Elderly Westie with pyometra

[ArsonFire]

Our much loved westie who is 16 next month has been diagnosed with pyometra. Due to her age and cost we haven't insured her for a couple of years, but we have been lucky she has generally had good health.
Her only symptoms upto now is that she is drinking a lot , lethargic (though due to her age she was slowing anyway).
The only real cure is a full spay, which they have quoted £2k but due to her age there is a good chance she may not be strong enough.
The urge to just pay it even to keep her around for who knows how long is strong but we always said her welfare would come 1st before our not wanting to let her go.
We are siding on not wanting to put her through the stress of a major operation.
I'm just looking for fellow dog lovers points of view. Thanks!

Op, do not beat yourself up. You have had a happy healthy dog with a long life. The decision to spay or not is not black and white. There are pros and cons both ways. We have been discussing this with out vet and apparently there is more research around now indicating the benefits of not spaying. But of course there are risks too.

Oh… I am so so sorry.
I lost my 15 1/2 year old Westie ( also Maggie) a couple months ago… it’s heartbreaking making that decision.
Vets are really really wonderful at that time.

Over the last five years I’ve had two elderly dogs operated on, both on the same day as it turned out unfortunately.
I can only give you my experience, I’m no vet just a breeder/ exhibitor for over forty years of one of our most endangered rare breeds.
One was a 14 year old bitch who developed pyometra, like yours,but she was really quite ill with it. Not spayed young as she was a very successful show dog & you can’t show neutered dogs (KC rules except for very special rare medical reasons) & had successfully birthed two litters when younger. The vet warned she might not survive the operation but I wasn’t about to be without my lovely girl if I could help it. She survived, recovered well, slowly, carefully & very pampered, & lived till she was nineteen.
My other was a 13 year old dog who developed cancer, spleen so booked in for a splenectomy, on opening him up the vet rang to say the cancer had spread & did I want her to let him go or just stitch him up to come home for what time he had left.
I brought him home & he lived for three more years with regular vet visits who couldn’t believe him, “ doesn’t even know he’s ill” as he was so normal & lively till his last day.
Just saying.
Oh, and I’ve never had pet insurance

And we have been told it can still happen with keyhole spay.

There is only a tiny chance of it happening with keyhole if done early enough, as once the ovaries are removed, the hormones are no longer present to cause infection. Later keyhole means there could already be enough tissue build up to create infection later down the line. The risk is small though.

I think you're doing the right thing with the injections, as if you did decide to go through with the op, she has a much better chance whilst the infection is at bay. If you don't, then hopefully she'll be more comfortable for the time she has left. Wishing Maggie all the best x

My understanding is that spaying is not so clear cut as it once was. WSAVA have literally just produced new guidance on this. They recommend a move away from blanket neutering to a more targeted approach depending on breed and other factors.

It’s really interesting as reading so much about it over the last years it seems to be shifting again. Time was it wasn’t such a common thing to have your dog or bitch neutered but it seemed to gather momentum over time to be pushed more & more. When I was young, when Methuselah was a lad, nobody had their dog neutered & vets never even mentioned it unless there was a health issue occurred. It was never done as a preventative procedure. Similar with vaccines, they weren’t pushed as much as now & for fleas & worms you mostly bought stuff from the pet shop. Bob Martins etc. I can recall buying Early Worm for puppies, calcium for whelping mums etc.
And there were no firms flogging pet insurance, no such thing. Vets were independent & affordable. I know, I know inflation but I’m not talking pre war James Herriot times, I’m talking 90s….ish, perhaps even later. Not sure just when it all became such “ big business” but it doesn’t seem that long ago, certainly no more than 20-30 years.

@ArsonFire I would have the op - the longer you leave pyo though the more difficult the op will be - if the dog is still strong for her age and has a good quality of life then there would be no doubt in my mind to do it.

What I will say though is the cost of £2k is extortionate and vets should be ashamed of themselves charging this much for a bitch spey pyo or not.

I expect the cost is not necessarily the spey but the associated care around it that increases the price.

Yes, you can chuck and old dog on the table and hope for the best like days of old generally gold standard care is iv fluids, bloods, better pain relief, medication for nausea, better quality suture, machines for monitoring anaesthesia, having qualified nursing staff (often with degrees and then dips in medicine/surgery etc) rather than ‘lay people’, vets with certs etc. Even normal non pyo spay is much more advanced as we move towards minimal invasive procedures (laps) and better standards of care, hence higher costs. I know 15 years ago the animals didn’t recover half as well from
even routine ops as they do now, because the protocols are so much better.

Thankfully veterinary medicine has advanced along with human medicine and outcomes are much better, but it comes at a cost. You can do it cheap obviously but is it better for the animal? Debatable. I assume NHS costs are much greater than 20 years ago too but you aren’t billed there.

Personally, I would always spay after 1 season unless breeding. Dogs I am happy to leave entire as long as no other issues.