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Tucked Vulva In 4mth Old Pup, Anyone Have Experience With This?


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It is also called inverted vulva. Has anyone experienced this with their pup? Internet research leads me to believe its best to allow them one season prior to desexing as this usually rights the problem as the vulva swells/develops during the heat cycle.

Other side of the coin says do corrective surgery at 6mths prior to her coming into season as allowing your bitch a heat cycle increases her chance of cancer later in life.

My only interest is ensuring this gorgeous girl doesnt get recurrent UTI's from her condition and to ensure if pre season surgery is the way to go then it be done by a vet who has experience in this type of surgery.

She hasn't had any uti's so far.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Caz..

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Depending on how inverted it is, it can 'pop out' more once a bitch has had a season. If it is too tucked under and she has problems though, a vaginoplasty may be the way to go. I personally would probably take a 'wait and see' attitude unless it is really quite severe and alreay affecting her. If it doesnt cause problems, the pain and expense of surgery is avoided. If it does, it is not too late if you wait until she is more mature. JMHO.

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My pup had it, but it was not a severe case. Vet suggested the wait and see till after her first heat, and it helped. She did not get any UTI's though.

Also - what espinay said.

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Other side of the coin says do corrective surgery at 6mths prior to her coming into season as allowing your bitch a heat cycle increases her chance of cancer later in life.

What breed and what family of that breed? The chance of cancer in some breeds is extremely low anyway so the "chance of cancer'' for your specific bitch could be virtually nil. Boxer pup from a high risk family would be a totally different proposition to pup of another breed from a family with no cancer history.

Personally I'd let nature have a chance to do her thing before letting a vet do anything.

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I've seen a few cases. One was a dog who never had that much of a problem initially, but because there was a fold there which wasn't looked after, the constant skin irritation led to the folds of skin to swell and become thickened, further hiding the vulva as time went by. The area eventually became quite red raw (owner didn't like using any sort of medication).

I would probably wait until the first season if she can get by. See if the problem rectifies itself and if not, then it may be surgery time. The surgery isn't that major really, it's just a bit of a nip/tuck. It may be more cost effective to have it done at the same time she's speyed?

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Hi Cazstaff :p

As Ruthless said, Electra had a vulvoplasty in January(at about 20 months old)

She was desexed at 7 months, before her first season, and now I do regret not giving her the opportunity to develop more.

She had vaginitis on and off for 6 weeks from the about the age of 5 months and also had a UTI.

After she was spayed she didn't suffer from these any more, but did have irritation because of urine getting trapped in the skin fold.

I decided it would be better for her to have the surgery than suffer irritation for the rest of her life(I treated the vulva area daily, with cream(bactroban) and this helped immensely but the problem wasn't going to go away :( )

The surgery, for her, was a very invasive one, Electra was very uncomfortable for about 10 days afterwards :p

I'd let this pup have one season and see if it does help and if it doesn't and she is irritated go see a specialist.

Electra's surgery was done at the university hospital(Murdoch in WA) as I wanted someone very experienced doing it.

Edited by raffikki
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I've seen it before, & have seen it improve after a heat cycle as the vulva will swell & permanently changes conformation slightly.

Allowing one heat cycle does increase the risk of mammary cancers, but also decreases the risk of spay incontinence - discussing desexing of dogs is like swings & roundabouts, there are benefits either way even for a dog without an inverted vulva.

None of us have seen your dog so can't really give informed advice, but from what you've said, if your dog were mine I'd let her have one heat cycle before desexing & then contemplate surgery if she still has a conformation issue.

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Thankyou, thankyou thankyou!! I appreciate all your replies. Roxy is a 4 month old Lab X pup. I have been trying to find information for months, I should have just asked here first!

Decision made, I will wait and see if she still needs surgery after her first season. After seeing Electra's photo's Id like to spare her that pain if at all possible, poor girl looked so sore :)

Roxy hasn't had any vaginitis or Uti's so far. There doesnt seem to be any irritation or excess moistness either.

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