Molly the Spaniel's Emergencies

While I've been away from the blogosphere it's been quite a couple of weeks.

Molly the Spaniel has had to have two emergency operations. Over a few weeks we had become concerned about the amount of water she was drinking (5-6 litres a day) and then, of course, having to be let out for a pee every few minutes. Eventually, I took her to the Friday night vet surgery and she was admitted straight away. Turns out she had an infected womb (Pyometra) and needed to be spayed immediately.

Molly

We hadn't had her spayed earlier because we hoped to breed from her. Molly's kennel name is Mompesson Gio and her great grandmother, GBSHCH Mompesson Remember Me, was the all-time best in breed (bitch).

Mompesson Remember Me (Jill) - bitch CC record holder

Her grandafther, GBSHCH Mompesson Blinking Hell, was reserve best in breed at Crufts a few years ago

Mompesson Blinking Hell

Any plans we might have had in that direction have now gone out of the window.

If you're interested in English Springer Spaniels, have a look at their website - some of the pix above come from the website. Mompesson English springer Spaniels

Molly went in and was operated on. She came out with zip-like stitches down her belly and we were given a large 'Elizabethan' collar to put on her to prevent her pulling at her stitches. When we put it on, she just stood there looking forlorn and wouldn't move. Every time it touched anthing, furniture, etc, she stopped dead and stood like a condemned man, head down, waiting for something to happen. In the end, we took it off her and threw it away. She never touched the stitches and everything healed very well.

While Molly was being examined, the vet also found a lump in one of her teats. While this was most likely to be benign, we were advised that they invariably turn malignant at some stage (equivalent of breast cancer). The vet took a few cells and sent them off for analysis and when they came back, the result was that they "could not rule out malignancy". As soon as Molly recovered from the first operation, she had to go in for a second and have the whole teat removed. Again, the vet nurse tried to insist on her wearing a collar but we refused and also refused to pay for it!

We had a few days of messing and peeing in the house but Molly is a very clean dog - we've alays found it difficult to tell when she's on heat, she keeps herself so clean. We were hopeful that everything would soon return to normal and that, indeed, proved to be the case.

And this is Mompesson Gio (Molly)