pit, Angel had emergency surgery for a pyometra (uterine infection). My fiancé and I had noticed that she hadn't been acting herself for a couple of day's prior. At first she wasn't showing much interest in her food and just lying around.

We chalked it up to the fact that she had just finished a months worth of antibiotics for a skin problem. Thursday was the turning point; Angel just laid on our bed she didn't want to move even when we brought her food. She was also breathing funny it sounded like she was congested."

"We knew that we should call the vet but it was late and their office was already closed, we would just call in the morning. I walked by the end of our bed to put my camera down because I had just finished taking some photos of her in her sickly state and noticed that she was leaking urine on our bed. All I could think of was cancer, still though the call to the vet would have to wait till morning."

"Friday morning I was getting ready for work, Angel had just finished drinking a bunch of water. She walked past me like I wasn't there into the living room and urinated. I got my fiancé up and told him what happened. I wasn't able to call the vet till I was on my lunch break, when I told them her symptoms they said to bring her right in.

I dropped her off to have tests done. I later got the call that Angel had a pyometra; he told me that blood work showed that her white cell count was 3800 and for a healthy dog her size is 1600."

"He also said that the x-ray showed that her uterus was enlarged which also pointed to a pyometra. My fiancé and I decided that having her uterus removed was the best option. They let us see her before the surgery because the surgery she was having there is a high risk of complications especially if her uterus ruptured."

"The doctor showed us her x-ray and her uterus was so large that it was pressing on her bladder and her lungs. That explained her breathing problems and her not being able to hold her urine.

The surgery took over an hour but they got the uterus out without rupturing it. She did so well post-op that they told us we could take her home that night."

"Since the surgery Angel has returned to her normal self. Now instead of hovering over her to make sure there is no further infection we are hovering over her to make sure she doesn't damage her incision area."

"We also decided from this emotional experience that we would be getting our 18-month-old pit, Shadow spayed as soon as we can afford it.

We would rather pay $400 for a routine procedure than $1500 for an emergency procedure that can have serious complications."

THANK YOU for such a great write-up and for such great PICTURES, Megan -- we're soooo happy that Angel is well, and we hope this serves a GREAT example of why to SPAY and NEUTER your pets --

-- before complications arise -- !!

THANKS AGAIN!!