deefraser

I thought this was a wonderful idea for both the dog and the training vets Sheila so I contacted a clinic that is also a teaching hospital for final year vetinary students, unfortunately they informed me that they would probably be a little bit more expensive than my vet. I have been putting money aside though so within a couple of weeks my little ball of fluff will have her much needed operation and my other two dogs will be insured!

I have had negative experiences with fostering a few times, I had kennel cough go through all my dogs at one stage and while they paid for the treatment of the foster dog which brought it home, I was still left holding the bill for my 3. Any foster dog I had after that spent it's first few days in the dog pen to be sure that it was not going to infect mine. I have found rescue organisations generally do not look after their foster carers as well as you would think but they are still gratefull, and after all, we're doing it for the dogs I hope this negative experience doesn't put you off fostering again, the puppy world needs more people like you

Yeah as stated before, I have not been able to contact the breeder unfortunately, I'm very new to buying puppies so mistakes were made and looking back on it I don't think it was a registered breeder. I started by adopting a mature beagle, then another mature beagle.. you see where this is going. Then when my little girl beagle passed on leaving me with just my male Vegas I started fostering, when I found out my youngest was a special needs child we bought Aurora our hermaphrodite Japanese Spitz, then we fell in love with one of our foster dogs, a purebred boxer. I knew not to buy from a pet shop as most of those are supplied by puppy farmers so I went online and due to the small amount of breeders selling spitz puppies at that stage I figured they would all be registered as the breed seems to be adeqautely controlled. If anyone could possibly offer any advice on how to avoid this in future, my husband is very keen on getting another boxer at some stage and I really would like to do the right thing when purchasing a puppy next time. As for Aurora, at the moment she is the centre of attention at the vets at the moment and she loves the fuss they make over her, they also offer a grooming service there which gives her an excuse to go and get pampered and fussed over every 2 weeks which is great as there is no stress on her for visits to the vet!

The only reason I am considering surgery is because of the possible risk of infection. Because of the location and size or her penis bone it makes her female genitals protrude out. Something as minor as sitting on concrete and scratching it can cause infection. I would not even consider it just to make her look normal, she is extremely unique and very special to the whole family just how she is Thankyou all for your feedback :D

Sadly I have not been able to contact the breeder I am happy to say that Aurora is a happy healthy little girl (except for the obvious problem) who likes to play "who can jump higher" with my boxer which gives the whole family hours of laughter (the boxer is winning, the ornaments are losing) and she loves to chase the kids around the house, because of her protuding genitals she is not allowed outside much due to the risk of infection but she certainly makes sure she gets heaps of exercise inside!

From what I have been told it is a very rare genetic mutation, this is not hereditary. The senior vet whom my vet consulted with had only ever seen one before in the 20+ years that he has been practising. And to Bluefairy, I was in shock myself for quite some time, I didn't think this was even possible! as an ex-foster carer (I can not have male dogs near her at all so I had to give that up and keep her seperated from my beagle) and mother to several mature adopted dogs I doubt I could find any excuse in the world that would make me give up any of my dogs no matter what the cost to me. It occurrs to me that the question may be asked, how did I not notice that my girl dog had male genitalia so I figured I might answer this before it's asked. Please excuse the detail... Aurora does not have a conventional penis, she has the male penis bone inside her body, the swelling of her female gentials is caused by the bone pushing on them from the inside. Aurora's ovaries and testicles were infact the same thing, this is not terribly common even with hermaphrodites apparently. The vet suspects they were also producing both hormones. I could have had this confirmed however I really did not want to add to the cost.

I'm a proud owner of 3 purebreds, a Boxer, a Beagle and a Japanese Spitz. All of my dogs to this date have been rescued dogs. This time last year I decided I wanted to get a Japanese Spitz puppy as a companion for my youngest daughter who is special needs. At the end of March out little ball of fluff, Aurora, arrived, I feel a little stupid now as I didn't know much about the breeder and because of the distance away that she lived I was happy to select the puppy from photos and have her brought to me when she was old enough. At the end of last year I became concerned about her genitals being swollen so I took her to the vet, after the vet took her to another room to consult with the more experienced vet she brought my little girl back and informed me very seriously that Aurora was a hermaphrodite. I laughed, I thought she was pulling my leg! The $450 desexing bill convinced me very quickly that this was no joke. Now my little girl (yes I still call her my little girl) is facing more surgery to remove her penis bone and possibly a urinary tract resection. As a newcomer to the world of buying puppies in favour of rescued dogs I made some very serious mistakes when choosing the breeder however I guess my question would be, could this have been detected as a puppy? Did the breeder act irresponsibly by selling a puppy with such a serious genetic defect? In all honesty I probably still would have purchased her even if I would have known, after all she was not purchased for show or breeding, just as a companion. I might not have paid quite so much though knowing the amount I would have to spend in surgery (looking at about $2000 if she needs the urinary tract resection and about $800 for the removal of her penis bone).