That we had a Health Scare with Clover?

On Aug. 18, Clover gave us a frightening reminder of how quickly things can change with our dogs. Within 90 minutes of a normal leashed walk, she went from fine to feverish, panting, pale gums and showing abdominal pain. We rushed her to the emergency vet, where she underwent 3.5 hours of surgery for a severe uterine infection (closed pyometra) triggered by Cystic endometrial hyperplasia (CEH), an uncommon condition in such a young dog. They also did exploratory surgery opening her stomach up as they didn’t know the cause of inflammation in her body cavity. The vet didn’t know what what going on with the uterine tissues as it looked abnormal. A biopsy was sent in and we had to wait 5 days to find out it was a benign condition, not the suspected cancer and a full spay solved the issue. Whew!
We were lucky to have it happen on a day the vet was open (our emergency vets are short-staffed so are open only 3 full days a week). Otherwise we would have had to drive her 90 minutes south and likely stay overnight at a hotel adding to everyone’s stress and the cost.

Thanks to fast action, she has recovered at home on antibiotics and pain meds, though she’ll need 6 weeks to heal internally as it was major surgery. The only possible subtle sign beforehand was that she’d been calmer on walks—something easy to dismiss. Dogs can mask illness until it’s critical, so it’s important to act quickly if something feels off.