Smptoms and issues
The first phase of a horn dog is called proestrus and it can last from 7 to 10 days: in order to identify this phase, you should pay attention to the swollen vulva, a signal that lets you identify the warm cycle of your little female dog. Once this face stops vulva dimension comes back to normal. After the surgical, sterilization can produce different effects and obviously the main involve the estrus: how does the estrus change after the sterilization? There are some symptoms to consider after doing it and they are physical and behavioral. Among them could be again the swollen vulva in a sterilized dog.
Swollen vulva in a sterilized dog, the reasons behind it
If you have decided to get your dog sterilized, you should know that some physical and behavioral changes may occur after the surgery, all of them are normal. Surgical removal of uterus and ovaries in a female dog is called ovariohysterectomy and it is a surgery that causes the subsequent estrus to stop. It is not uncommon that even with the ovariohysterectomy some female still continues to show some signs of being warm, such as the swollen vulva even after sterilization. But why can a swollen vulva occur to a sterilized dog? This may be caused because some section of ovaries tissue may have been left inside the dog during the surgery. If this tissue is still functional it may secrete hormones and you can clearly see some behavioral signs, but also estrus physical ones in a female dog.
These signs can show up few days after the surgery. And even after the sterilization some other symptoms may show up: other than the swollen vulva, also vaginal discharge or the continuous attraction to male dogs. The swollen vulva in a sterilized dog may also be a symptom of the so called “residual limb pathology”, a uterus infection when it has not been removed. This infection can increase thirsty status and make it easy for the vulva to gain size and increase strange behavior.
Obviously, it is necessary to properly inform your veterinarian also with detailed information on when the symptoms have shown up.