HOVIS'S STORY

HOVIS'S HISTORY - A SURPRISING SURGICAL STORY!

When Hovis, the Yorkshire Terrier, was first taken to the vets for a check-over as a puppy all was well. Having had her jabs they thought nothing more of needing to visit the vets. Then one day Hovis appeared to have a protrusion coming from her vulva, may be a prolapse. Hovis went to be examined and what the vets found was really quite a shock! Hovis actually had what appeared to be two testicles in her groin and a little penis coming from her vulva. That’s right, Hovis was a hermaphrodite!

Hovis came to visit us recently, now called he, and it seemed his hormones were getting the better of him. With Hovis being unable to retract his penis inside he was always very excitable as well as being grumpy towards other dogs and strangers. After some discussion it was decided to proceed with surgery on Hovis to neuter him. We weren’t sure exactly what parts of which sex genitalia we would find so it was a very interesting operation for Anna!

The day of the surgery came round and Hovis was as good as gold for his medications. The anaesthetic and surgery both went very well and Hovis recovered quickly. What we found was that Hovis did have a small uterus, which it led not to internal ovaries, but to the testicle-type growths in his groin. We removed these all these parts. Examining his vulva and penis, we found that actually the penis had no urethra or function, and he could urinate like a girl. So we shortened the penis right down so that it wouldn’t protrude and excite him any more.

Hovis’ wounds healed really well and here at Baldock Vets we have been very pleased with his progress. Along with some behavioural training from Nicky Visser he is coming on in leaps and bounds. A really sweet little Yorkie!

 

Hermaphroditism is really rare in veterinary medicine and this was an interesting case for the whole team. Baldock Veterinary Centre.

 On Saturday the 28^th July Nicky Visser from www.backtobasicsdogtraining.org organized and completed a 13 miles sponsored walk around north Herts.

It took us 6 hours and 4 pubs to raise the money to help pay for the operation for Hovis. We raised £320.00 in total and I would like to thank everyone who helped, walked and sponsored ‘ Hovis’.

The support has been amazing, thank you again. Nicky Visser.