Treating pyometra

In an interview with Lacey Rosenberg, DVM, DACT, an associate veterinarian for Veterinary Specialties at the Lake in Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, she explained how to combat pyometra—a severe infection of the uterus that can cause an overflow of bacteria and pus, during the Fetch dvm360 conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Below is a partial transcript.

Lacey Rosenberg, DVM, DACT: Our treatment of choice for pyometra is spay. We've got a pus filled uterus, [so] we want to get rid of the uterus [and then] we get rid of the infection. We will medically manage these patients at times if they're stable. So if the cervix is open, if they're bright, alert, and responsive, if they're feeling good, still eating, still acting okay. And then the other important thing to that is that if I feel that there's still a good prognosis for future fertility, because in cases of pyometra, there is underlying uterine pathology. We're going to worsen the prognosis for them having subsequent litters.