Not your average gal...

Those who are familiar with me know that I start off my day with the morning prayer service at church.  It helps to center me, unburden me, focus me, and prepare me for the day ahead.  If you haven't tried it, give it a spin.  It has worked wonders for my anxiety.  Those who are familiar with me also know that I can be found regularly at the Two Summers Spay and Neuter Clinic every Tuesday and Wednesday morning.  This is a great low cost clinic with the aim of reducing the shelter burden/stray population/animal suffering in McMinn county and the surrounding region.  Those who are familiar with me know what I like to call my Tuesday/Wednesday schedule.  I call it pray and spay day.  This past Wednesday began just as any normal pray and spay day does...but took an interesting turn when I met......her.  Lets just say that familiar was left at the door. 

I got to cuddle a hermaphrodite.

The technician brought her to me and said, "What do you think this is?  I felt it on my arm when I picked her up."  

The dog, a cute lhasa apso mix from a local rescue organization, had a small piece of pink tissue protruding from her vulva.  Upon further examination, I realized that the tissue was actually an enlarged clitoris.  The odd thing, though,....was the bone in it.   Some species of animals have a bone in their penis, called an os penis.  Dogs are one of them.  But to have a bone in your clitoris (an os clitoris) is extremely rare. Also odd, was that the clitoris had a bulbous portion near the base, similar to the conformation of a male dog's penis.

So I began to consider the whole dog.  The dog was between one and two years old, judging from its teeth, but showed no signs of repeated estrous cycling (enlarged nipples/vulva).  So she had never been pregnant...and had probably never been in heat.  Oddly, she did have the slightest of mammary tissue development, the way a dog does in the first few weeks of pregnancy.  The dog seemed to possess the external genitalia of both a male and a female.  Since the dog was a recent foster, little was known about its behavior.  Did it act like a male or female?  Did it mount other dogs?  Was it territorial?  All was a mystery.  We would need to look inside. 

I incised in the abdomen at the normal position for a spay and reached my finger in wondering if I'd feel a uterus or would I have to make a large incision and look around.  But the thin firm uterus was easily found and externalized.  The uterus was very normal in appearance from cervix to the tip of each uterine horn.  I admit to being a little sad about the normalcy of it until I examined the ovaries at the tip of each horn.  Instead of ovaries, this dog had a testicle in the place where each ovary should have been.  Amazingly, there were spermatic cords present which appeared to lead into the uterus.  The ovarian pedical which contains the blood supply for the ovary was actually a well developed panpiniform plexus, the complex system of vessels that feed the testes. Cut section of the testes revealed a very normal testicular architecture.  I admit to jumping up and down and screaming for the whole staff to come look!  It was just so exciting.  A dog with two testes, one uterus, a vagina, and an os clitoris!  A rare find indeed.

After all surgeries were recovered and the giddiness had waned, the most dreaded part of helping this patient was upon me.  I had to have a discussion with the foster mom. 

Growing up in rural east Tennessee, I have learned that there are some things that are simply taboo and off the table for discussion.  I learned as a child that when someone is in the hospital for "female problems".....you don't ask.  I have met so many people who just can't bring themselves to tell me where their dog is sick or injured because that body part word is not to be spoken.  She or he is simply sick "down there" or "where she tinkles."  I have offended owners by using the correct terms for the dog's part!  How would this foster mom take it when I explained to her that this cute little dog (with a very female name) was actually intersex?

It went great.  The foster owner was very interested and curious and asked great questions, though she kept getting confused about which parts I actually removed and which parts remained.  It's all very likely because my side of the conversation was going something like this:

Yes, well the pink thing is actually her clitoris but it's more like she has a penis.  No, she doesn't pee out of it, she pees around it.  No, I really don't think there's any reason to remove it unless it's causing her problems.  Yes, she still has her vagina.  Yes, she did have a uterus, but not ovaries.  I had to remove her testicles.  No, they were actually inside her belly.  Yes, it's very important that you explain to the future owners what the pink thing is.  It really doesn't matter, call it what you want, but let them know it's OK to be there and give them her medical record from today. 

What an interesting little dog this was!  What a fascinating discovery!  One happy little fuzzy dog headed to rescue up north.  One of many...but one in a million.

The spaying was done.  What was left to do?  Pray for the familiar.  Pray for a kind family that will treat her like every other dog and not want her as a "freak".  Pray for a good veterinarian there who will appreciate her as unique and different and not put her through an unnecessary organ removal.  Pray that she finds a love unlike the neglect that led to her rescue.  Pray for the familiar, but be thankful for the unfamiliar.