Mochi has to be spayed.
I wanted to let you all know, Mochi came into season 30+ days ago, at 5 months of age, she has been bleeding the whole time, a deep dark red color. She never ovulated. This is called “Persistent Estrus”, the cause can only be one of 3 things: 1) Tumor, 2) Cyst, 3) A dog undergoing Estrogen Therapy.
Weeks ago we started running tests to see why she never ovulated, working with Colorado State Repro specialists. After tons of tests, that found nothing, the diagnosis is that she has a cyst on her ovary. She will have to be spayed. We have made her an appointment to be spayed on Thursday.
This is very sad for us, but we want whats best for Mochi, and this is the safest route for her.
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Weeks ago we started running tests to see why she never ovulated, working with Colorado State Repro specialists. After tons of tests, that found nothing, the diagnosis is that she has a cyst on her ovary. She will have to be spayed. We have made her an appointment to be spayed on Thursday.
This is very sad for us, but we want whats best for Mochi, and this is the safest route for her.
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Comments
I'm really sorry to hear this. Poor girl. And poor you and Jen. Even though this is yet another blow to your breeding plans, at least Mochi isn't likely to suffer any long term ill from it. Hopefully her spay with take care of everything and you can put this behind you quickly.
Poor Mochi
Is spaying her the only "cure?" Hope that she's ok
Pack it up & ship it off to NM! ~
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On the good side, Mochi will be ok after this.
Ok, let me give some more info, just for the sake of education, and to address Heidi's comment: They can't just remove the one ovary? (which has been asked by others)...
We noticed around day 25 of her cycle that something was up, her discharge remained dark in color.
In a "normal" cycle the female will become swollen and then give off a reddish brown discharge, as she nears the point of ovulation her discharge will become very deep red in color. Once she ovulated her discharge will turn more toward the pink side as the blood in her system reduced and eventually the discharge will be the color of honey. This is the time period where mating should occur (48 hour window post-ovulation).
You can track the cycle by testing the female's progesterone too, it will start low (like at a 0-2) then surge to ~5 or so at ovulation. The progesterone will then surge very high post-ovulation. The goal is to do the breeding once the progesterone surge has started, around 8 - 12. The LH Surge happens right before the female ovulates, and the males are most responsive to it, this is how they know it is time - they "smell" the surge in hormones. The perfect time for conception is EXACTLY 48 hours post-ovulation.
Here is a diagram:
Right before ovulation a female's discharge is at it's darkest and her estrogen levels are at their highest. Her estrogen levels at that point are at a toxic level, meaning if a female were to be exposed to that level of estrogen for a pro-longed time she could start to have a reduction in bone density and then, eventually, die.
In Mo's case, she is permanently stuck in the dangerously high estrogen period right before ovulation. She has been there for about 20 days now, which is way longer than most females would be in that point (usually lasts 5 days at most). This is what is called “Persistent Estrus”, the cause of “Persistent Estrus” can only really be 3 things (as mentioned before) 1) Tumor, 2) Cyst, 3) A dog undergoing Estrogen Therapy. Mochi's progesterone level has been hovering around 3 for this 20 day period.
Now, in some females, they may take a long time to get to the ovulation point (like in the chart above - most females get to ovulation much faster, like 15 days), I have heard of females that ovulate on the 28th day. But in those examples the female would not be at the dangerously high estrogen level period that Mochi is stuck in (and they would show a change in progesterone levels too), and therefore it wouldn't be “Persistent Estrus”.
As far as options go, for Mochi, we could give her an injection of HCG, which would push her into ovulation. The issues with this is that it increases the risks of Pyometra post-injection, and it is recommended that you never give that injection to a breeding bitch. Also, she would probably have the same issue at her next cycle and then we would have to spay her.
A Pyometra is a deadly infection, and something I don't want to risk with Mochi. But, lets pretend that wasn't a post-injection risk, lets just pretend that we could give her this shot and she would ovulate and we could wait for the next cycle to see what happens. Well, if the only known causes of “Persistent Estrus” are those 3 things noted above, I wouldn't breed a dog with any of them anyway as a cyst and a tumor is probably a hereditary issue.
Obviously, breeding Mochi is important to us, but not important enough to potential produce Kai with this same issue, or at the risk of little Mo's health. So, that is why we made this decision.
I will note, it is not 100% guaranteed that Mochi's issue is/was hereditary, so her sisters may not have this issue and may not pass it on. A simple ultrasound can confirm it... but for Mochi, unfortunately, we had to make a hard choice for her overall health and safety.
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I am very sorry, and I hope the little girl will be ok.
I knew of a weim breeder in Oregon whose dogs had multiple repro problems. She was on well-water and thought the local agril was leaching into her well. Have you considered a reverse osmosis water filtration system?
Was your property horse property before you owned it? Pregnant mare property in particular? I don't know the specifics of how much processing is needed, but an estrogen pill, Premarin, is made from pregnant mare urine.
At surface level your points do sound legit, but when you look at the details of each thing it starts to fall apart.
I think it just comes down to the fact that all dog breeds are sickly, 10,000+ years of selective breeding has not done them any favors, they are far from natural things these days.
I have heard, for all breeds, that the rough average rate of breedable imports is 1 in 3. So, out of 6 imported dogs only 2 will be breeding quality. I think, in our situation, the huge rate of failure appears multiplied due to the number of breeds we live with. If we had focused only on the Shikoku, and I had imported 12 of them, we would have at least 4 breeding quality Shikoku. But since we have so many breeds, and we have imported them piecemeal style, the results are spread out more. If you look at just numbers, and pretend all our dogs are for breeding (which they are not), then you will see our success rate is actually better than 1 in 3 - its almost 50/50. Of our 15 dogs, 8 are ok and 7 are curs.
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My thoughts are with you, and I will be thinking about Mochi as her spay comes up. I hope she does well and can live a happy healthy life of leisure.
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I like the feel of doggies with shaved fur. I know it's weird. I used to enjoy rubbing Lucy's leg after her knee surgery. So enjoy Mochi's tummy while you can! :-)
Wishing her a speedy recovery!